Lumberjack - Crowe, William S.

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Résumé :
Winner--Best Biography/Memoir of 2002, Midwest Book Awards (St. Paul, MN) A firsthand account of the lumbering era during the white pine boom years of the late 1800s - early 1900s in the northern U.S. Millions of board feet of logs were cut in deep woods camps, driven down the rivers to the sawmills and shipped by schooner and barge to build a nation. This edition includes 78 historical photographs and illustrations, a glossary, editors' notes, maps, and much more. The lumber barons, the lumberjacks, and the town people who worked in the mills-as well as the happenings of that period... are recalled by one who lived among them. I hope it will be an inspiration to others to set down their memories of the days of falling pine and belt-driven sawmills. Already too much of this story has passed beyond recall... a valuable addition not only to the history of Manistique, but to the state as well. --Ferris E. Lewis, Michigan History, Lansing An authentic first-hand account... which tells the whole story of big-scale lumbering during the 1890s and early 1900s. Chapter by enthralling chapter, Crowe recounts the times involved in the 'big pine' operations... it rivals anything so far written... rich in description and alive with thrilling episodes. --Marquette Mining Journal First-hand accounts of the dramatic 'big cut' by participant-observers are always illuminating. William S. Crowe's reminiscence of his years in the woods and the early days of Manistique, at the north end of Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was a classic in the 1950s. His granddaughters Lynn McGlothin Emerick and Ann McGlothin Weller have done a real service by republishing his book with ample photos and notes. -- Mary Hoffman Hunt, Midwestern Guides Focusing on Manistique and meticulously researched, Lumberjack explores the early days of logging and the lifestyles of the countless loggers that filled the woods in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. William Crowe, the author, was a logger himself who collected and relates real stories from the men who were there. This is a mandatory book for anyone interested in the history of the Upper Peninsula. --Mikel B. Classen, author - Historian, True Tales: The Forgotten History of the U.P. and Faces Places & Days Gone By: A Pictorial History of the U.P. From Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com...

Biographie:
When I landed at Manistique from the Goodrich Line's City of Ludington at exactly midnight, May 29th 1893, I stepped into a strange new world such as I had never seen or even dreamed of. I was only seventeen and had lived for two years on a cattle ranch on the treeless plains of eastern Colorado northeast of Fort Lupton. I had never seen a ship, a large body of water, a sawmill, or even a big tree. The screaming saws in five big mills, running twenty-four hours a day; the scent of new lumber and the pine woods; the hoarse whistles of lake steamers; the tall masts of lumber schooners in the harbor; and the flickering flames and red glow from the open burners reflected across the water and in the sky against the dark and somber background of the immense forest when they discovered a new and unexplored area. I could hardly wait for morning to dawn.