Rhetoric 1315 Questions: "Lumberjack Life"

I thought it was interesting how the jacks would rather have a good cook than a good foreman.

Posted by: Alicia Lund | April 6, 2006 11:36 AM

I also thought it was interesting that the cooks got paid more than the lumberjacks.

Posted by: Alicia Lund | April 6, 2006 05:31 PM

Dangerous work that lumbering...
I am just amazed by the logjams. I've seen pictures of them before and I just can't believe they ever got those things unstuck. It's like one gargantuan knot of wood. I wonder how many men lost their lives trying to untangle those.

Interesting that some of the jacks took to the fields for summer work. I can't imagine working like that. Back-breaking lumbering in the winter and hot, sweaty farming in the summer. Guess we could call them migrant workers?

Posted by: Tristan Beaster | April 6, 2006 08:30 PM

I am amazed at the rapid population increase mentioned in the first paragraph. One teacher moved to town, and they got a school built? What did the children do before that?

I was a little bit disgusted by the dirty plates thing. It was also surprising that no one spoke while eating. Today, when you haven't seen a friend for a while, you get together on your lunch break to catch up. Times have changed from the amount of labor that the lumberjacks put in all the way to how people eat their meals.

Posted by: Amanda Melhorn | April 6, 2006 09:26 PM

I found it interesting how both farming and the lumber industry contained their own subculture of rules and expectations.

I can't say I would look forward to 12 hours of work, and then going home with my fellow workers and sharing a bunk. And I thought things are crazy now...

Posted by: Nick Miller | April 6, 2006 11:08 PM

I was amazed that there was yet another piece of Minnesota history that I did not know before I took this class (the Dakota Uprising, which I kinda knew about, the really extensive details about milling, and now some town called Winton). I have never heard of Winton before and have been all over the state. Also, I liked the contradiction for work safety. No thermometer so they had to work in the cold, which as probably extremely cold, but sanitary kitchen conditions.

Posted by: Mike Bush | April 6, 2006 11:53 PM

I couldn't even imagine the time and how cold of a job it would be to make an ice road. Not just to cover the road in ice, but to make grooves in it as well for the sleigh runners.

The sleigh weighed 5 tons empty...I've seen pictures of these sleighs with huge piles of logs on them, but I never realized that the sleigh was that heavy or that filled it weighed 150 tons. It's a wonder the horses could slid it on the ice.

Posted by: Angela Walbridge | April 7, 2006 12:25 AM

The living conditions these lumberjacks dealt with seem pretty bad. Apparently there must have been a lot of incentive to get in on this market. What with terribly close quarters, infested bunkhouses and nothing but men, it had to be a joy. My question is, where did they bathe?

I wanted to mention how funny I find the reference "pimp stick" which they used for cigarettes. Wonderful.

Posted by: Carla Inderrieden | April 7, 2006 12:54 AM

I find it hard to imagine the piles upon piles of logs they had cut as actual trees in the forest. Was there any value given to the forest besides the value of lumber?

Posted by: Becca Haack | April 7, 2006 02:00 AM

"The one person in camp a jack could absolutely not afford to affend was the cook." I remember talking to my grandpa about the Korean War and the same thing was true. Nobody ever offended the cook. They knew that the nicer they were to the cook the better their meals would be. My grandpa also said that everyone knew the cook by name, even though the cook didn't know them. Even today, my grandpa and the rest of the soldiers remember who the cook was.

I wonder if I would be able to live a lumberjack's life? Question for the calss, would you be able to survive as lumberjacks did? What would keep you going? I have a friend that clears forests with his dad and even today it is still a hard life.

Posted by: Jamie Seitzer | April 7, 2006 07:44 AM

A Lumberjacks life was a life that was harsh and had little pay. I have read many different stories and documents about the Lumberjack's life and I have always found it interesting to learn about different careers and the lives in those careers.

It's not really surprising that the jack's would rather have a good cook than a good foreman. Jack's can put up with a poor foreman as long as they have a decent meal before them or waiting for them. A good meal can make the difference between good work and good work with the energy to keep it up until the very end.

Posted by: Jessica Bryan | April 7, 2006 07:51 AM

A lumberjack's life is quite impressive. With the low pay and dangerous work, this is something that most of us today could not handle.

I found it interesting that they maintained the ice roads to almost perfection. They kept them clean and made them last longer than the ice on the lakes.

Posted by: Adam Dicke | April 7, 2006 07:59 AM

I think most people today take for granted their current working conditions. Most people would be overly stressed if they had to work 12 hour days (of physical labor) with low wages!

Also, like so many others have mentioned, I'm so impressed with the superiority of the cooks. I never would have thought that.

Posted by: Rachel Maust | April 7, 2006 08:19 AM

In the first part of the lumberjack life, the icing of the roads to make them suitable for log travel was interesting. I guess that is what Charlie was talking about earlier

It was amazing how all of this was done with man and horse power (well mostly). I wonder how many of today's students would want to work like that to make a living. I know I wouldn't.

Posted by: Katie Hausladen | April 7, 2006 08:58 AM

All i have to say is that it would be great to be a cook. You would get to work inside were it is warm all day, have much less physical labor to do, and get paid twice as much. just a thought.

The thing that surprised me was the ice roads. I never knew that they made roads out of ice to pull the full sleds on. And another question is how the horses didn't slip trying to pull the sleds.

Posted by: Marc Huneke | April 7, 2006 10:06 AM

I was thinking that it would be sweet if they did a reality television show where it was a lumber mill. Can you imagine present day people trying to live in close quarters like that, putting up with the food, the work, the cold, and the physical labor? I almost wish they would do something like that (like on a tree farm somewhere up north, but only letting them use materials that they had back then).

So if someone did this, my question for you is, would you all watch it? I know I would!

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