Oxen Replaced Mules And Donkeys -
Steam Donkeys Replaced Oxen
By the early 1900's steam yarders or steam donkeys, as they came to be known, industrialized logging.
These large steel and cast iron steam machines were used to stretch cables to downed logs and yard them to a landing area.
Blasts, Toots, and Whistles
Each steam donkey had a unique ear piercing sound to signal its crew that another load was ready to be yarded.
At the peak of their use in the 1920s a variety of toots and blasts could be heard in downtown Reedsport.
Residents from then have said they could recognize the distinctive whistles of as many as 40 steam donkeys logging in the hills around the community.
Moving The Massive Machinery
After clearing a section of felled timber, a steam donkey, attached to a sled of logs, would be moved. Cables from the donkey would be secured to stumps, and tons of machinery would pull itself to the next site.
Miles of cable were strung through a series of pulleys from the steam donkey up a spar tree and out to the logs a quarter of a mile away.
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