 In 169 consecutive years, the forests on the Bacchias River have resounded with the sound of the woodsman's axe. Yet today, by exercising common sense and practical forestry, we have the finest stand of timber in the northeast United States. For the past 75 years, my father, my brother, and I have had charge of these timberlands. Knowing that the long lumber industry in Maine was a thing of the past, in 1930 I purchased a moving picture camera to make a record of the long lumber operations on the river and show by our method of forestry the size of the logs we were able to produce. The first scene is the logging camp on Township 36. When I got the crew out of the camp to take the picture, they thought that they were obliged to stand still, not knowing that the moving picture camera required action. But I did get a kick out of Paul Mealy. The men eat and sleep in this building. The dingle is in the middle where the men are coming out. We will now show you a couple of haul boys from Kennebec sawing a pine. The tree is scuffed on the opposite side from which they saw. The next scene is the same crew with Ed Connors and Harry McCreevy on the saw. These men will saw the trees into three 16-foot logs. Charlie O'Donnell is putting the distinguishing mark with an axe on the side of the tree. We usually use a single horse to twitch the logs to the yard as it doesn't destroy as much young growth. As I wanted to be in the picture, I had Mr. McCreevy hold the camera on me while I came out to take the views of the four teams hauling the logs to the landing. On the first load, Bert Stanhope is Teamster. On the second load, William Hudson is Teamster. The logs on these sleds are very good sized logs for an operation in Maine at this time. On the third load, Wilton Foss is Teamster. You will notice a crooked log on the side. This is a cedar and will be sawed up in 16-inch bolts to make shingles. On the fourth load is Alfred Mealy, Teamster. The poorest team we had in the lot, but they had the largest load this morning. The teams are unloading at the rolling pier at the West Branch. Note the steam rising off the horses. Owing to a tremendous rainstorm the day before, the stream overflowed and it was not deemed advisable to put the teams on the ice. I took this view to show the outfit that I used to travel through the woods, driving only one horse in a double track. The next scene is the Maine River Camp. The building in back is the garage for the log hauler. The vehicle in front is the snowmobile. On the right, the hovel where the horses are kept. Sam Handy and Herbert Hatt are now cutting the trees on Township 31 below the bacon place. This is the third cropper timber cut off this land under our system of cutting in the past 25 years. This is the Lombard log hauler, built at Waterville, Maine. Without it we would have had to build four dams on Crooked River, an expense of $10,000 or $12,000. This is Edwin Blanche of Whitneyville arriving at the yard with a load of logs from Peaked Mountain. The loads on the front of the yard are ready for the log hauler just gone by. We are now showing the cutting of logs on Township 37. The cookie is taking lunch to the men. 27 years ago this country was cleaned according to our system of operating by James McLean. And when I sent Mr. Oliver up there to cruise the lands, he thought it would be useless because he understood the timber was all cut. But you will note the trees cross piled here. It is not a bad stand to timber grown in the past 27 years. Now, landing logs on Third Lake Old Stream. These logs are landed in a cove. A boom is put around them on the ice. When the ice goes out in the spring they warp these logs and the boom down to the outlet where they may be sluiced through the dam and driven into the Machias River. I took this view to make a record of logging sleds used on our river. The bunks of the sleds are seven feet long. On the St. Croix River they use sleds with a five foot bunk. Other places they use ten and twelve foot bunk. In the spring, river driving begins on the West Branch. Logs coming down the stream have collected on the boulders on the shore and are forming a wing which, if not removed, will build across the stream and form a jam. Mr. Ed Connors, who is the boss, is one of the most efficient lumbermen in Maine. He can build a dam or build a camp. A good civil engineer can lay out a practical logging road and drive the logs. The water and the logs are making so much noise conversation is difficult. So Mr. Connors is motioning to some of the men to come down to work on another place. I have taken this view to show how agile the river drivers are. The men have pickpolls and you see them running over the logs, shaking them so to keep them floating down with the current. We will now show you the shoes worn by the men on the drive, made by Bass of Wilton, Maine. The cocks enable the men to stay on the logs when they're slippery and make them able to do efficient work. The cook has hallowed luncheon and in a moment you will notice two men crossing on two logs. The fellow in the rear is Brown from East Machias. Now a bellhop at the Falmouth Hotel, Portland. He said, Mr. Ames, I came pretty near falling in, but he landed on shore all right. This scene is the men having their lunch. They have four lunches a day, a breakfast four o'clock, first lunch nine o'clock, second lunch two in the afternoon and supper when they get in at night. First luncheon they have canned beef, bald ham, hard-boiled eggs, biscuit, donuts, cookies and