What
knowledge and skills would Uncle Cyrus need as a lumberjack?
Timber
workers had many different jobs. See
pictures of those different logging jobs, by clicking on the links below:
cutting down the trees
hauling the logs to water
floating the logs down the rivers to mills,
cutting the logs into lumber
shipping the lumber to markets.
Loggers who cut down the trees were called:
"Lumberjacks", “Fallers”, or “Tree
Choppers".
The
lumberjack had to be strong, energetic, a good planner, and know how to tell the
direction a tree would be likely to fall.
Lumberjacks first had to plan the direction. They made sure that other trees
would not be damaged when the tree fell. They also needed to select a spot that
they could easily move the fallen tree away from, to the loading area.
After planning the direction in which the tree
should fall, the lumberjacks built a framework of poles and planks called a “scaffold” around
the tree. They climbed up on the scaffold, ten to
twenty feet above the ground.
They
cut notches into the tree’s trunk with a broad axe.
Then they inserted a platform called a springboard into the
notches.
Two
lumberjacks stood on the springboard, one man standing on each end.
The
lumberjacks cut an “undercut” with a 
long handled falling axe. The location and angle of the undercut determined
the direction that the tree would fall.
After cutting the
undercut with their long-handled axes, they finished cutting through the trees with a 
crosscut falling saw.
This was the
quickest way to cut through the huge fir and cedar trees.
The lumberjack then sawed the tree down, and
trimmed off the branches 
with
a 5 foot bucking saw.
Just
before the tree was about to fall, the lumberjack shouted, “Timber!” This warned other loggers to watch out for
the falling tree.
If you would like to see what some of the
other loggers’ jobs were, visit
Image
Credit: Microsoft ClipArt
Gallery
Historical black and
white photos are courtesy of the Galen Biery Historical Collection. Permission
to use these photos on our webpage was granted by the Whatcom Museum of History and Art.
(exits project site)
Color photos of the
lumberjack’s tools were taken at the Lynden
Pioneer Museum. (exits project site)