Historic Hood River
Clearing Land, circa 1900
2-23-2012
Notes
Clearing land for orchards was not easy work, but at least these men had plenty of firewood for the coming winter. The next step was dealing with the stumps. We saw one solution in an earlier image.
This stereo view was taken by the Neff brothers. William and Michael Neff came to Hood River in the 1880’s, and were among the early practitioners of photography in the valley.
[Ed. note: Check out this detail from the photo to understand Jim’s comment. Is this a horse powered saw?]
Charlott
They were quite early on, as they were both married into the Winans family. William Ellsworth Nell married Elizabeth Winans and his brother Michael Neff married Elizabeth’s sister Margaret Winans.
It is amazing to think that the majority of the Hood River Valley floor was all trees such as these that they are taking out. And………keep in mind this was all hand sawed and hand split. And you think you have life hard….
l.e.
When we drive down Highway 35 and oooh and aaah over the beautiful view of the Hood River Valley, the orchards, the red barn, Mt Adams and the Columbia River, we forget that at one time, tall fir trees blocked that view.
A lot of back breaking work to make the valley the productive area that it is.
Even with dynamite, they had to dig down around the roots and underneath the main stump. The roots were sawed away from the main stump and then each root had to be dug out.
All of the sawing and digging was done by hand.
The Japanese were hired to do a lot of this work.
Jim Gray
Looks like some kind of powered bucksaw sitting on the fallen Pine tree, note the wheel in front of the man in the back and the blade resting on the trunk, it looks like the ricks of wood in the background could be scrub Oak is longer in length, maybe being cut for Sternwheeler or railroad engine?
Arthur
Jim, that’s a great catch. I’ll post a tighter shot later so you can all appreciate the complex mechanism attached to that saw.
Arthur
OK, I added a Flickr link to the notes section so you can see the detail of the saw mechanism. Is it horse powered? How does it work?
db
It looks like there is a shaft harnessed to the near horse that comes down to a gear or gears under the V-shaped structure. The gears may then have powered the wheel with an off-set attachment to the saw, causing it to move back and forth. Sounds like a Reub Goldberg, but people were really mechanically ingenious in getting the most out of two horsepower. I don’t see any sort of path, though, that the horses may have walked repeatedly on in order to operate this whole contraption.
db
There is a double-tree lying in the foreground, so apparently the horses were also expected to either drag the tree over to be sawed up, or pull the wagon to haul the cut wood back to town. No wonder they look tired.
l.e.
Jim is right. I thought those big rounds looked like they had been cut by a power saw.
There are some websites that cover early powered drag saws. Some of them were invented in the Portland area.
l.e.
I don’t have the time to look right now, but if someone looks up Vaughan Drag Saws manufactured by Harsch Machine Works of Portland, OR. they might find the saw.
They manufactured as early as 1909.
But I don’t see any kind of tank on the flickr enlargement.
There were treadle drag saws. Ugh.
Jim Gray
Arthur I don’t think the saw is horse powered, I would think they are hitched to the frame of the saw to move it down the trunk of the tree, what powers this saw?
not sure no seat visible to indicate treadle power, but then no tank as indicated above to verify to a one lunger engine as my Dad called them, but that would be my best guess. This saw could be a commercial saw like a Vaughn or Cascade but may have been homebuilt as well, people back then were very resourceful.
CB
was it tall firs that blocked the view, or tall pines, or both. Seems to me a lot of the really old trees are pine and the fir newer. Maybe it depended on where it was in the valley – more pines to the N and east maybe?
Jeffrey Bryant
A bit of family information concerning drag saws:
Elbert Vaughan made his way to Hood River, Oregon around 1900, where for a number of years he engaged in farming and fruit growing. During the period from 1901 until about 1908 he experimented with drag saw equipment, gradually working out a number of improvements and developing the present Vaughan drag saw machine. When the opportunity presented itself he came to Portland and engaged in business, his first machines being built in job shops. In the fall of 1913 he opened his own shop at East Seventh and Main streets, where under the name of the Vaughan Motor Works he began the manufacture of drag saws, employing only three or four men and at this time designing all of the articles of manufacture. Later the firm transferred its activities to the east end of Hawthorne bridge, securing larger quarters and increasing the shop equipment. In 1917, additional space being necessary, the plant was moved to East Ninth and Main streets, where a shop and foundry were erected which, with the additions which have been built from time to time, now cover the entire block. In 1922 the business was incorporated as the Vaughan Motor Works, Inc.
