Contributed by Winslow Historical Preservation Committee
Description
Logs that were intended for the Hollingsworth & Whitney Mill in Winslow were diverted by workers into the canal and floated down to the log storage area.
The nearer crane, a floating device, is in the canal that had been dredged off the Kennebec River. The crane above on the bank moved along rails.
Huge cables were attached to the cranes with a large flexible steel-like net that was lowered into the canal, filled with logs and then, mechanically, log-filled netting filled was raised. The netting opened when it reached its drop zone to drop the logs.
Beyond the further crane is Boston Avenue in the area of what became Mohegan Street, Dean Street, and the Winslow Elementary School. There was 6 to 7-foot fencing between the sidewalk and the log pile all the way from the mill entrance off Benton Avenue (west side of Benton Ave) to a location across from the present location of the Winslow Elementary School.
By the 1950s, in the late fall, there would be one long and high log pile along Benton Avenue that was, at times, some 70 feet high and several football fields in length. The rails inside the fence along Benton Avenue were about 50 to 60 yards from the fence.
A dangerous part of this log-piling job was that workers had to build, by hand using "pickeroons," a back wall and a front wall of logs, like a large bin to keep the pile from caving in out the front and to make sure on the back side that logs would not tumble back down towards the canal.
This process of piling logs came to an end in 1960-61 when the company, which had become Scott Paper Company, developed a new process of storing wood -- a wood chipping process. Using rivers to drive logs to mills ended in 1976 due to legislation.
This location is on the east bank of the Kennebec River.
About This Item
- Title: Hollingsworth & Whitney log piling process, Winslow, 1936
- Creation Date: 1936
- Subject Date: 1936
- Location: Winslow, Kennebec County, ME
- Media: Photographic print
- Dimensions: 20.2 cm x 30.5 cm
- Local Code: 00024
- Object Type: Image
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For more information about this item, contact:
Winslow Historical Preservation CommitteeWinslow Public Library, 136 Halifax Street, Winslow, ME 04901
(207) 872-1978
Website
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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