Running from the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range down through the rocky canyons to the lumber yard and railroad depot in Sanger, the Kings River Flume extended over 62 miles (100 km). Known as the Kings River Flume, it was longest log flume ever built. Eventually, they built a flume to float the lumber down. Originally, Hiram Smith planned to build a railroad to carry the lumber from the mill to the lumberyard, but the impossibly uncompromising terrain of the Kings Canyon forced them to abandon the idea. Moore, purchased 30,000 acres in an area known as Millwood. High in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California, two lumber barons, Hiram T.
This inexpensive alternative to the traditional method of constructing roads for horse-drawn wagons, revolutionized the transportation of lumber, but at a devastating cost.Ĭrow's Nest Pass Lumber Co.'s log flume at Bull River. Pretty much every lumber company across western United States had their own own flumes to transport water and lumber to the mills below. These long, winding flumes consisted of two planks about two feet wide and sixteen feet long joined perpendicularly and supported by high, elaborately built trestles.
#DOLLYWOOD LOG FLUME RIDE FREE#
Haines popularized the "V" shaped log flumes that allowed a jammed log to free itself as the rising water level in the flume pushed it up. Log flumes facilitated a quick and cheap alternative.Įarly flumes were square chutes that were prone to jams and required constant maintenance. Transporting lumber through such a terrain using horse or oxen-drawn carriages would have otherwise involved building treacherous long winding roads. These flumes often spanned several kilometers crossing deep chasms and steep mountain slopes. The log flume was the result of this necessity.Ī log flume is a shallow trough-like channel that carried lumber down from the mountains where they were felled to sawmills by using flowing water. But as loggers were forced more inland, they were needed to come up with new ways of transporting their products. All you needed to do was tie the logs together in rafts and push them into the stream. The water made it easy to move timbers from forest to mills and overseas. Since the early days of logging in America, which stretches back to the 1600s when the first settlers arrived in Jamestown, loggers primarily worked near water and only moved further away when wood supplies on that land was depleted. Log flume rides are staple for any amusement park, but before they became thrilling fun rides, log flumes were used in the lumber industry to transport logs.
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