Steam donkeys such as this "Tacoma Wide Face Yarder" were a vital part of a logging team's equipment in the 19th century forests of Oregon. Their name is derived from secondary engines called "donkey engines" used on sailing ships to load cargo, raise large sails, or to power pumps. Many cable-logging terms are derived from merchant sailing ships because they used similar riggings.
Steam donkeys had a boiler, a water tank or fuel tank mounted on the rear of the sled, and a "donkey house" that sheltered the crew from the weather. They also had a powered winch that was wound with hemp rope in the early days and steel cable in later years. This cable would be carried to a downed log and attached. The donkey's engineer would power the steam engine, allowing the steam donkey to drag the log towards itself. The log would then be transported by animal, tractor, or truck to a landing dock where it would be transferred to a mill via a river, road, or railway spur.
The donkey's skids or sleds were usually made of giant logs to aid in transporting the donkey from one setting to the next. One of the cables would be attached to a tree, or stump and the machine would pull itself along to the next timbering location.
This Steam Donkey is called a "wide face" because the width of the drum is greater in proportion
to that in later machines. Wide face donkeys were used for a variety of logging jobs such as dragging logs along the ground, loading operations or "high lead" (in which logs were yarded with one or both ends in the air). It was manufactured by the Puget Sound Iron & Steel Works, probably in the early 1900's. Abandoned in the woods when the Reiger family finished logging their land in about 1952, this donkey was rescued and restored from 1979 to 1981. It was donated to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum by the Ned Rieger family and has been on display on the Museum grounds since then.
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