Our Mountain Heritage -- Timber -- COOK Family Home -- Western N.C. & S.C. Descendants of Hence Marvin Cook
OUR MOUNTAIN HERITAGE
OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

 

The Heritage of the Early Industry
    Earning a living in Western North Carolina.
THE TIMBER AND LOGGING INDUSTRIES

Tree As mentioned previously on the flora page, the mountains of North Carolina were covered with a dense diverse forest. Some of the primary trees used in timber industry were the beech, oak, chestnut, spruce, fir and pines. Chestnut, cedar and loctus trees were favored for fence posts since they were more resistant to rot than the other trees.

In order to use the trees in construction they were sometimes turned into planks and boards. The early settlers used two methods to convert the logs into lumber. The first was to use an axe and wedge to split and hew out the planks. The second method was to use a hand saw to splice the log up. A pit the length of the log was dug deep enough for a man to stand in. The log was laid over the pit. With one man in the pit and another standing on the log, they used a two handled ripsaw to slice the logs into lumber. The hand saw was faster then the axe and wedge but could only produce about 100 board feet a day. Soon the powered saw mill was brought in, which could produce the same amount of lumber in about one hour.

The Blackwood Timber Company was the primary lumber company in Jackson County.

Dead Tree In 1904 a parasite fungus was introduced near New York City when an Asian Chestnut tree was brought in. The Asian Chestnut had an immunity to the fungus but the American Chestnut was not resistant. The chestnut blight spread so fast, that by 1938 more than 85 percent of the American Chestnuts in Western North Carolina were either dead or dying. Several of the trees are still alive today because the roots seem to be immune to the fungus. A sprout will spring from the roots and grow to sometimes 20 feet before the blight strikes again, killing the sprout.

After most of the good timber had been logged out and the Chestnut blight had destroyed one of the primary trees, the timber industry started to die off. In the early 1900's many of the loggers including several of the Cooks decided to move west to Oregan and Washington for better timber jobs.


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Sources:
  • Everday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke
  • History of Jackson County
  • Great Smokey Mountains National Park Natural History Handbook, Series No. 5
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    We will continually update our website as information is made available. Anyone wishing to add to or correct information on our website can contact John M. Cook, Jr at [email protected] or write to:

    Cook Family History
    c/o John M. Cook, Jr.
    PO Box 165
    Norris, SC 29667-0165

    This Site visited times since 10/24/99.