Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1912 — A Sawmill in the Rockies [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Sawmill in the Rockies

Pagosa Springs, Colo., Jan 1 Editor Republican: Thinking that an article about a sawmill a little larger than George Haste’s was might interest your read ers, I have decided to try my hand at "writing it up.” Under one roof is the log mill proper, consisting of two saws and a cutting capacity of 7,000 feet per hour, the carriage being handled by steam and the ratchet setting being done by the same means. After leaving the saw the lumber and slabs pass down the steam rolls, the lumber going to the left, the slabs to the right to the lath mill, which has a capacity of 25,000 lath every ten hours. Every slab that will make lath is used here; those that will not and are clear of knots go to the hog (of the Arkansas type, I think) who chews them up and makes dust for the boiler furnaces. After leaving the live rolls the lumber goes to the edger where all bark is cut away; thence to the "cut off” inclined table consisting of four drop saws, this being capable of cutting a board of any length from four feet up, next it goes to„the surfacer, where the rough is taken off of one side; there is a surfacer for d'i-

jnension timbers and it cl nans all four sides at once. There Is also a railroad tie saw table of three saws, capable ot cutting two ties at once. The logs are unloaded in a pond and/towed into a chute, then dragged to the saw floor by a chain, here they run up against the kicker, a professional, and he starts them down the skidway to the saws, but before arriving there they come in contact with a "nigger” who knocks them around with his head and nose until thew are on the carriage in position for the saw. He also uses his head and nose to turn them on the carriage. An engine with a horse-power capacity of four hundred, pulls all these various machines and some more besides. His flywheel is twelve feet in diameter; his first or main bejt is leather doubled, not a lace in it, is three feet wide and about sixty/iong and cost $550. I shall not try to estimate the amount of belting but the mill is about two hundred feet square and is all bejts (leather and rubber) and chains below the floor and when I'am down there I have to look out for my hat because I only have one. In speaking of belts and chains I mention them as they hang on their pulley, thus being double. There te one dust chain 150 feet long which carries, the refuse to a waste pile where it is burned; another carries the dust to the furnaces, of which .there are six and what they do not use is carried on to the dust house; then there is another chain 50 feet long running from the dust house to the boilers which is used only, when the mill is not running. There is a dry kiln Of 40,000 feet capacity and a planer of nine machines. About sixty men are employed in the mill and yard; and two logging camps of fifty men each. Now listen, little folks, be-

By M. L. PASS

cause I am going to tell you something about the houses they have in these logging camps where the men do nothing but saw and haul logs and loaa them on the cars. Let me tell you first that they do not call them houses,but Instead they are “shacks.” They build these shacks on logs first sloped one end like a sled runner, so when they want to move they hitch eight horses to them and up they go on, the log cars, mama, babies, dishes and all. Some kid may get its head cracked but never a dish because they are granite Now, how woulff you like to live in wbcls a shack? - Referring again to the mill and camp, there is a Thomson-Houston dynamo of one hundred and ten volts •wd carrying about five hundred incandescent and six arc lights. Ten houses are supplied with lights,‘twenty are not and there are eight for singly men. only./A system of Waterworks is maintained and every house has its hydrant. A hotel (cookhouse they call it, but we call It the International, because all nations are represented) boards the homeless men and a company store supplies all the necessaries of life. One of the logging camps is three miles away but will soon move nine miles farther; this by rail, about two-thirds of the distance by a straight line. The other camp is ten miles away and both have telephonic connections with the mill office. Two locomotives, forty-eight log cars and twenty-five men are employed in this railroad work. The organizer and maintainer of this vast enterprise 19 A. T. Sullenberger, a German by birth, but distinctly U. 8. by adoption. He has been in the sawmill business for twenty-five years and has been eminently successful. He is fhst as good a railroader as mill operator and whenever there is a man shy, there is the place to look for A. J. The company is regularly organized and includes business men of both Colorado Springs and Pueblo but Mr. Sullenberger is president and general manager. His son Lawrence is his assistant and also surveyor for the company. They also build and maintain their own railroads. The company owns twenty-nine thousand acres of land, one-half of which is still timbered but the other part is clear of mill timber and for sale at from three to six dollars per acre and suitable principally for sheep grazing but about one-fourth is excellent for dry farming aiid in some instances can be irrigated. There is an engineer and fireman for each shift and your humble servant Is fireman on the night shift We clean the grates and flues, keep up the water pressure and sufficient steam to save the “hog”, the “kicker” and the “nigger" from death by freezing, but this is no joke, as on Dec. 26th at 7 a. m. the U. 8. thermometer stood at 30 degrees below zero and the following morning at 37 and at 2 p. m. the same day wis 20 above; see the difference ?

Scene from "Casey Joies," the great comedy success. At Ellis Theatre Tonight.