Last updated: February 27, 2025
Place
The Logger's Transport Wayside
The Logger's Transport
Moving thousands of pounds of logs presented a significant challenge in the days before heavy machinery was commonplace. Ice provided the solution to this challenge.
Lumberjacks would fill a large sleigh with water from the nearest creek and ice down the roads at night. The next morning, a team of horses could pull a sled piled high with logs on the new ice.
The needs for ice initially constrained logging to the winter months, when iceing the roads was a constant chore that lasted until the spring thaw.
The invention of "big wheels" in Michigan's Lower Peninsula in the late 1800s made year-round logging possible. Several logs, suspended by chains under the axle, could be moved without the need for ice. Big wheels didn't sink in muddy or thawing ground, which allowed them to be used even in early spring.
Loggers could only move logs short distances using sleds and big wheels. Getting thousands of logs to the nearest sawmills required another form of transport -- water. Floating logs down rivers was the method used in most parts of Michigan.
Moving thousands of pounds of logs presented a significant challenge in the days before heavy machinery was commonplace. Ice provided the solution to this challenge.
Lumberjacks would fill a large sleigh with water from the nearest creek and ice down the roads at night. The next morning, a team of horses could pull a sled piled high with logs on the new ice.
The needs for ice initially constrained logging to the winter months, when iceing the roads was a constant chore that lasted until the spring thaw.
The invention of "big wheels" in Michigan's Lower Peninsula in the late 1800s made year-round logging possible. Several logs, suspended by chains under the axle, could be moved without the need for ice. Big wheels didn't sink in muddy or thawing ground, which allowed them to be used even in early spring.
Loggers could only move logs short distances using sleds and big wheels. Getting thousands of logs to the nearest sawmills required another form of transport -- water. Floating logs down rivers was the method used in most parts of Michigan.