Historic Hood River
Stumps
5-10-2018
Notes
The Neff Bros. stereocard image shows either a logging operation or a field clearing operation. Whichever it is, those men look happy to take a quick break to let the Neff Bros. do their work.
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
Dale Nicol
And a break for the horse too from pulling tree stumps!
Charlott
Makes me wonder from the looks of those stumps if they were not dynamited out of the ground. I am thinking they are using that horse not to attempt to pull stumps, because I have my doubts whether a horse could pull a stump, even if the roots were chopped, but to pull them to the burn pile. I notice off to the right they have been sawing up the wood for fires. Okay someone, what on earth is that box like contraption with the sled type runners which appear to be beside it?
Not to mention those big poles……….Buzz is the logger, can he figure it out?
Buzz
No clue what the poles and wooden sled/box are for. But seems pretty obvious this is a stump pulling/land clearing operation. Trees in background and size of stumps indicate nothing big enough to economically use for saw logs. May have cut up some small trees for firewood. As I learned, not economical to use enough powder to blow stumps completely out of the ground. Horse used to start pulling split up stump from ground and expose roots that need to be chopped off. Have seen old pictures of my ancestors in Upper Michigan using the partial stumps and attached roots stacked on top of each other and used for fences along property lines. Old timers did a lot of sweating to create beautiful and economical orchards in Hood River valley.
L.E.
The size of the standing trees looks like second growth.
I wonder if the wooden contraption is the stump puller? I know they had stump pullers that were stationary, that could clear stumps in a large circle around the machine. The horse did the work of pulling the cable. Once all the stumps were pulled, the horse pulled it to another area to work another circle.
I wonder if old HR Glacier issues have the stump puller for sale?
I assume Arthur is saying the Neff Brothers were the photographers, but the August 22, 1902 HR Glacier has an article about local farms one of which the Neff Brothers were farming:
"….Divers ranch, is now owned by Captain A.S. Blower. This place contains 320 acres, 80 in cultivation. The principal crop is hay. The Neff brothers, W.E. and Mike, farm Captain Blowers’ place. They are good farmers, industrious and good citizens…."
Dale Nicol
L.E., you are correct about the stump puller shown above.
If you want to see a stump puller today, there is one located outside of WAAAAM’s entrance on the west side.