tea. Second lunch they have tea, cookies, donuts, biscuit and ham. This is rolled-am ledge. In the summertime one can walk across this ledge with shoes. When the water is turned on to make a driving head, it spreads out on this ledge so the logs roll over. This is a beautiful sight and most interesting to see these logs rolling, tumbling, pounding all day long. The day after I took this view, a body of logs came down in the night and formed a wing on the opposite shore and had to be dynamited off. The next scene is taken a mile below where young Morrison of Whitneyville and another fellow attending this station to see that the logs don't form a jam. In 1879, when I first went up the Machias River, this section was heavily timbered with pine from 12 inches up on the stump. We now come to Tunnel Pitch. This is a small island, Middle Stream. About 18 years ago a jam formed up over here and Bert Tibbetts of Cherryfield was out there helping pick the jam. When the logs started, he fell in. He went down under the logs and the crew all turned away from the site thinking that he was lost. The happened to be an opening in the logs about 12 feet across where the water boiled up through. Someone looked up and discovered Bert just as the water threw him up on the logs. He had one on Jonah, he came out all right. This is Bain River Camp and the cooks serve their lunches cafeteria style. Note the two cooks. One is Al Smith, not of New York but of Columbia Falls and by his side is Billy Henscombe of Machias. His give berry of Jacksonville. Mr. Connors is now leading the crew up on the jam. The man in the back part of the screen with a light shirt on is chopping the key log. If they're not able to stat it by cutting the right log they may have to use dynamite. This time the logs commence to move. The men are going to the shore where the logs pinch up trying to keep the logs moving. The logs are six to eight feet deep in fact down to the bottom of the river. You will note the spruce 20 feet long going end over end. The men on these logs have to be careful because if their foot slips down between some logs they're liable to have a foot or a leg pinched off. You will notice the logs gather in momentum all the time. The main body of logs is held by a boom just about a mile above waiting to get this jam started. When the river is clear they will turn the other logs off. The next scene is main river bridge. One view is up the river the logs coming down to the bridge. And the view of the rapids. Later the bateaus will be run over these rifflings. Now you will see the men working on this wing. A point is forming out into the stream held there by boulders and the logs will have to be cleaned off. When it is all flattened down Mr. Connors will take the men onto the shore where they will clean out the cove. The green men which we sometimes call auger handles will work on the shore while experts like the man with the vest on Mr. Everett Scott of Bering will work on the outside next to the stream. Mr. Connors is on the shore watching. If anything should happen the men would be in danger. They would hoot at them and have them come ashore. Now we will show you the men clearing a center jam at the head of the falls. These logs all have to be picked off and it is about a day's work for 20 men. We have two boats on the rear to follow along and pick up the stray logs and men that may be marooned on a center like this. About 20 years ago I saw Joe Haycock stand on this ledge nearly half an hour while they dropped the bateau down to him having one line on each shore first paying out one line and then another until the boat swung around and he could get aboard. A man is on the logs about 30 feet from shore. You will see the bateau drop down to pick him up. Unfortunately my camera ran down at the critical time and I didn't catch him as he jumped aboard. The bateau in the cove is putting some men ashore to go to work down below. This is a view of the falls and the bateau coming down over the rapids and it's some joyride. In 1920 I came over this falls in a bateau and when we struck a boiler the water flew over the heads of the men in the bow and I got about a barrel of water right in the face. Here comes another bateau down over lower falls. Three or four bateaus are here until after the last log is taken off the falls. Then they will close the boom behind the logs in the pool and it is dead water from here into Whitneyville. Patrick Sullivan was camera shy but thinking I had the camera he came out on the slush with me and I had another man take this shot. This shows Philip Clement of Prentice and Carlyle, Alfred Ames, Vaughan Moore and Patrick Sullivan. The dog coming out to greet me has chased me many miles through the woods. We will now show you the fire and longan and river driving outfit. The fire is between two logs where we boil tea and bake biscuit in a tin kitchen before the open fire. The cookie is getting wood for the bean hole. The bean hole is three feet across and filled up with kindling wood with birch or maple wood thrown on the fire. The beans are put in the ground at four o'clock in the afternoon. At four o'clock in the morning the process is reversed. I staged this picture because I could not take a view at four o'clock in the morning. Al Smith is giving Clint Clark a plate of beans. Bill Vane is frying donuts. I've seen half a barrel of donuts eaten by the crew in one meal. Next is the canal at Whitneyville where the logs come to Machias by the Whitneyville mills. This is the dam at Whitneyville