Steam donkey

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A steam donkey or donkey engine is a steam-powered winch once widely used in logging, mining, maritime, and other industrial applications.

Contents

• Name
• History
• In logging
• Design
• Use
• Operator
• Other uses
• Preserved examples
• See also
• References
• Further reading
• External links

Steam-powered donkeys were commonly found on large metal-hulled multi-masted cargo vessels in the later decades of the Age of Sail on through the Age of Steam, particularly heavily sailed skeleton-crewed windjammers.

A donkey used in forestry, also known as a logging engine, was often attached to a yarder for hauling logs from where trees were felled to a central processing area. The operator of a donkey was known as a donkeyman.

Name

Steam donkeys acquired their name from their origin in sailing ships, where the "donkey" engine was typically a small secondary engine used to load and unload cargo and raise the larger sails with small crews, or to power pumps. They were classified by their cylinder type – simplex (single-acting cylinder) or duplex (a compound engine); by their connection to the winches (or "drums") – triple-drum, double-drum, etc.; and by their different uses.

A good deal of the cable-logging terminology derived from 19th-century merchant sailing, as much of the early technology originated in that industry. Common logging terms include high-lead yarder, ground-lead yarder, loader, snubber, and incline hoist.

History

In logging

John Dolbeer, a founding partner of the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company in Eureka, California, invented the logging engine in that city ^[1] in August 1881. The patent (number: 256553) was issued April 18, 1882. On Dolbeer's first model, a 46-metre (150 ft), 110-millimetre (4.5 in) manila rope was wrapped several times around a gypsy head (vertically mounted spool) and attached at the other end to a log. ^{[2] [3]}

The invention of the steam donkey increased lumber production by enabling the transport of trees that would previously have been left behind because they were too large to move. They also enabled logging in hot or cold weather, which was not previously possible with the use of animal power. ^[4]

Later, the invention of the internal-combustion engine led to the development of the diesel-powered tractor crawler, which eventually made the steam donkey obsolete. Though some have been preserved in museums, very few are in operating order. A great number still sit abandoned in the forests.

Design

A logging donkey consists of a steam boiler and steam engine, ^{[5] [6]} connected to a winch mounted on a sled called a donkey sled. ^{[7] [8]} The donkeys were moved by simply dragging themselves with the winch line, originally hemp rope and later steel cable. They were used to move logs, by attaching lines to the logs and hauling them. ^{[9] [10]}

The larger steam donkeys often had a "donkey house" (a makeshift shelter for the crew) built either on the skids or as a separate structure. Usually, a water tank, and sometimes a fuel oil tank, was mounted on the back of the sled. In rare cases, steam donkeys were also mounted on wheels. Later steam donkeys were built with multiple horizontally mounted drums/spools.

Use

In the simplest logging setup, a "line horse" would carry the cable out to a log where its tree had been downed. The cable would be attached, and, on signal, the donkey's operator (an engineer) would open the regulator, allowing the steam donkey to drag, or "skid", the log towards it. The log was taken either to a mill or to a "landing" where it would be transferred for onward shipment by railroad, road or river – either send down a flume, loaded onto boats, or floated directly in the water, often becoming part of a large log raft or "boom". Later, a "haulback" drum was added to the donkey, where a smaller cable could be routed around the "setting" and connected to the end of the heavier "mainline" to replace the line horse.

A donkey was moved by attaching one of its cables to a tree, stump or other strong anchor, then dragging itself overland to the next yarding location.

In Canada, and in particular Ontario, the donkey engine was often mounted on a barge that could float and thus winch itself over both land and water. Log booms would be winched across water with the engine, after which it would often be reconfigured with a saw to mill the timber.

Operator

"Donkey puncher" redirects here. For other uses, see Donkey punch (disambiguation).

