THE TIMBER INDUSTRY
An open note quiz tomorrow!!
http://www.etsu.edu/cas
s/archives/subjects/hard
woods/Page1.htm
2 PHASES OF LOGGING
1880: Selective cutting:
The best trees
50 cents/ft
“rafting”
Labor was done by
mountaineers
Effects of selective cutting:
Didn’t alter mountain life
But:
Uncertainty of supply
Long time
Damaged wood
The Boom
1890: 2nd phase
1891: Railroad from Lexington to
Breathitt opens the timberlands
Hundreds of thousands of acres
sold to railroad and timber
companies for as little as 20
cents/acre
By 1900, southern Appalachia
contributed 30% of total amount
of hardwood timber cut in US
1920 Forestry Film
 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5za4i_1920forestry-logging-equipment-fil_tech
Combining coal and timber
interests became common
after 1900
Exploiting both mineral
and timber rights
Broad form deeds
A blog entry, from all people, an
actress:
 What is the Broad Form Deed? (read completely before
defining)
 Describe how John C.C. Mayo “worked” people to get
them to sign the deed?
 Why would deeds separate mineral rights from
ownership of land? What’s the purpose?
 How are families affected by broad form deeds? Explain
the long-term impact.
 When did KY restrict broad form deeds?
 What is the major issue that our forests face today?
1910: machine logging
begins, leading to largescale destruction of
mountain forests
“clear cutting” with
bandsaws
Effects:
Great woods fires
Impact on streams and
creeks—floods and worthless
bottom lands
Destruction of mountain way
of life and self-sufficiency
Migration from farming to
industrial life
BUT….
By beginning of 20th century, a
conservation movement begins
Part of Progressive political
movement
Progress through industrial
growth should be done orderly
and efficiently, managing natural
resources wisely
Other groups, like Sierra Club,
sought to abolish all logging and
mining
An interesting
“paternalistic” approach
The poor, backward
mountaineers needed
these educated,
upper/middle class people
to save the region
The End
The logging industry drastically
reduced after WWI. And replaced
by the mining companies. The
timber boom was 30 years, but its
effects were long-lasting and farreaching.