PRISTINE, WE AIN'T

MOVING ON WOOD

Between Chapleau and the Manitoba border from 1875  to 1930, two billion board feet of ties were produced.

Between 1870 and 1930 one million pile logs (pilings) were cut which would be another two hundred million board feet.

When the wood was rafted on Lake Superior, the common  boom size was around 10,000 cords of pulpwood, close to one million board feet.




The Tie-Cutter
Ties were cut at the Nipigon Great Lakes Lumber and Shipping sawmill
until mid 1960".
When paper mill workers were making a little under 12 dollars a day with an hourly wage,
sawmill gangs were pulling in near 30 dollars a day in piece-work.
So many cents per tie and a couple dollars a thousand board feet for grain door lumber.
When logs were large they could get a few boards off each log ,
 this lumber was used to cover the cracks in the grain car doors,
 hence the name grain door lumber.



This is not the Nipigon bridge, but it illustrates the use of wood in the early 1880's.
Trestle and tie wood. 
Tamarack had a good longevity and was the wood of choice for ties.
Once wood preserving started the choice expanded to jack pine and spruces,
which was a good thing as the Larch sawfly took out the tamarack in the 1890's

Lumber going East.
The Nipigon Water tower was taken down very early 1970's.

This is the Nipigon River Bridge for the Canadian Pacific Railway
as it tried to span the continent.
Troops going out to the Riel Rebellion had to cross over the ice to Red Rock
 to catch the western train.
 Coming home a few weeks later they rode across the newly finished bridge.

The Little Mill on the Nipigon River downstream of the townsite.
It made baled pulp.
It had about a forty year history off and on.
 Demolished by the early nineteen sixties.
Now prime birding area on the Nipigon- Red Rock Hiking Trail.

After the timber bridges they put in the permanent ones
using the local granite and sandstone, and steel,
but they still used wood ties for the rails to sit on.
So well was the Nipigon River Bridge built that
the granite and sandstone pillars
 withstood over a hundred years of train traffic 
and only needed a facade of cement to protect them
from another century of air borne contaminents.

 WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT,

THEY (ENGO'S) ARE TALKING OF CREATING A CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

FOR QUARRIES AND PITS

ALONG THE LINE OF F.S.C. IN FORESTRY OPERATIONS

 = GREEN GRAVEL.

Photographs Nipigon Historical Museum Archives