THE SHANTY BOYS - The Forest History Society

PHOTO STORIES

THE SHANTY BOYS

BY BENJAMIN C. MUKKALA of the saplings as supports for their shel-
ters. When the weather turned cold,
The Shanty Boys uct of the age they lived in. They'll not they usually went south-at least as far
pass this way again. as Bay de Noc.
T hat's what they call them, before
"lumberjack" became popular. Life The identity of the first people to pass About 1831, a small sawmill was built
was tough and the work was hard. It still through the Upper Peninsula of Michi- at the mouth of the Menominee River
is. The real money went to a bank back gan is lost in the dim dark past. The ice
east while the blood, sweat, and cooties receded some 6,000 years ago. Let's say by a Mr. William Farnsworth. He was a
were here. It's still that way-except, that 3,000 years ago (and who really little ahead of his time. The venture
maybe, for the cooties. They walked tall, knows when?) someone was here dig- failed.
dove deep, swing a broad ax, and helped ging up copper. The Indians lived here
build a nation. They still do. There was off and on-they were a nomadic Around 1860, Mr. George Dawson
"Moonlight" Johnson, Big Eric, Tom people. It wasn't until the early 1600s began cutting pine in the Big Bay area
"Tin-Can" Sullivan, Silver Jack Driscol, that the first white man, Etienne Brule, just east of the Huron Mountains. He
"Good Lookin" Tom. They were a prod- saw the mighty Lake Superior. After
that, well, there went the neighborhood. cut large timber, squared them, and
Cabin men and teams in an Ontonagon shipped them to his brother, Thomas, at
County, Michigan logging camp, 1901. Early occupants didn't use the trees, Sault Ste. Marie. Thomas transshipped
the wood, for much but tools and camp- the timbers to England, mostly for ship
fires. The Indians might have used some building, to help Britannia rule the
waves. Dawson and his crew were re-
stricted to areas near water-the lake or

large rivers-as they had no other way to
move the heavy timbers. Meanwhile,

32 FOREST HISTORY TODAY I 1997

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AboveLunching in the woods, J. M. Paine

Lumber Company.
RightLumberjacks with two-man cross cut
saw or "misery whip", and oxen with the
"go devil" sled in the woods, circa 1900.

American loggers were chewing their 0
way through the forests of Maine, New 0
York, Pennsylvania, and on toward
Michigan. By the 1870s, these eastern ~
loggers were moving into the Upper
Peninsula. 0
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The ax was the primary tool in the
early days. Saws had been in use one ;5
way or another since the Roman era but
it wasn't 'til the 1880s that the cross-cut I~
saw was' modified with "rakers" be-
I
tween the teeth to carry the sawdust out
of the cut, the saw kerf. The men came ~

to refer to the long two-man cross-cut ity, th~ life was hard, the pay poor, and The men would be separated from one
saw as "the misery whip." lucky was the man who avoided injury.
They took the good with the bad- another by a "snortin' pole" down the
It was eastern money that financed mostly bad. They were up before day- center of the bunk. An intellectual dis-
the logging boom. Speculators bought light to be in the woods as soon as it was
and sold land. It was common to log light enough to work. Lunch was cussion might concern the advisability
"round-forties" buy or contract forty brought to them. They didn't get back to
acres and cut all the forties around it too. camp 'til after dark. Sundays were "a day of avoiding bathing on the theory that
off" spent repairing clothing, mending
Much government land was just cut off and sharpening equipment, and trying the smell would keep the mosquitoes
and nothing was ever done about it. to chase the cooties out of the bed-
There was a lot of wheelin' and dealin' away. They swore, they drank, they
ding-such as it was. The men often
and corner-cutting all up and down the slept two to a bunk. If they entered :!Tom fought-one another if there was no one
line and most of the money went back one end it was called a "muzzle loader."
east. else-and they cut timber-for $15 a
month" and found."
The fellows who did the actual work
As railroads branched into the area.
were the lumberjacks. Shanty boys they
were called in the early days. They're the reach of the logger increased. They'd
popularly called a happy-go-lucky bunch lay track into a stand of timber, cut and,
who took the good with the bad. In real- haul it out, pick up the track, and lay it

FOREST HISTORY TODAY I 1997 33

Logging and
hauling with oxen
and horses in the

Great Lakes forest.

