Alagash River 1921

[paul s]

some great footage of a river drive 1921, even has a few old canoes
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=103214376375680&oid=334835938691&comments&ref=mf

 

[Jon k]

algash river film

WOW! that was great I was up there and saw the old steam engines just rusting away. I also felt a thrill when I saw the shot of the canoe floating below the falls because I was in the same spot also looking at algash falls. we think we have hard jobs back then men were manely men LoL. thanks for the post it brought back good memories Jon k.

 

[canot]

Alagash film

Wow! I just joined the forum and the first thing I saw was your film. I recover old growth timber that was floated down river. So I was very excited to see how they did it up north. Thanks for posting it,I can't wait to show it to the family.

 

[MGC]

This is really an impressive piece (pieces?) of film.
My father and I were lucky enough to meet the Great Northern camp caretaker on the Penobscott during the last year that they drove there (70?).
He was checking the camps and and making his rounds from the put-in at the Northeast Carry to Chesuncook.
He was a pretty generous guy. He towed us from the carry to the first lumber camp. After that long day of carrying it was real treat to get a tow. He opened the camp up for us and we all stayed in it that night.
I remember that we had a nice meal that he prepared from his supplies.
I wish I could remember his name.
It was his last pre-drive trip down the river.
After that I guess they closed things up. The camps were still there a few years later when I went through, but unused.
We also stayed in a cabin (his?) with him at Chesuncook Village.
Seeing this film is a real treat as it opens up a window into a world that very few experienced.
A lumber camp was not a place for sports or (as my father used to say) "candies".
Thanks for sharing this.

 

[paul s]

i found this film fascinating. to see how they brought in there supplies and horses in the beginning of the winter, to when the logs went out with the spring breakup. the steam lombard tractor is amazing. they have one of these in the state museam in augusta maine.

 

[Benson Gray]

Harvey Bowley scanned a collection of several thousand old images from the Great Northern Paper Company many years ago and gave me a copy. The six attached below show some of the better log drive images from this group.

Benson

 

[MGC]

The photo with Katahdin in the background is really great.
Is that across Pemadumcook (sp?)?
Bateaus used to be stored at Chase Rips in a big shed. I wonder if they are still there?
Great history...you have thousands of these? Wow... what an archive.

 

[Fitz]

Great Northern

A collection of GNP photos can be found on line too.

http://photos.eastmill.com/GNP/index.html

 

[Benson Gray]

Is that across Pemadumcook

It looks like the correct perspective on Katahdin to be Pemadumcook but there are no titles in my collection of these pictures. The link that Fitz provided has many of the same images with titles but that one does not appear to have been included. They had many boats and towed logs across most of the big lakes in that area as shown in the additional examples below. Many of the batteaux were made by the Carleton Canoe Company and many of the long logs shown here were later used to make canoes (before someone accuses us of getting too far off topic).

Benson