Art & Words by
HOWARD B. TAYLOR

The fallers used to call a warning before their trees fell to alert others. They did not stay at the stump. The limb pictured falling is known as a widow maker. The trees shown are Noble Fir as fallen by Hammond Lbr. Co. in the Detroit Dam area. Mt Jefferson dominates the canyon. The timbered knoll is now an island in the Detroit Reservoir.

The marks on the stump and butt show the corner cuts which speed the work and guide the tree’s fall. The calked shoes of the loggers cut through the rough, dished surface in the springboards. The saw handles were sawed off to keep them from hooking the faller’s suspenders. Saw oil was kerosene and called coal oil. It was in a bottle with a steel hook by which it hung on the tree and a slotted wooden stopper for squirting saws.