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down elsewhere. Railroad cars were cruits "safe" and at work. They weren't A modern day logger has arisen, a
lined with bunks and a stove. Other cars apt to leave if they had nothing but the new breed of "Shanty Boy." The cross
were made into cook shanties. Lumber clothes on their backs. cut saw and the broad ax have given way
to the feller-buncher, the hydraulic
camps were now portable. The mean would work all winter, col- skidder, the slasher. The "Eastern
The 1930s and 40s introduced the
lect their poke after the spring drive, and Money" has become "The Corpora-
"rubber tired loggers." Trucks and auto- head for town. In a week or so they'd tion." The jobber /lumberjack of today is
mobiles were making it possible for have gotten drunk, spent or had their self-employed or a member of a small
some of the "jacks to live at home and money stolen, and head back for the crew. The jobber needs a quick mind as
commute to the woods. Logs were woods. They'd be broke but with wild well as a strong back. He's got be able to
hauled out on trucks. tales to tell and ready to start over. There negotiate with a banker as well as swear
were exceptions but not many. The cycle at the crew. He can't throw a Pettibone
During World War II, German pris- of a "Shanty Boy's" life.
oners of war were sent to the UP to loading machine over his shoulder as
A German fell a' invented the chain easily as the old 'jack did his ax and head
work in the woods. The government down the road. In addition to timber
had to have special quarters built for the saw in 1937 but it would be many years
prisoners. The rules of the Geneva Con- before it was made light and portable cruising, he has to estimate cutting time,
vention considered the living conditions enough to be readily used in the woods. interest rates, equipment maintenance,
of the 1umber jacks below the standards By the' 40s, the gasoline engine was re- profit margin, return on investment,
for prisoners of war. placing horses and oxen. The pulp wood taxes, insurance.
and chemical wood market was supple-
Woods work was and still is consid- menting saw logs and bowling pins. Ah, but if you ask them if they'd do it
again, they'll look at you-kind of side-
ered a dangerous occupation: falling Older lumberjacks would often sign ways, you know. They'll rub the back of
trees, dead falls-"Widow-makers," on "for the season." In the fall, a jobber their neck, kick the dirt, maybe spit and
would provide them with bacon, beans, swear a little, then they'll admit it. "Yeah,
they're called-shifting logs, broken coffee, a little salt, a little tobacco, and yeah, I probably would." They'll sneak
lines, all were part of the job. The food another look at you-see if your laughin'
was plentiful and almost universally the 'jack'd live alone in a shack in the at 'em. The thing is they love the woods,
good-plain but good. Nothing would woods. Through the winter he'd cut most of them. They really do. They're
send a man down the road to another pulp wood-and peel it-for 3 to 5 cents out there every day. They're their own
a stick payable in the spring-less the boss. They can cuss, scratch where it
camp faster than poor food. costs of last fall's stake. These old-timers itches, and they're out in the woods
Operators often hired "man-catchers" where they want to be.
were a dying breed. The last of a tall
to travel to the cities to recruit men to walkin', loud talkin', deep drinkin', hard I guess that's why I like them too.
fightin' bunch. They were left behind
work in the woods. These new guys like worn out tools, passed up by the
would show up in fancy oxfords and city move westward. We're not likely to see
clothes to work in the UP woods-in their kind ever again.

winter. The boss would gather the
newcomer's sacks, bags, suitcases "for
safekeeping." It was for "keeping" the re-

Adapted from: "The Shanty Boys," The TimberProducer,May 1997. It was the second of a four-part series on forestry in upper Michigan.
34 FOREST HISTORY TODAY I 1997

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