and the Sullivan mills there. Frank Hammond and Charlie Handy are sorting logs for the lower mills. From the top of the mill you see different pockets of the mill pond where spruce, pine and hemlock are sorted. I am standing on a log but I picked out a good big one. Note these children in their bathing suits. The river drivers of the future. These suits are not the kind that would be worn at Palm Beach but they clear the law. Howard Mills were built by Dr. Howard of Boston who was a member of the Boston mill and land company. There used to be two mills with four single saws. In 1858 the Pope brothers of East Machias purchased these mills and my father was sent over here to manage them. They've been under his hand and my child since that date. The old fellow with the pickpole feeding the logs up onto the slip is Harrison Foss. These reels were taken partly by Dr. Cain of Washington D.C. He had a modern up-to-date camera and I could not get such good views with the cheap one that I'd purchased. The logs are going up the slip on a chain. We will now go into the mill. Notice the log kicker throwing the logs off the live roll. We are now rolling the logs onto the bandsaw carriage. When the log comes back it is turned down on the skid. This is the backside of the bandsaw. The sawed lumber coming off the live rolls. Pine boards 16 inches wide. The square edge boards going through the edger. That is the way we get them out on the loading platform. The live edge boards have to be edged. The saws are set on a shaft with guides which pull them back and forth to make 6, 8 or 10 inch boards. Now you will see the trimmer. We are now cutting edging. Mac McBride has some job to keep the rolls clear of the lumber. We are getting out 10 by 12 timber for bridge frame. Will Hanscom is edging shingles. We are now sawing laths from large edging which come off the side of the plank. We are now sawing clabbards made from the sound log 18 inches in diameter and up and sawed on the bed mill into bolts 50 inches long. The back and sapwood is turned off and the bolt is made symmetrical. A couple of hooks are fastened down to this bolt and then swung around to the clabbarding machine. Notice the saw is underneath. The bolt is dropped down on the saw and it saws towards the center about 6.5 inches. In sawing clabbards from the circumference towards the center it makes one edge thick and the other thin. Same as a pie cut out at a church supper. This is the expensive part of the mill where the bandsaw is filed. The bandsaw used in our mill is 48 feet long 9 inches wide 14 gauge and one and a quarter inch tooth. The men are putting the dull saw on the floor and taking the sharp one off the grinding machine. Notice the sparks fly from the emery wheel on the filing machine. Really is the filer. To file he simply points up the tooth with the file. These saws have to be rolled hammered and tensioned. It is some job to make one run perfect. Next is loading timber from the loading platform an order of one and a quarter by 10 sprues for the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Next shows loading lav. Here I am with Dr. Howard Kane. Dr. Kane is a machaiist boy and now a most successful practicing physician in Washington, D.C. Around the mill yard all the houses are owned by mill men who have worked for my father, brother and me for the past 50 years. They all own their own homes and they are very comfortable. The last reel shows the shipping of lumber. In 1917 the schooner Lucy Evelyn was built at Harrington, Maine. Before the schooner was completed we could have sold the sails and rigging at a profit of $10,000 now we cannot give the schooner away. This order is for Bridgeport, Connecticut. The deck lord goes to Vineyard Haven. The rail of the schooner is 8 or 10 feet above the wharf and machaiists we have a rise and fall with the tide of 12 feet each day. As business fell off we obliged to sell the tow boat and now have to depend on sardine boats for towing. Lucy Evelyn is loaded with 2,250,000 lathes for New York. Probably this is the last cargo of lumber that I will ever ship. Arthur Jasper is opening the drawer on the drawbridge that leads from Machaiist Port to East Machaiist across the Machaiist River. You will notice the tow boat and the reflection of the smoke in the water. This is a calm before a storm and we had a good one that night. Just as the tow boat is going through the drawbridge you will notice the steam from the train which leaves Callis in the morning for Bangor. Leaving the Machaiist Port station about 9 o'clock in the morning. This is quite a unique feature as there are very few places where the sail meets the rail. Now the Lucy Evelyn is at Machaiist Port getting ready for sea. This vessel is modern equipped with a gasoline engine to hoist the anchors and sails and warp the vessel into the dark. The first mast on the schooner is the foremost. Second mast, main mast, third mast, the mizzenmust. You will notice the bow of this vessel at the entrance of Machaiist Bay where the first naval battle of the revolution was fought. We will now show you the good schooner Bertha V built in Millbridge, Maine, 50 years ago. Taking a cargo of lumber to Booth Bay Harbor. She's going under her own sail. She is called a hand liner. This is the Bertha V sailing out into the night in a southeastly rain. This is what I call the twilight of my career as a lumberman. The night was filled with music and the cares that infest the day shall fold their tents like the Arabs and as silently steal away.