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Forward Movement Park logs

Photograph
Eight piles of logs line the west-side banks of the Kalamazoo, just upstream from the Chain Ferry crossing. Two men are standing on the ferry and one man is in a rowboat in the foreground. The photo is dated August but the trees are bare. This image was featured as History Mystery #111 with the question "The west shore ferry landing area was loaded with logs. What is going on here?" and the solution "The year was 1913 and the logs were no doubt awaiting a vessel to carry them away. The rest of the story is lost in history."
Ferry_with_logs_1913_tu.jpg 851KB
Ferry_with_logs_1913.jpg 1.5KB; Logs cut on Forward Movement property awaiting pickup. August 25, 1913 cr1913041804LogsCol3.jpg

2023.10.354

Digital scan

Old Chain Ferry Scows c1836-1947Chain Ferry LandingsPresbyterian Camp/Camp Gray/Forward Movement Park 1899-2014

The April 18, 1913 Commercial Record states "It looks a little like sawmill days in Saugatuck to anyone who would look at the pile of logs across the river just south of the ferry. The Forward Movement Association have had men busy all winter lumbering in the their woods and now have about 115,000 feet of logs ready for the saw besides the quantities of stove wood they have cut."

1835 Logging and Lumbering1897 Forward Movement Park, Gray and Presbyterian Camps -2014

Winthers, Sally

2023.10

Found in Collection

These photos were published by Jack Sheridan for Commercial Record "History Mystery" features.

Digital data in CatalogIt

These image(s) were copied from the SDHC photo blog [or the Jack Sheridan drive if that was a superior version] in preparation for updating the SDHC website in 2023.

11/04/2023

07/01/2024