Alaskan Logging Equipment, Left to Rust

[Contract Logger]

I live right smack in the middle of the 'Tongass National Forest', an area of 17 million acres of mostly old growth timber, on over 1,000 islands. Logging here started way back in the 1902's, and eventually progeressed through the 60's, 70's and 80's pretty much OK. In the early 1990's, under the Clinton Administration, the US Forest Service cut off the timber sales supply, and our two big pulp mils closed in 1997. We are so far from anywhere, that without the mills here there became no mills/market close enough to make it feasable to transport. BC was fairly close, but has a ready-supply of closer, therefore cheaper logs. The loggers left, and left their equipment behind for the most part. The USFS wanted all the equipment gone, so some loggers drove all of thier gear into rock pits and buried it under overburden. Others loaded thier barges to the gills, towed thier spreads out to international waters, and set charges to blast/sink the barges full of equipment. But some remains. Actually, ALOT remains. Sitting, rusting, all over the Tongass. Too far and expensive to move, even high scrap prices in Seattle werent enough to cover transport costs. One logger sent 8 Madill 009's to Seattle to auction at a freight cost of about $ 15,000.00 each. They brought $ 5,000.00 each at auction. Didnt take long for word to spread, and soon everyonewas running from thier iron as fast as they could. Buried, burned, or sunk was better than a loss like that. Anyway, I have a few thousand pics of this gear up here. I will post a few in this new thread for your enjoyment I suppose.

 

[Contract Logger]

In spite of being surrounded by all this old iron, I like it here. Love it here actually. I can go out in the morning and see glaciers, bears, goats, bald eagles everywhere. Occasionally, they are even perched on an old yarder.

No better place on the planet.

 

[Contract Logger]

Winter is the best time for this- without the leaves, you know.

 

[Contract Logger]

West Coast Yarder, just like the Rygaard's on 'Axe Men'. Wonder if they need a parts machine? Also- the factory sales brochure so you can see it new.
Rusting south of Wrangell now, along with alot of other iron at an old campsite.

 

[Contract Logger]

South Wrangell Island, in an obscure rock pit, an old logging camp has been abandoned completely. And the ghosts of big timber haunt the area........

The loading shovels are big- Liebherr 965HD's, the yarder is a Skagit GT5C, and there are 2 IH 560 Payloaders with log forks there.

 

[Contract Logger]

North of Ketchikan, trucks are grouped in an old sort yard area.

 

[Contract Logger]

A bunch of trucks here. 'Soelstra Bros, Forks Wa' on that green door there. Another has an 'ITT Rayonier, Clallam Bay' sticker on it. Pretty Neat.

 

[Contract Logger]

Moss, Rust, and Logging Trucks. I like it.

 

[Contract Logger]

Weyerhauser '12 Road' truck #420- survived Mt St Helens blow-up, and assisted in the salvage effort there, only to die a slow death in the Tongass rain.

 

[Contract Logger]

Kenworth C500 tractor and lowbed, ex-Weyerhaeuser, with a mobile fuel tank on it. Big and ugly, near Ward Cove, Alaska. Current owner unknown....

 

[Contract Logger]

Ex Weyerhaeuser C500's in the old Whitestone camp south of Hoonah.

 

[Contract Logger]

Paystar 5000 Rock Trucks at Whitestone.

 

[Contract Logger]

Hayes HD at Hoonah, rusting in weeds. Reads 'R.H. Valentine Logging' on the doors, with a faded number '216'. These were cool trucks in their day.

 

[Contract Logger]

Ex- Louisian-Pacific Truck, Pacific brand. 'LP' owned 'KP', or Ketchikan Pulp, in its final years of operation. This truck belongs to a small contractor who pulls an off-road lowbed around Hoonah with it. Not abandoned, but very cool.

 

[Exact Express]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[Contract Logger]

Old Equipment at Whale Pass, northern Prince of Wales Island. I took these pics about 3 weeks ago. Lots of old gear around up there yet. Familiar Washington names on most of it too, 1,000 mile northof Washington!

 

[Contract Logger]

More Whale Pass.

 

[Pecord Exc]

so this is just sitting there rotting away? oh the humanity.... Id love to have something like that closer to me!!! that 490 deere isnt that old, figure that would still be worth something!

 

[Hayesno1]

I live right smack in the middle of the 'Tongass National Forest', an area of 17 million acres of mostly old growth timber, on over 1,000 islands. Logging here started way back in the 1902's, and eventually progeressed through the 60's, 70's and 80's pretty much OK. In the early 1990's, under the Clinton Administration, the US Forest Service cut off the timber sales supply, and our two big pulp mils closed in 1997. We are so far from anywhere, that without the mills here there became no mills/market close enough to make it feasable to transport. BC was fairly close, but has a ready-supply of closer, therefore cheaper logs. The loggers left, and left their equipment behind for the most part. The USFS wanted all the equipment gone, so some loggers drove all of thier gear into rock pits and buried it under overburden. Others loaded thier barges to the gills, towed thier spreads out to international waters, and set charges to blast/sink the barges full of equipment. But some remains. Actually, ALOT remains. Sitting, rusting, all over the Tongass. Too far and expensive to move, even high scrap prices in Seattle werent enough to cover transport costs. One logger sent 8 Madill 009's to Seattle to auction at a freight cost of about $ 15,000.00 each. They brought $ 5,000.00 each at auction. Didnt take long for word to spread, and soon everyonewas running from thier iron as fast as they could. Buried, burned, or sunk was better than a loss like that. Anyway, I have a few thousand pics of this gear up here. I will post a few in this new thread for your enjoyment I suppose.

Great stuff/pictures. Thanks for sharing information and pictures. Sad to see all that rusty equipment. Sure if I was there I surely would spent days enjoying the equipment, nature, animals, etc. I did not know that so much equipment were parked up there. Quite a few Hayes HD as well. Keep up your great work. Looking forward to see more.

 

[RonG]

It seems like some of those trucks have Mack rearends under them even though they are not macks,can that be so?Great pics,great history that many of us would never know.Thanks.Ron G