Long before the lumber industry made it to the Great Lakes region, logging was an important industry along the Atlantic Coast and specifically in the Northeast of what became the United States. The first region to be impacted by this boom was Maine.
Maine, at the time a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later the state of Massachusetts until its own statehood in 1820, was one of the first regions where lumber would be the most important economic industry. Like in the Great Lakes region, it was the Eastern White Pine that was the monarch of the forest. This tree was important to settlers for construction material and as an economic commodity. For the British Royal Navy, it was as the source of ship's masts and other vital ship building material. The white pine trade, specifically the mast trade would become a source of dissidence towards the British Crown by American Colonists that would lead to the American War of Independence.
The first water-powered sawmills were constructed in Maine in the 1630s and would be the primary source for milled lumber until the 1830s and 40s when steam-powered sawmills took over. Sometime around 1787 Oliver Leonard established his sawmill on Nichols Stream (now Blackman Stream) in the Town of Bradley. A saw mill on this site would continue to operate into the late 1800s. The site became the Maine Forest and Logging Museum, that was established in 1960. A recreation of the Leonard's Mill community is the centerpiece of the museum.
Maine contributed in other ways to the lumber industry. In Joseph Peavey, a blacksmith in Stillwater, Maine was watching river drivers having a difficult time with mulitple tools to move logs in the Penobscot River. He sketched out an idea for a new tool and instructed his son to put it together in their blacksmith shop. The "Peavey Pole" as it became known, used a wooden tool handle, made of hardwood, typically of hickory, ironwood, or of another strong wood, usually between four and six feet long. At the front end of the pole, it was topped with an iron or steel pike that was driven into the end. About 12-18 inches below the pike, an iron or steel hook was attached. The end was pointed and how it was attached with a bolt through it, it could swing to catch the hook on a log. The user could then push, pull, rolled, and lift the log with his Peavey Pole, having it act as a lever. Joseph Peavey's invention quickly caught on in Maine and elsewhere and helped to revolutionize the industry.
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Episode Resources
A History of Maine Logging. Website: woodsplitterdirect.com/blogs/wsd/a-history-of-maine-logging
Maine Forest and Logging Museum, Inc. 2024. 64 Years of Living History at Leonard's Mills Bradley, Maine. Guidebook. Maine Forest and Logging Museum, 2024.
Pike, Robert E. Tall Trees, Tough Men. New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1967.
The Rich Lumbering History of the Maine Highlands. Website: themainehighlands.com/lumbering-in-maine
Vietze, Andrew. White Pine: American History and the Tree that Made a Nation. Guilford, Connecticut, Globe Pequot. 2018.
Places to Visit for More Information:
Maine Forest and Logging Museum, Bradley, Maine. Website: maineforestandloggingmuseum.org
Patten Lumbermen's Museum, Patten, Maine. Website: https://lumbermensmuseum.org/
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