Jeffrey Bryant
The Vaughan drag saw was a motorized saw, and probably came later than the one in the photo.
l.e.
Interesting that Vaughn had been in HR.
I agree with Jim that the saw is not powered by the horses. They probably moved the saw down the log. The gentleman in the front is holding the reins in his hands.
There is a possibility that a view of the tank is being blocked by the round of wood.
CB…when I said fir trees, I wondered if I should say fir and pine. The large tree in the photo looks like a Ponderosa pine. I have a photo of my husband’s grandfather logging with horses in the HR area. Those trees are fir. But, they are not large fir.
Maybe I can e-mail one of those people that love to play with old saws and see if they can identify this one. And tell us how it was powered.
l.e.
Jeffrey….Is Vaughn Street in Portland named after Elbert Vaughn?
Jim Gray
I think I.e. is right the engine is hidden by the large round of wood, a long shaft runs up the framework to turn the flywheel that runs the saw back and forth. Hood River has an Oak Street and Pine Street for a good reason, all the early photos of downtown showing the Oak trees and the photos of May Street School had Pine trees in the background. I grew up at 7th & June and there were large Pines everywhere, including three in our yard.
Jeffrey Bryant
Elbert Vaughan came to Hood River around 1900. His father, Cyrus Vaughan arrived in 1902 and settled on Adams Addition where he raised strawberries. Cyrus’ son, Robert Vaughan, and family arrived in 1904. The Vaughan homes are on 13th Street.
Vaughn street in Portland is spelled differently.
Elbert Vaughan’s "Portable Drag Saw Machine," U.S. Patent No. 1,165,298, patented Dec. 21, 1915.
Jeffrey Bryant
You can watch a video of a Vaughan drag saw in action on You Tube.
l.e.
I received a reply from Robert VanNatta whose websites cover a lot of Pacific Northwest Logging History:
"I’ve reviewed that thing carefully. I can certainly see why some have suggested it may be a horse powered drag saw, but that is contrary
to my knowledge of those saws. You can see the flywheel in the picture where you would expect it to be. Drag saws were typically powered
by a 1 cylinder gas engine which was horizontal, and turned slowly with a large flywheel such as shown.
Such a saw functioned in that there were a couple of rods on the side of a wooden frame on which the engine was mounted with ‘sliders’ on them.
An eccentric off the engine crank shaft moved the slider forward and back. It was called a ‘drag saw’ because, unlike a cross cut saw used by hand,
the teeth were set to only cut on the drag stroke—i.e. when the saw was being pulled toward the saw. It did not cut on the push stroke.
I have never heard of a a horse powered drag saw. Other than a Gas engine, some were made with steam power, but I see no sign of steam on this job.
I cannot account for the team being that close but wonder if the photographer told the parties to ‘get close’ for the picture and then ended up takeing the picture much farther away than planned."
Jason Hogstad
At the High Desert Museum in Bend, we have a machine very similar (if not identical) to what is pictured here. As near as I can tell, it was horse powered – but I do not claim to be a saw expert.
Here is a link to a sign that we used to have posted by our saw: http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1277668507015251670gWBbAt.
The sign contains an image from a drag saw catalog. Unfortunately, I am not sure which catalog it was from (the sign has since been removed and it’s original creator is no longer with the institution).
I’m currently reseraching our saw and trying to figure out how to restore and hopefully operate it. It is now part of our Museum’s Living History Site and we would like to demonstrate it if possible.
If anyone has any insight into it’s operation, I’m all ears.
Thanks,
Jason Hogstad
Assistant Curator of Living History
High Desert Museum
Carl R. Miller
Fellows, we have a similar saw at the Shafer Museum in Winthrop WA. Ours is horse driven and we are in the process of rebuilding it. I think the picture is misleading it seems to me that the picture is set-up therefore the process is not shown. These horse driven saws could be both drag and circular as shown in many advertisements at the time. We hope to have our saw up and running i this coming summer. Check out our webpage. Shafer Historical Museum Winthrop WA. Carl Miller of the rusty metal guys.