Redington weighs in on long-butting

In the early history of Seeley Lake is intertwined with the lumber industry, the rise of the United States Forest Service is incontrovertibly intertwined with Seeley Lake and in particular with the Big Blackfoot Timber Sale of 1907-1910. Historian and member of the Camp Paxson Preservation Board Gary Williams has been researching that sale. The Seeley Swan Pathfinder will be bringing some of the interesting bits of information he has discovered about logging in the Seeley Lake area and also about the fledgling U.S. Forest Service.

SEELEY LAKE – The previous issue of this 1907 Timber Sale series presented Big Blackfoot Milling Company General Manager Kenneth Ross' position that it was necessary to saw and discard the butt end of felled larch trees, a practice called long-butting. He said this was necessary because pitch accumulated in the bottom of larch trees making the logs prone to sink rather than float downriver to the mill. In addition, larch butts often had cracks called "shakes," which caused boards milled from them to splinter or split.

The position of Ambrose Norton, the Forest Service's on-site lumberman in charge of the project, was that even if some of the long butts were worthless for boards, they could be cut for railroad ties or other usages. He also insisted that many of the butts with holes in the center still contained usable timber on the outside and should be scaled. Norton reminded the mill company that, according to the contract, any timber containing merchantable lumber that was left to waste in the woods would be charged at double the price.

Norton wrote to his immediate supervisor Page Bunker about the long-butting issue. In reply to Norton's statement of his position, Bunker reiterated that Norton "was to have exclusive and sole charge of the local management of this sale." Bunker added, "My own experience in railroading, however, has been to the effect that it takes a fairly sound piece of timber to hold spikes against the vibration of rail traffic."

Forest Service Inspector Paul Redington was sent to clear up the matter. Although his report contained a glowing commendation of Norton's management of the sale, he differed on the issue of larch "waste."

Redington wrote, "Logs that are considerably affected by shake cannot be considered merchantable, since boards, ties or heavy construction timbers manufactured from them would not hang together unless banded with iron as Norton suggested, which, however, is not practical under present methods of manufacture. Such logs or butts the company in reason cannot be expected to take."

As for the problem of trying to drive the larch logs down the river, Redington recommended leaving them in the woods to season and removing them close to the end of the sale period (winter thaw 1910) when they would be more likely to float. He suggested that peeling the bark from the logs might hasten the seasoning process. As a further measure, he agreed with Ross that long logs could be more easily handled it they were split using gun powder wedging. Redington also noted "In the majority of cases, the butt pieces have been cut unreasonably long and the company should be penalized."

Redington concluded, "Some step must be taken to utilize the valuable timber previously wasted in the butts of this species, and I think it is up to the company to meet the Government half way in the matter and try the methods suggested above. At any rate, the wholesale waste which has been going on must be avoided in next year's operations."

In the event his recommendations were not approved by one or both parties of the sale, Redington offered an alternative suggestion, though one he considered less desirable: the sawyers could use springboards to cut higher up the tree, leaving the unmerchantable section on the stump. The process involved cutting a notch in the tree and placing a long board in the notch. The sawyer then jumped onto the board and, standing on it, cut another notch into which he inserted another board. The process continued until the sawyer reached the desired height to cut the tree.

Dangerous though it was, spring boarding was generally preferred by both the lumberjacks and the company because it eliminated the second sawing otherwise needed to remove the pitch-heavy section of the felled tree. For the Forest Service, the advantage was the site would not be littered with butt pieces and would be more aesthetically appealing. Nonetheless, the Forest Service's preference was to not leave standing tree stalks in lieu of stumps, but to market the usable lumber in the tree.

Redington's 23-page report landed on Associate Forester Overton Price's desk. Price managed to condense Redington's points down to a five-page reply to Ross.

Price began optimistically, "If I explain to you the reasons for the difference as Mr. Redington found them I think you will agree with me your company is being treated fairly."

Price restated specific clauses of the contract, elaborating how the Forest Service had strictly adhered to them and the ways in which Big Blackfoot had transgressed against them. Concerning the felled larch, Price admitted that "a few comparatively worthless logs have been scaled by Lumberman Norton and his assistants," and assured the company a "sufficient deduction" would be made at the end of the season when the total annual scale was determined.

Concerning the long-butted logs, Price offered Redington's suggestion of seasoning the timber. He did not mention spring boarding. The letter ended, "...it is regrettable that further consideration can not be given to your complaints, unless definite figures, showing the number of pieces and amount of timber wrongfully scaled are submitted."

Price's letter was dated June 1, 1908. Ross' response letter was dated July 25. Ross began his reply with an explanation: "[your letter] would have had our attention long before this date but for the fact that we experienced a long siege of high water and this has been followed by labor troubles."

The "long siege of high water" was Missoula's Great Flood of 1908, also labeled "a once in a hundred years event" and the city's "worst natural disaster." The log drive from Seeley Lake's timber cutting site added immensely to the problem.

The next article in this Timber Sale series will discuss that flood before continuing with Ross' reply to Price's letter.