Railroad Logging

In the post-Civil War era there was great growth in the United States. The Transcontinental railroad was completed linking the Pacific Coast with the East and opening the Great Plains and the West to settlement. Industrialization led to increased wealth and an influx of immigration to the country. All of this meant that cities, towns, and farms all grew. This growth demanded more lumber. 

The lumbermen in the Great Lakes had experimented with a number of different ways to move the raw materials of logs to the sawmills in a more efficient way. By the late 1870s the railroads were becoming a better alternative to move logs to the sawmills, and the milled lumber from the sawmills to the consumer. In this episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, we discuss how this new technology was developed for the lumber industry. We learn a bit about lumbermen Winfield Scott Gerrish and Ephraim Shay and how they helped shape the lumber industry of the Great Lakes with their innovations.

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Episode Resources:

Bajema, Carl and Janet Brashler. Blendon Landing: A Middle Nineteenth Century Logging Railroad, Sawmill and Shipyard Village in West Michigan. The Michigan Archaeologist, Vol. 43, Nos. 2-3, June-September 1997.

Huckle, Earl and Keith H. Johnson. "Cadillac's Shay Locomotive, Titan of the Timber." Save Our Shay Historical Preservation Project, Cadillac, MI, 1984.

Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era, 1840-1900." Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.

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