Lombard Hauling Logs, Maine, ca. 1920. Maine State Museum. Gift of Mrs. W. Robinson Brown, 68.187.2.
Lombard Hauling Logs, Maine, ca. 1920. Maine State Museum. Gift of Mrs. W. Robinson Brown, 68.187.2.
Each season, lumbermen had to cut deeper into the woods and further from the rivers necessary to cheaply float logs to mills downstream. With increasing distances to travel, lumbermen sought a faster method to pull logs from the woods to the riverbanks.
Alvin Lombard is credited with inventing the first workable mechanical log hauler in 1899. In one load, it could carry vast quantities, significantly more than horse-drawn sleds. After a number of improvements, log haulers, such as the one in this photograph, fully replaced horses by 1930.