A logging donkey would be operated by an engineer ^{[11] [12]} called since about 1920 ^[13] a donkey puncher. ^{[14] [15]}

In later times the donkey puncher was too far away from the end of the line for verbal communication, so whistle codes were developed similar to those used by tug boats employing steam whistles. ^[16] The whistle operator was known as a whistle punk, ^{[16] [17]} who was placed between the men attaching the cables (choker setters), ^[18] and the donkey puncher, so that he could see the choker setters. ^{[16] [19]} When the cables were attached, a series of whistle blows signaled the donkey to begin pulling and the choker setters to stay out of harm's way. ^{[16] [20]}

The process was a closely orchestrated sequence of actions, where mistakes were often fatal and where good men stood in line for the jobs. ^[21] Although the steam engine, and its whistle, have been replaced by gasoline and diesel engines, ^[22] the whistle codes are still used in many current logging operations. The whistle has been replaced largely with airhorns. ^{[23] [24]}

Preserved examples

A functioning steam donkey is on display and occasionally operated at Fort Humboldt State Historic Park in Eureka, California. A non-functioning steam donkey accompanied by a plaque explaining the history of the machine is on permanent display at Grizzly River Run, an attraction at Disney California Adventure Park. Another collection of steam donkeys is located at the Point Defiance Park, Camp 6 Logging Museum located in Tacoma, Washington. The collection includes various steam donkeys, including one of the last very large ones built, and others at various stages of restoration.

Another steam donkey is on display along an interpretive trail at the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum in Calaveras County, California, an indoor open-air museum about the Sierra Nevada logging industry and history. ^[27]

Another steam donkey is preserved at Roaring Camp Railroads park in Felton, California.

Another steam donkey is preserved at Legoland Billund on their Wild West gold-mine-themed railroad.

On August 1, 2009, a Steam Donkey was officially unveiled at McLean Mill National Historic Site in Port Alberni, British Columbia. It is now the only commercially operating steam donkey in North America. On that occasion, due to extreme fire risk, demonstrations of the donkey were not performed, but the logs hauled by previous test runs of the donkey (and had been loaded onto a truck) were dumped into the McLean Mill millpond, representing the first steam-powered commercial logging operation in North America in decades. This machine continued to operate after R. B. Mclean shuttered the steam-powered McLean Mill site in 1965. It ran until 1972 and was abandoned on site. It was restored by the Alberni Valley Industrial Heritage Society in 1986 for Expo 86 and, more recently, was re-certified for commercial use at McLean Mill. Agreements have been made with forestland owner Island Timberlands (owned by Brookfield Asset Management) to log, mill, and sell trees and lumber from the surroundings of McLean Mill.

A wide-face steam donkey (called that because the width of the drum is greater in proportion to that in later machines) has been operational at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum in Tillamook, Oregon, since the early 1980s. Manufactured by the Puget Sound Iron & Steel Works in the early 1900s, this donkey was abandoned in the woods when the Reiger family finished logging their land in about 1952. The steam donkey was rescued and restored from 1979 to 1981. It was donated to the Pioneer Museum by the Ned Rieger family and has been on display on the Museum grounds.

A vertical steam capstan called "donkey" for hauling fishing lines and nets is preserved on the museum fishing vessel Balder in the historic harbour of Vlaardingen (near Rotterdam), the Netherlands.

Another steam donkey is located on the Monarch Lake Loop in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Grand Lake, Colorado on Arapaho Pass Trail #6. This steam donkey was used by the, now abandoned and flooded, town of Monarch to harvest logs from the mountain sides. ^[28]

See also

• "Donkey Riding"
• Donkey jacket, so named because it was worn by donkeymen
• Geared steam locomotive—often used on forestry railways
• Lidgerwood—manufacturer of steam-powered logging equipment
• Range extender – auxiliary combustion engine used on battery vehicles
• Steam power during the Industrial Revolution
• Timeline of steam power
• Yarder – a larger steam-powered logging machine

Related Research Articles

Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers.

A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in or let out or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope.

Portable sawmills are sawmills small enough to be moved easily and set up in the field. They have existed for over 100 years but grew in popularity in the United States starting in the 1970s, when the 1973 oil crisis and the back-to-the-land movement had led to renewed interest in small woodlots and in self-sufficiency. Their popularity has grown exponentially since 1982, when the portable bandsaw mill was first commercialized.

The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive. Although the design of Ephraim Shay's early locomotives differed from later ones, there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays. Shay locomotives were especially suited to logging, mining and industrial operations and could operate successfully on steep or poor quality track.

A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. There they are loaded onto trucks, and sent to the mill. One exception is that in the early days of logging, when distances from the timberline to the mill were shorter, the landing stage was omitted altogether, and the "skidder" would have been used as the main road vehicle, in place of the trucks, railroad, or flume. Modern forms of skidders can pull trees with a cable and winch, just like the old steam donkeys, or with a hydraulic grapple either on boom or on the back of the frame (clambunk skidder).

A capstan is a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to multiply the pulling force of sailors when hauling ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which has a horizontal axle.

