Sierra Nevada Logging Museum

East of Murphys, the next town is Arnold. Just past Arnold is the Big Trees State Park we've visited a couple months ago. But in Arnold is the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum. Here we find exhibits covering all aspects of getting trees turned into lumber.

We begin with the collection of tree cutting implements. There are axes and saws of any sort you can imagine.

Much of the space was taken by small scale displays showing the sorts of things that people were up to fifty to a hundred years ago. the scene below depicts a logging camp.

Once logged, the trees had to be moved to the mill. This was done by rail and horses.

The really interesting one was a scale model of the saw mill. The photo below shows the fellow sharpening the blade used in the large band saw that cut the trees lengthwise in board thicknesses. This must have been a hard job. We were told that this blade sharpener guy was the second highest paid person in the mill. It is easy to see why. Not only did he need to know what he was doing to produce sharp blades, but the blade was changed 4-5 times a day. A constant battle. Blades were passed up and down between the sharpener and the production floor through a trapdoor.

On the main floor, the logs are brought into position and rolled onto the bed of the band saw. Here the Sawyer, the highest paid position in the mill, ran the saw and orchestrated the movement of logs around him. Busy, hard work.

My favorite display in the entire museum is this one of the original Smokey the Bear Illustration.