Historic Hood River
Line Work
3-30-2018
Notes
Another great Alva Day view of the life of an electric company lineman circa 1920. The Model T is the same one we’ve seen in many of his photos. It was a real workhorse of the early electric company.
This man seems to be using an ax to chop away at the tree which has brought down those electric lines. Using an ax overhead near power lines seems as dangerous as the human drill press we saw last week.
Dan Kleinsmith
The backdrop looks like the east side of the lower valley possible Fir mountain? Anyone have any guesses on which road this is?
Greg Oates
My first thought was that the photo was taken looking eastward on the Lost Lake. Rd, west of the old Dee schoolhouse. Not an easy job using an axe overhead.
Dan Kleinsmith
Greg, I think you might be correct.
Arlen Sheldrake
lip reading….you could help you know instead of clicking with that damn camera…….
L.E.
That is a pretty fancy fence across the road.
So what is going to happen when he finally gets chopped through the tree?
kmb
Kind of hard to tell what will happen not being able to see how long the tree is, and what is going on at the stump end. Just a guess, but since the power wires are holding the tree up, it would appear the top of the tree will flip over or slide off the wires, land on and then block the road. Or if the tree is tall enough, the top portion may fall on that fancy fence on the other side of the road. The lower portion of the tree will likely fall straight down and take out the wire fence underneath. It looks like he has already limbed the bottom side of the tree around the wires to allow the top portion to slide or flip off the wires cleanly when the final cut is made.
Arlen Sheldrake
reminds me of my father in-law cutting up a blow down double trunk fir in our back yard some years ago……he did not like the job but as a logger he knew how to do it. me, I would have been up in the air as the butt returned to the ground. not him, he took the double trunk off and anticipated the butt BANGING back into the ground….WHAM………..
Arlen Sheldrake
sorry…..butt s/b stump……..
kmb
Another thing I just noticed, there are more power (or phone?) lines across the road, looks like at least 6 wires on the other side. From the angle of the tree and the lines across the road, it would appear the top of the tree is not hung up in those wires. I am curious as to why there are two sets of poles and wires, one on each side of the road. Were there competing utilities at this time?
Arlen Sheldrake
I would guess that separate runs of phone and power had a safety benefit……
Beth Hukari
Looks like Woodworth Rd to me- Bald Butte would be to the right -just out of frame.