Lumber, Turpentine, Gum Spirits. Piney Wood Knockers

[BridgeTroll]

Wow... Amazingly some still hold catholics and blacks in the same light as they did back then...

[JHenry459]

Excellent pictures and comments, Stephendare. Thank you for reminding us that timber wasn't the only product that came out of our forests: Turpentine, resin and the like had many uses and were in high demand back in the day.  I liked Sigma's analogy of comparing resin to today's corn. It was the versatile high dollar cash crop that drew the timber barons and settlers to Nassau County.  We have several of the tools pictured in your photos on display at the West Nassau Museum of History inside the historic Callahan Train Depot. We also have been tracing the route of the Cummer Logging Tram that ran from Hilliard to Dinsmore.  We also are in contact with the owner of the Boggy Swamp Commissary located north of Callahan and hope to get a tour of it when the weather cools off.  The 70+ year old building exemplifies the typical commissary that was the heart and soul of the countless timber villages that once dotted the flat, piney landscape of Nassau. The forestry workers, most of whom were black, labored endless hours in the mosquito infested woods to bring out the pine resin and in return were paid in company scripts.  This local coinage was only good at the Commissary in which the timber company owned.  We do not have any of these scripts in our Museum but I have seen a couple from the Bryceville area. I will keep everyone posted about the Boggy Swamp Commissary tour once details are finalized. The Museum is open inside the historic Callahan Train Depot on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month from 9a to 2p. This Saturday, Aug. 22, we are having a fund raising dinner at the depot, starting at 11a.

JHenry459
West Nassau Historical Society

[JHenry459]

$5 a plate, starting around 11a, ham, green beans, baked beans, bread, and i think salad. stop on by.
JHenry459. 

[Sigma]

Is this a true statistic?

Yes. 

Now, the US has lost much of its old-growth timber, which was lost with early expansion and industrialization.  One of the reasons that the National Forests and Forest Service were created was to protect and manage a natural resource and prevent the destruction and neglect of these lands.  The Forest Service is funded largely today by selling the timber, minerals, and grazing rights on these lands.  This is all thanks to Teddy Roosevelt.  And it differs from the National Park system, which was created for preservation, of course, but the parks were created more for recreation, rather than resource management.  They both overlap, though. 

Nationally, government lands account for 26.9 percent of timberland
Annually, in the United States, more than 1.5 billion trees are planted. That’s more than five trees for every man, woman and child in America. Each year, six trees are planted for every one that is harvested. In 1996, for example, 2.4 million acres were replanted, while many lands regenerated naturally.
http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/trees_are_america.htm

There are over 5000 products derived or containing tree derivatives.  Here is an interesting collection http://www.forestinfo.org/Discover/fromtree.htm

Over the past 60 years or so, competition gave timber companies more incentive to get serious about harvesting methods, replanting, and ecology management on their lands.  Because of the strong demand for wood products and the derivatives, they got smarter and better with forestry methods and the industry is now more related to agriculture.  in fact, the Forest Service was moved from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture at some point in history. Here is another source of info to look at. http://fia.fs.fed.us/

[Sigma]

How important is this in our everyday lives?

[Sigma]

Interesting map found at http://fia.fs.fed.us/library/maps/ where you can see a version that lets you zoom in.  This not only shows forested areas, but is color coded by the type of trees!