Tools of the Trade in the Days of Logging Shanties

21/1/2022

Shanty exhibit showing several tools used in logging camps

In bygone years, winter weather limited a family's ability to make a living on the homestead so many farmers took to the bush to earn money to support their families. Winter logging camps provided work for those able to wield an axe. The men would stay in the camps over the winter months. One young man wrote of leaving for Penman's shanty on the 8th line of Lanark Township at the end of November 1905 and staying there until the first week of April. He earned $8 a month. Another man reported making $100 for 5 months of work in 1939. The Middleville and District Museum has many great examples of tools used in the logging shanties. The early axes used by settlers were not very efficient so these were soon replaced with heavier, more robust models. Cant hooks were used to grab and roll the logs into place and a tool called a pickeroon had a sharp pic shaped end to catch on the end of a log and lift it up. The shanty exhibit at the Middleville Museum features crosscut saws, a selection of axes, an adze, cant hooks, pickeroons, log lifter tongs, a pike pole, buck saw, saw set, skidding tongs, rip saw, logger's boots with spikes and a river driving camp stove. The Museum also provides visitors with records and several books documenting the history of local logging.