| We had some empty cars stored on this branch and one day our
crew came in to take out some of the empties to load, and without noticing
it they started the whole string moving toward the Baltimore. Our timekeeper,
Mr. Wallace Rumsey, was coming up the track when he saw the cars slowly
moving and he tried, by throwing blocks in front of the wheels, to either
stop the cars or throw them off the track, which he was unable to do. No
doubt if he had wanted to keep the cars on the track he would have found
he could not have done that either; but the cars ran down the grade and
piled up in the Baltimore (river). Later on we got them all out with a
log loader, and shipped them away for repairs. This was the worst wreck
that we hacf in that operation.
In the fall of 1903, when we were just getting our camps going nicely, a tornado went through the timber from the southwest and blew down a considerable amount. Fortunately much of it was tributary to the six miles of track already built, but a large amount was also blown down east of the Baltimore and about five miles beyond the end of our track. The track had been built to the edge of a deep ravine and we had contemplated running the track down this ravine to the Baltimore, but that fall the Norton Lumber Company, of Ontonagon, had built a camp and constructed a logging road down this ravine so it was not practical to build our railroad at that time and we were obliged to build a very high trestle across the ravine, in a hurry. We were unable to get any help from the DSS&A so we had to have our own crew cut logs and build the bridge.
This bridge took over 100,000 feet of good Pine logs but it was finished, a track completed across the Baltimore to the timber which was blown down, and a new camp was built on the Baltimore. The timber was pretty badly splintered, and much of it was worthless, but we saved all we could of it. The snow that winter was very deep and our men had a big job digging out the timber from under the snow, so that there probably was a loss in handling that timber. The foremen of this new camp was Hans Hansen; and most of our men were from Oconto and had worked for us before. When we were negotiating with Mr. Fitch he told us it would be impossible to build a railroad where we were talking about, as he had had that thoroughly surveyed with an idea of building a branch of his road from Rockland to Matchwood. I showed him on the map how the streams ran, and that there was a level piece of land lying between the Middle Branch and the main Ontonagon River, but he said he would not believe it unless he saw it; so he arranged to go with me one day and look the ground over. I went up to Negaunee on the North Western, leaving Oconto about 3:00 A. M. and arriving at Negaunee at 7:00 A. M., and Mr. Fitch was there with his private car to meet me and he picked up their Roadmaster, Mr. Payne, and we proceeded to Baltimore. When we got there Mr. Fitch said he was not going to trarnp through the red clay, he was going to shoot partridges, so he put it up to Mr. Payne to go with me and Mr. Fitch went on up the line with his private car. He had the engine go behind his car and push it and as the partridges flew up along the right-of-way he would shoot them. He told us to be back at Baltimore at four o'clock. Forty-two |
Mr. Payne and I Went as far North as the ravine above mentioned,
and got back to Baltimore just as the special train whistled coming in
from Ewen. We walked twelve miles, and had to hurry some to look the country
over, but Mr. Payne and I went as far north as the ravine above mentioned,
and got back. He got me back to Negaunee in time to catch the evening train
and I got home that night, which was the quickest round trip I ever took
to Baltimore.
We had another experience with the North Western Road in that
connection. My brother talked to them about making a connection with their
road at Craigsmere, which is some six or eight miles south of Baltimore.
They said it was impossible to run a railroad through there on account
of the country being so rough. I looked the ground over with our cruiser,
Mr. Charles A. Smith, and we found a very easy and direct route following
a branch of the main Ontonagon River with an opening through the hills
which lie just north of Craigsmere. I reported to Mr. Whitman of the North
Western that there was a very easy rovte there and that by building a short
spur the road could run to Ewen. He, like Mr. Fitch, was very doubtful
as he said that he had spent thousands of dollars trying to locate a good
line In to Ewen, and he wanted to send his man to look it over. This he
did and Mr. Smith showed him the route and he came back and reported that
the route was very practical. However, we finally made a deal with the
South Shore instead of the North Western, to haul the logs.
As the soil in that part of the country is red clay, and very muddy when it is wet, we found a great deal of difficulty in operating the railroad and skidding logs in the mud. In the wintertime it was all right, if the snow was not too deep but we usually got from two to four feet of snow in the winter. In building the roads which were to be used in the spring, summer and fall, we had to lay logs lengthwise and then put the ties on top to keep the rails up out of the mud. The only part of the line which had any ballast on it was from Baltimore to the high trestle where the South Shore engines operated. We did log In the summer several years but for the most part during the summer months we spent our time building more railroads and camps, and started logging in the fall. The Middle Branch of the Ontonagon runs through a deep valley, with very steep banks, from two to three hundred feet high above the river. It was impossible to operate a railroad at any point that we could find on the west bank of the Middle Branch, although there were same ravines on the east side where we could have run a railroad. In order to get the logs to our railroads we had to construct an engine hill; that is, we bought two hoisting engines and a boiler and set them on top of the hill, each engine having about thirteen hundred feet of three-quarter inch wire cable. The hill was about a quarter of a mile long from top to bottom, and had a 23% grade. We hauled the logs on sleigh to the foot of the hill, then took off the horses and attached the cables to the sleighs to the foot of the hill and hauled it up the hill and unloaded the logs on the landing along side of the railroad. The teamsters were instructed to never approach the foot of the hill until any sleigh which was going up the hill at the time had reached the top, but one evening after dark a teamster drove up to the foot of the hill while there was still a load going up. When the load was about three-quarters of the distance to the top one of the cables broke and this, throwing an extra strain on the other one, broke it also and the sleigh load of logs ran back down the hill as though it had been fired out of a cannon. The teamster had no time to get his team out of the way and the horses were caught between the two loads of logs and crushed to a pulp . The teamster escaped by running up and falling into a ditch, where some of the logs passed over his head but he was not hurt. This was the only accident we ever had on that hill, and we Forty-three |