Lidgerwood was a historic American engineering company famous for its boilers, winches, scrapers, hoists and cranes, particularly ones that helped build the Panama Canal. They later built logging yarders and aerial tramways, cable cars or ropeways.

The Washington Winch sits in the forests of eastern Victoria near Swifts Creek and is also known as the Washington Iron Works Skidder.

John Dolbeer was a partner in the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Co., one of the early major Humboldt County, California lumber operations based in Eureka. While in that business, he invented the logging engine, more commonly known as the steam donkey or donkey engine. This invaluable equipment, especially with regard to difficult terrain and very large trees, revolutionized 19th century logging so significantly that variations of the engine were still used well into the 20th Century.

Collier Memorial State Park is a state park in southern Oregon. The park is operated and maintained by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It is located on U.S. Highway 97, approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Klamath Falls and 105 miles (169 km) south of Bend. The park covers 146 acres (59 ha) along the Williamson River.

Bucksport was a town in Humboldt County, California. The original location was 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of downtown Eureka, on Humboldt Bay about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of entrance. at an elevation of 16 feet (4.9 m). Prior to American settlement a Wiyot village named Kucuwalik stood here.

The Lombard Steam Log Hauler, patented 21 May 1901, was the first successful commercial application of a continuous track for vehicle propulsion. The concept was later used for military tanks during World War I and for agricultural tractors and construction equipment following the war.

The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became Jackson Demonstration State Forest in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.

Soulé Steam Feed Works is a historic business founded in Meridian, Mississippi in 1892 and incorporated in 1893 by George Soulé. The complex was listed as a contributing property to Union Station Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 under the Meridian Multiple Resource Area (MRA). It was listed as a Mississippi Landmark in 2003. The business, known for its many patented innovations in steam engine technology, reached its height around the turn of the 20th century, producing products that were sold around the world.

The Carson Mansion is a large Victorian house located in Old Town, Eureka, California. Regarded as one of the premier examples of Queen Anne style architecture in the United States, the house is "considered the most grand Victorian home in America." It is one of the most written about and photographed Victorian houses in California and possibly also in the United States.

A logging truck or timber lorry is a large truck used to carry logs. Some have integrated flatbeds, some are discrete tractor units, and some are configured to spread a load between the tractor unit and a dollied trailer pulled behind it. Often more than one trailer is attached.

The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was a logging operation in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company and its predecessors were known for building the world's longest log flume and the first multiple-arch hydroelectric dam. However, the company also engaged in destructive clearcutting logging practices, cutting down 8,000 giant sequoias in Converse Basin in a decade-long event that has been described as "the greatest orgy of destructive lumbering in the history of the world."

The Michigan-California Lumber Company was an early 20th-century Ponderosa and Sugar pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. It is best remembered for the Shay locomotives used to move logs to the sawmill.

The Sugar Pine Lumber Company was an early 20th century logging operation and railroad in the Sierra Nevada. Unable to secure water rights to build a log flume, the company operated the “crookedest railroad ever built." They later developed the Minarets-type locomotive, the largest and most powerful saddle tank locomotive ever made. The company was also a pioneer in the electrification of logging where newly plentiful hydroelectric power replaced the widespread use of steam engines.

The Yosemite Lumber Company was an early 20th century Sugar Pine and White Pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. The company built the steepest logging incline ever, a 3,100 feet (940 m) route that tied the high-country timber tracts in Yosemite National Park to the low-lying Yosemite Valley Railroad running alongside the Merced River. From there, the logs went by rail to the company’s sawmill at Merced Falls, about fifty-four miles west of El Portal.

References

Further reading

• Stanley, David; Elaine Thatcher (1999). Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry. University of Illinois Press. p. 276. ISBN   978-0252068362.
• Vaillant, John (2012). Am Ende der Wildnis: Umweltaktivist oder Ökoterrorist? (in German). Random House.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steam donkeys .

• The Anatomy of a Steam Donkey (image)
• Steam Donkeys
• The Donkey Engine—Steam & Engine of Australia
• Turtle Bay Exploration Park's Dolbeer Steam Donkey (video) ^{[ dead link ]}
• Steam Power—Pacific County Historical Society and Museum
• Kinsey Brother Photography of the Lumber Industry—University of Washington Library
• Man to Machine: Peninsula Logging—an exhibit at the University of Washington Library
• Glossary of Logging terms, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, under Donkey puncher and Whistlepunk.