Historic Hood River
Steam Power
Notes
What a great image of a steam powered logging apparatus. I believe this is twin drum steam hoisting engine which would power some sort of derrick. Feel free to correct or add to my description.
You can see the boiler and stack of wood, so the fire box must be behind. The single piston is to the left, driven by steam from the boiler. The mechanism coming up from the piston is the speed regulator. The piston drives a shaft rotating the flywheel. The two hoists must have some clutch mechanism so they can be independently coupled to the drive mechanism. It looks like there are two foot pedals near his corks. One hoist would provide lifting power, and the other would swing or pivot the mechanism.
It looks like the operator is missing his right hand. It’s not hard to imagine how that might have happened.
Check out the coffee pot sitting on top of the piston housing.
Charlott
My cousin had a toy steam engine, which when he was older gave to my brothers. It actually worked. Amazing what children were given to play with and did. It would not be acceptable this day and age.
I don’t know, maybe Buzz knows, but I notice this guy has his pant legs all chopped off. I remember seeing loggers when I was a kid that had pants like this. Was it to help prevent getting pant legs caught in machinery?
I see the fire poker up above his head there.
Up there above his coat might be his lunch bucket and maybe what the coffee was kept in.
Bet that was goooooooooooooooooooooood coffee.
L.E.
I can’t imagine the ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into building steam engine machines.
The way he is standing, I think his hand might be in his pocket?
Buzz will know the answer to this, but I remember as a kid, my dad pointing out to my mom another man who had his pants cropped off. My dad said, "you can tell he is a logger from the west side, because his pants are cut off so they won’t get caught up in the brush."
However, I have seen some cut off pants on the east side. Maybe a westside logger that moved to the east side.
East and west referring to the Cascades.
Buzz
Never worked around steam donkeys. I’m old, but not that old. Would guess this one was used to load logs. Probably on rail cars. Main line-bigger line-used to lift the logs from the log deck and the haulback-smaller line-used to swing the logs around to where the rail cars were sitting. Stagged off jeans were normal-easier to get around in thick brush. Lots of ways to get a hand pinched off. On the rainy coast, the landing crew usually had a hot fire and hot coffee ready for the rigging crew when they came to the landing for lunch. When it was real cold in Alaska,sometimes we wouldn’t stop for lunch because we could stay warmer by keeping working.
Arthur
His hand is definitely not in his pocket, unless he saved it and put it there.
Buzz
You are a cold hard man Arthur. In the movie "Sometimes A Great Notion", from a book by Ken Kesey, one of the last scenes was the old mans arm that had been pinched off with the middle finger extended tied to the top of a small tug towing a log raft past a group of unsucessful union organizers. The boys had frozen the arm when the old man had gotten killed. It was filmed in the Siletz river country and starred Paul Woodward.
Norma Simpson
Buzz, you sure that wasn’t Paul Newman married to Joann Woodward? Loved that movie! Was the old man Henry Fonda?
Buzz
Sorry. You are right Norma. And the old man was Henry Fonda. The house in the movie was on the Siletz river just a few miles upriver from Kernville.
L.E.
My husband and sons have read that book several times. They love it. I got to about page 30 and gave up.
I think you can rent the Stamper home as a vacation rental at the beach.
Tom Gandesbery
Good movie but great book. Better than Kesey’s other more famous book, "One Flew over…" The complex plot of the book could not be rendered in the movie, despite great acting by Paul Newman and Peter Fonda.
I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in logging history.
John Taubeneck
The steam donkey was built in Seattle by Washington Iron Works. It is a "roader" designed to drag logs along a skid road. The cylinder design indicates around 1910 but the frame dates from the late teens. It was probably rebuilt in the later teens of 20s.