Amazing Vintage Photos of Houses Carved Inside Massive Tree Stumps, 1880s-1920s

[king 11,972]

When settlers headed to the Pacific Northwest, they were forced to improvise dwellings and start their lives from scratch.

Finding the stumps of gigantic trees that had been felled by logging companies still rooted in the ground, they saw a great opportunity.

Many of these huge stumps stood a full 10 feet high but were undesirable as lumber because they tended to swell down toward their base, making the wood grain uneven.

For select stumps, the newly arrived farmers found other uses. A few of the largest were leveled off and fashioned into platforms where “stump dances” were held to the driving tones of fiddles and mandolins. But another use for stumps would be discovered.

By constructing roofs on them, and attaching a door or gate, the stump-based shelters worked fine as storage sheds or chicken houses, or pens to keep pigs and calves safe from prowling predators including raccoons, bobcats, or bears. And sometimes it was people who lived inside these stump houses.

Some tree stump houses had two or even three stories and were equipped with everything a family home needed, with space to cook, sleep, and store their belongings.

Winter was probably the scariest period to spend in a stump house because severe weather hits the North Pacific during those months, with super low temperatures and snow sometimes persisting for days and months.

The Stump House on the Lennstrom farm near Edgecomb, Washington, 1905.

The Stump House on the Lennstrom farm near Edgecomb, Washington was a great curiosity in the early 1900s. Built by immigrant brothers, Gustav Lennstrom and Johan Westerlund, the house was widely photographed.

It appeared on postcards and even souvenir china. Edgecomb was a logging area, between the Snohomish County towns of Marysville and Arlington.

The giant size of the stump gives a good idea of the size of the old growth trees. Twenty-two feet in diameter, it was home to 3 adults and 3 children until a house was built for Gustav, his wife, Brita, and their three children.

Regrettably, Calvin Cornehl, who was 4 when he moved into the home with his family in 1938, reports that the house was damaged beyond repair in 1946 during an attempt to move it for donation to the city of Arlington.

On the “Redwood Highway”. (Photo by Bob Doran via Flickr).

The Stump House in Porterville, California.

Interior of the house built on the Original Big Tree Stump, Calaveras County, c. 1866.

The Stump House in Eureka, California, 1950s. (Photo by LarrynJill via Flickr).

Stump House in Eureka, California. (Photo by Smaddy via Flickr).

Stump House in Eureka, California. (Photo by William Bird via Flickr).

Pioneer’s Cabin, 318 ft. high, 75 ft. cir. California, Mammoth Grove. 1870s.

The Wawona Tree, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite, California, 1897. Felled during a storm in 1969.

Children in front of stump house, ca. 1900.

Transporting logs as giant rafts. (More photos here)

Pacific Highway through a Washington red cedar stump, 20 feet in diameter.

[Lenmcharristar 9,732]

The sequoia tree, aka the california redwood, the biggest trees on earth, id love to go and see them, they should plant the seeds all over the world

[king 11,972]

18 minutes ago, Lenmcharristar said:

The sequoia tree, aka the california redwood, the biggest trees on earth, id love to go and see them, they should plant the seeds all over the world

They are an amazing size mate..I saved a post about them a while back I will post it for you now..

The pics are compressed mate..

Tap on the pic or hold your phone sideways to view the pics..

[king 11,972]

Vintage photos of the old-school lumberjacks who fell giant trees with axes, 1890-1935

Lumberjacks pose with a Douglas fir tree in Washington. 1899.

Before the invention of motorized chainsaws and logging machinery, the hard work of felling trees was done by the lumberjacks using hand tools such as axes and saws. The work was difficult, dangerous, intermittent, low-paying, and involved living in primitive conditions.

Lumberjacks worked in lumber camps and often lived a migratory life, following timber harvesting jobs as they opened. They lived tightly packed in shanties (or bunkhouses) whose odor — a mix of smoke, sweat, and drying garments — was as distasteful as the bedbugs they supported.

Strict rules often governed many of the bush camps (or “shanties”); many were alcohol-free and for the longest time talking during meals was strictly forbidden.

Lumberjacks could be found wherever there were vast forests to be harvested and a demand for wood, most likely in Scandinavia, Canada, and parts of the United States. In the U.S., many lumberjacks were of Scandinavian ancestry, continuing the family tradition.

“Fallers” did the actual job of felling a tree with axes and cross-cut saws. Once felled and delimbed, a tree was either cut into logs by a “bucker,” or skidded or hauled to a railroad or river for transportation.

Typically, the loggers would stand on a springboard, which was slotted into notches in the tree above the base. Using crosscut saws and axes, the loggers would then work on chopping a wedge into the tree. It was important to judge the direction of the cut for where the tree would fall.

