McLean Mill adds spar tree
The Industrial Heritage Society (IHS) has taken one more step towards creating a working high-lead logging system.
On Friday at McLean Mill, climber Aaron Thom topped a straight Douglas fir tree at 75 feet, then rigged up a pass-line to begin hauling up all the heavy rigging equipment.
Powered by the newly-rebuilt steam donkey, the spar tree will be block-rigged with cables and pulleys to haul freshly cut logs to the mill.
Steam donkey is the affectionate term for the machine used in old-style logging operations as a powerful hoist. Previous to the steam powered engines, animals were used to do the heavy lifting.
"We're going to rig it at about 65 feet (above ground)," veteran foreman Jack James said. "We'll use the pass line to take up two blocks and two straps, along with four tree-plates."
The tree straps are strips of heavy steel which will be spiked length-wise along the spar, to prevent the cables from cutting through the wood, James explained.
"But it's the guy-wires that hold them on," he said. Six guy wires - four of them 300 feet long and two at 150 feet - will be anchored to stumps, to keep the spar tree straight.
"On this tree, we had to make a couple of the stumps for the guy wires -they're called dead-men," James said, pointing out a couple of heavy log sections buried in the ground.
McLean Mill manager Neil Malbon said IHS hopes to do a test run on the high-lead system by May 31, then operate on a demonstration basis through the summer and fall.
"We'll be the only steam donkey operating in Canada," Malbon said. The goal, however, is to begin active logging operations in partnership with Island Timberlands by the fall of 2010.
"We'll be the only commercially-operating steam donkey in North America," Malbon said.
The 7/8-inch main line, which was donated by G & G Logging, is 1,700 feet long.
G & G also donated the six guy lines - a total of 1,500 feet. But IHS is still looking for a haul-back line (3/4-inch, 1,500 to 1,800 feet long) and a straw line (3/8-inch, 2,000 feet long) to complete the setting.
Anyone who knows where this equipment might be available for donation is asked to contact Neil Malbon at 250-723-1379 or by e-mail at neil@alberniheritage.com.
