Dragging logs through the woods strewn with tall stumps and harvest debris to a central site for loading railcars or log trucks was a big problem for early northwest loggers. To use oxen or horses required building a corduroy road/skid road and was a very slow process. Even with the arrival of donkey engines with cables, the process of "yarding" was difficult. Finding suitable spar trees and affixing cables provided a way to get logs off the ground and make moving them to central yarding areas much easier and faster. However, finding spar trees in the right location and "high climbers" willing and able to scale and de-limb spar trees on the way up could be problematic. How would you like to be a high climber - see Lake Sawyer Mill Company Spar Tree? The introduction of mechanical Tower Skidders was just a matter of time. They were first introduced in the Great Lakes region in the very early 1900's but required significant modifications before they could be used with the much larger logs in the northwest.
The Lidgerwood Cable Skidder was first introduced here in 1912. Following is their marketing advertisement.
Image courtesy the Oregon History Project, Lidgerwood Cable Skidder 1913
Skidders substantially reduced the manpower required on a logging crew and speeded up the process of moving logs from stump to railcar. Early models still required at least a modest sized spar tree to which cables could be attached but it was just a matter of time before the need for spar trees was eliminated. Following are two photos showing Lidgerwood cable skidders with steel spars used by Weyerhaeuser Company.
Photo courtesy Weyerhaeuser Company Archives, n.d.
Cables were already rigged to the unit's steel spar, making it much easier to set up a yarding site.
Photo courtesy Weyerhaeuser Company Archives, n.d.
By comparison, today's skidders are a whole lot more mobile and can be driven to the preferred yarding site or moved around for easiest operation. Following are a couple of photos I took last week of a logging operation I happened upon in the Olympic National Forest near the Wynoochee river.
This yarding area was located downhill from where some logs were felled, rather than up top, likely due to the location of the well maintained logging road. The orange yarder and yellow loader working as a team to ready logs for their log trucks.
Having way too much fun.
Thank you for sharing information, its nice articleProcess Skids Manufacturers
Posted by: Process Skids Manufacturers | 09/21/2018 at 05:17 AM