Lumberjacks pose with a fir tree in Washington. 1902.

The division of labor in lumber camps led to several specialized jobs on logging crews, such as whistle punk, chaser, and high climber.

The whistle punk’s job was to sound a whistle as a signal to the yarder operator controlling the movement of logs. He also had to act as a safety lookout. A good whistle punk had to be alert and think fast as others’ safety depended on him.

The high climber (also known as a tree topper) used iron climbing hooks and rope to ascend a tall tree in the landing area of the logging site, where he would chop off limbs as he climbed, chop off the top of the tree, and finally attach pulleys and rigging to the tree. After that, it could be used as a spar so logs could be skidded into the landing.

The choker setters attached steel cables (or chokers) to downed logs so they could be dragged into the landing by the yarder. The chasers removed the chokers once the logs were at the landing.

Choker setters and chasers were often entry-level positions on logging crews, with more experienced loggers seeking to move up to more skill-intensive positions such as yarder operator and high climber or supervisory positions such as hook tender.

Despite the common perception that all loggers cut trees, the actual felling, and bucking of trees were also specialized job positions done by fallers and buckers.

With the invention of motorized tools, vehicles, heavy machinery, and other powered tools, the profession and culture of the lumberjacks faded away. Nowadays, lumber workers are known simply as loggers. In this article, we’ve collected vintage photos of lumberjacks from the turn of the last century as they looked to make their mark on America using only hand tools.

Lumberjacks pose with a 12-foot-wide fir tree. 1901.

Three lumberjacks pose by a large Douglas fir ready for felling in Oregon. 1918.

A lumberjack and two women pose in front of a tree near Seattle, Washington. 1905.

Loggers hold a cross-cut saw across a giant Sequoia tree’s trunk in California. 1917.

Lumberjacks undercut a giant sequoia tree in California. 1902.

Loggers and a 10-mule team prepare to fell a giant Sequoia tree in California. 1917.

Loggers stand in the trunk of a tree they chopped down at Camp Badger in Tulare County, California. The tree was logged for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. 1892.

Lumberjacks pose on the stump of a tree which was displayed at St. Louis World’s Fair. 1904.

A logging crew stands among cut old growth longleaf pine in Vernon Parish, Louisiana. 1904.

Loggers walk the surface of a log jam on Minnesota’s Littlefork River seeking a tall, strong log with which to build a loading boom. 1937.

Men stand on piles of cut trees in rural New York. 1907.

Lumberjacks float lumber down the Columbia River in Oregon. 1910.

Over 100 people stand with a logged giant sequoia tree in California. 1917.

A lumberjack c. 1900.

Lumberjacks among the redwoods in California.

Lumberjacks in Washington state.

Standing by a Sequioa log in California, c. 1910.

A lumberjack stands on a felled spruce tree, c. 1918.

A lumberjack with a redwood.

A felled Sequioa tree in California, c. 1900.

A lumberjack almost blends in with the cut trees.

A group in the 1930s moves a log into a river in West Virginia

The lumberjacks would often leave their families and live in camps where hundreds of their fellow workers relaxed between grueling shifts.

Lumberjacks sit on chunks of trees that they chopped down while looking around at the remaining forest surrounding them.

Three lumberjacks in 1900 stand next to a large fir log which has been cut using a sawing machine in Sedro-Woolley, Washington

Lumberjacks in Idaho clear a jam in the 1930s.

Several log rollers in the 1930s break up a log jam on the Little Fork River during the last log drive on that river in Koochiching County, Minnesota

A team of horses pulls a sled filled up with red and white pine logs in Red Lake County, Minnesota, at the beginning of the 20th century.

Horses were often the hardest workers on many of the logging camps, pulling trees such as these ones seen on a carrying vessel in 1890.

A crew stands among cut old growth longleaf pine near the settlement of Neame, now called Anacoco, in Vernon Parish, Louisiana.

Lumberjacks in Michigan load a series of white pine logs onto a train to be carried to a sawmill.

A crew in 1900 Washington state poses next to a donkey engine used for yarding logs, or gathering logs together after they are cut.

[king 11,972]

The pics are compressed..tap on the pic to open it..or hold the phone sideways..

[king 11,972]

Just noticed the bear in this pic..his head is propped up with 2 sticks..

[Lenmcharristar 9,732]

A remnant from the old world before the flood, everything was giant

[mackem 26,262]

3 hours ago, Lenmcharristar said:

The sequoia tree, aka the california redwood, the biggest trees on earth, id love to go and see them

There’s a tour to see them just up the coast near Fresno in the sequoia national park,I was just reading about it the other day.