A Day's Work in Maine Study Guide

 

WOODS WORK

From the first European settlements, the Maine woods were seen as a tremendous resource. Our woods continue to be an important part of our economy, but with the advent of mechanization and harvesting equipment such as the feller-buncher and skidder, work in the woods has changed.

This picture, taken around 1901, shows river drivers using pick-poles and peaveys to try and break up a log jam. The boat in the picture is called a batteau, and it had to be cat-quick, lightweight, and able to survive terrific punishment on the river.
      The river drivers used a batteau to get them where they needed to go, and to carry their supplies. They used iron-shod spruce poles to pile a batteau upriver, but when heading downstream, they used long ash paddles. If they were going from bank to bank, they used oars. A standard batteau was thirty-two feet long and nearly seven feet wide from rail to rail. Its sharp ends allowed the boat to slide up and over obstructions, and there were plenty of obstacles on Maine's twisting, uproarious log-driving streams, choked by logs and boulders.
      A big batteau weighed 800-900 pounds. The river drivers often had to lug it over a "carry" between rivers or lakes, when they couldn't get there by water. The batteau in this photo was built by Hosea B. Maynard of Bangor, who was thought to make some of the best. Maine-made batteaus weren't only used on rivers in Maine. Maynard sent many of his batteaus out West. Builder Guy Carlton of Old Town even sent some of his batteaus to the Amazon River in South America.

This river driver poses on the bank of the East Branch of the Penobscot, around 1901. He's wearing heavy woolen pants with the cuffs tucked into gaitors, a red woolen shirt, and heavy boots with sharp boot caulks that helped him keep a grip stepping from floating log to floating log. River driving was wet work. This man has an extra pair of socks tucked in his back pockets.

Log drives jammed the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers for many years. In some rivers, you can still see the square cribworks filled with stones that were used to temporarily anchor floating log booms.

Discussion:
1. Why do you think boats, not canoes (which were much lighter) were used for working on river drives?
2. What types of sport shoes use "caulks" or "cleats" to help athletes keep their balance? Do you think the ideas for cleats might have originated on a log drive?
3. What counties in Maine were most apt to be home to river drivers? Why?
4. What are "gaiters"? What else are they worn for?
5. What has replaced river drives?

Activities:
1. Map a river trail where logs might have been driven to a sawmill, or other market.
2. Contact (or visit if you are near) the Penobscot Logging Museum in Bradley or the Lumbermen's Museum in Patten for further information on logging. Take a field trip to a lumber mill, such as Leonard's Mill in Bradley.
3. Contact Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine, for wonderful films on logging in Maine.
4. Research the history of the peavey.
5. Research lumbering stories and tales and hold a story-telling session.
6. Build a model of a batteau or a logging sled.
7. Research immigrant stories from the lumbering business.

Maine Learning Results Key:
ELA: B, C, D, E, F, H
SS/H: A, B, C
SS/G: A, B
SS/E: A, B, D
M: B, C
S&T: B, D, F, H, I, M

This is John McPherson, hermit, poet, shingle "weaver," and ship-knee "expert," about 1890. Mr. McPherson earned what money he needed by making shingles now and then, or digging hackmatack tree roots for shipbuilders.
      Before machines were invented to make shingles, people would hire a person to make the shingles they needed for a new roof. The shingle weaver would arrive with his tools and use his froe (sort of like a curved hatchet) and shaving horse (a stand for planing wood) to make the shingles, one by one, on the site. This could take several months for one house.
      What was a "ship-knee expert"? Ship knees are curved braces used inside a hull, and shipbuilders liked to use a piece of strong hackmatack wood cut where the tree's root turns up into the trunk, so it would have a natural curve. These roots had to be dug up and sawn out, and it was one of the hardest jobs in the woods. An easier job in the woods was picking spruce gum off spruce trees using a long bamboo pole with a chisel and a small canvas pouch attached to the tip. This chewy resin was sold to be manufactured into chewing gum.
      Men like Mr. McPherson often spent their lives alone in the woods, got old, and died alone.

Today we take shingles for granted. It is easy to visit a hardware store or lumberyard and purchase a "bundle" of shingles that are exactly the same in length and thickness. The shingle weaver would travel to the job, cut the trees, and make shingles, right on site.

Discussion:
1. Why do you think old houses were usually sided with clapboards, but barns were shingled?
2. What are some other jobs where a craftsman works on site?

Activities:
1. Research how shingles are manufactured today. What inventions have made this possible?
2. Find out the price of a bundle of shingles. How many shingles are in a bundle? How many bundles would be needed to shingle the house where you live?
3. Is anyone still harvesting ship "knees" in Maine? What tools might make this job easier today?
4. How many of you chew gum? Where do you get it? Do you have any idea how gum is made? If possible, pass out a variety of pieces of gum. On the board or a piece of large paper, list:

lard
grease
paraffin
chicle
rosin

Create a second list generated by the students, from the ingredients listed on their gum wrappers. Do any of the ingredients match? Has anyone in your class ever chewed spruce gum? How do you think it would taste? How do you think the texture would differ from the gum you are used to?

Maine Learning Results Key:
ELA: B, C, D
SS/H: A, B, C
SS/G: B
SS/E: A, B
M: B, C
S&T: B, D, F, H, I, M