by Merle Massie
Farmers on the open plains required access not only to crop land through their homesteads but also to timber for much-needed fuel and building material. Economic historian Chester Martin argued that “the Canadian prairies have seldom been associated with forest growth of any form. The scarcity of forests by comparison with British Columbia or New Brunswick has made the limited reserves of timber correspondingly valuable for the lumbermen and the prairie settler.”29 Scarcity created value. The earliest dominion lands statute (amended on an almost yearly basis) stipulated that all timber lands—those capable of producing lumber—and all products of timber, including fuel and bark, were reserved against settlement. Forest lands of any kind were not to be opened for agricultural use. Perhaps this stipulation accounts for much of the push to put settlers onto prairie land—forest land in the western interior was considered too valuable to be parcelled out to individual settlers.
On the prairie, “islands” or “belts” of trees (islands were large copses or groves; belts were areas of continuous trees, as along a lakeshore or stream) were to be divided, according to the Dominion Lands Act, into ten- to twenty-acre woodlots, “as to benefit the greatest possible number of settlers and to prevent petty monopoly. … As far as the extent of wood land in the township may permit, one wood lot to each quarter section farm” of this precious resource. Woodlots never materialized on a broad scale on the prairie. Settlers whose homesteads contained no timber or brush were allowed to cut, by permit, sufficient quantities for their needs on unoccupied Crown lands nearby, if there were any with wood. Settlers could cut extra for sale or barter for a nominal fee. Only those quarter sections that contained less than twenty-five acres of “merchantable” timber could be homesteaded.30
Of the “merchantable” timber, lumber barons targeted white spruce.31 The north Prince Albert region contained some of the largest stands of white spruce in the western interior. Trees could range in size up to thirty inches—over two feet—in diameter at the base (stump—hence the term “stumpage fees”). The Dominion Lands Act of 1883 specified that all merchantable trees with an outside bark diameter of twenty-five centimetres (ten inches) or more at the stump should be harvested from a timber limit. Within these parameters, millions of board feet of lumber were harvested from timber berths north and east of Prince Albert between 1890 and 1919. One board foot is the volume of a one-foot length of a “standard” board, twelve inches wide by one inch thick. As a result, one board foot measures 144 cubic inches. In this way, the number of board feet could be figured if lumber was neatly stacked, no matter to which dimensions the wood was cut. The act maintained that no timber under these dimensions should be cut; in practice, many more trees were cut than merely those to be sold. Smaller trees were sacrificed for roads and trails (which were extensive), to open clearings, to build and heat bush camps, to make cant hooks and other poles, to open loading and docking areas, and to build dams and bridges.
Figure 4. Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company, north of Prince Albert, c. 1906.
Source: Glenbow Archives, NA-303-239.
Timber reserves were divided and leased. The dominion issued two kinds of licences to cut timber: timber licence berths (often called “limits”) and timber permits. Timber permits covered small, generally one-square-mile, areas and were issued to settlers who could use their own portable sawmills to cut lumber, shingles, and laths primarily for their own use. Any excess that they wished to sell was charged above the rental fee for the permit. Settlers could also apply for permits to cut cordwood, fence rails and posts, telegraph poles, and railway ties. With the exception of shingles (of which 96 percent were cut by small timber permit holders), the amount of timber cut for any purpose by permit was dwarfed by the output of the larger timber berths.32
Timber berths issued on a commercial scale had to follow certain rules. The Dominion Lands Office surveyed timber limits into blocks of up to twenty-five square miles.33 These limits were offered for lease by public tender, with an upset price established by the minister of the interior. Those who leased timber berths had to offer a cash price for the berth, annual ground rent of between two and five dollars per square mile, plus dues on the cut timber, which ranged (depending on what the timber was made into) from fifty cents per thousand board feet for sawn lumber, to one and a half cents per railway tie, to fifteen cents per cord for cordwood. Each licence was negotiated individually, and few timber limits operated under exactly the same terms (and those terms changed from year to year as the Dominion Lands Act was reviewed and changed).34 Licences were renewable each year at the end of April provided that there was merchantable timber still available on the berth and that all regulations and dues had been satisfactorily met and paid.
Licensees were required to erect one or more sawmills capable of cutting at least 1,000 board feet of lumber per day for every 2.5 miles of limit within their leases. Monthly returns of dues (which required accurate bookkeeping of everything made and sold) were lodged at the Dominion Lands Office. Preservation of seed trees and immature trees, disposal of slash and debris, and an agreement to fund half the cost of fire protection were other key provisions of the act and the timber berth contracts.35 The lease holder had to comply with all of the above conditions, or the lease would be withdrawn. These rules, which still allowed a timber limit to operate at a hefty profit, were further strengthened by the easy terms accorded to the building of dams, slides, piers, or booms, and the free use of and access to rivers and lakes, for the purpose of moving the logs. Perhaps because of the easy terms, with no adequate provisions for reforestation and inadequate staff to enforce regulations, the north Prince Albert region experienced extensive forest exploitation to the point of degradation.
Commercialization of the Lumber Industry
Between 1890 and 1913, the north Prince Albert lumber industry escalated, spreading through the landscape, economy, and society. Seasonal exploitation began in the early fall. An advance group of men would be sent in to cut the roads and build the camps, construct buildings, make repairs, and take in supplies. A full complement of men would arrive after freeze-up, generally in late November. Work in the lumber camp was divided. There were key people at each base camp, including cooks, a company storekeeper, a blacksmith, a handyman, the barn boss, and teamsters/freighters, along with various helpers. There were several men and horses employed on the tank crew, whose job was to spread water on the trails to make ice roads. Ice roads were an integral part of logging and the reason why logging was always a winter, not a summer, activity. Once an ice road was made, heavy loads could be hauled far more easily by regular teams of two or four horses. The majority of bush workers were those directly involved in cutting and moving the timber, including saw gangs, loading gangs, skidders (who pulled the logs out of the bush to loading areas), and sleigh drivers. The saw gang consisted of six men. An undercutter notched the trees to control direction of the fall, two men sawed, one cut off the limbs, and two swampers cut roads and piled the brush out of the way. From there, logs were skidded to a loading point and loaded onto sleighs, often twelve feet high and as much as seventeen feet wide at the top. A loading crew consisted of eight men. From there, sleighs were taken by teams to the collecting point, where they were piled in anticipation of the spring log drives. On any given day, there could be several crews of saw gangs, skidders, sleigh drivers, and loaders working in the limit. Logging would go on all winter, in all conditions but the worst of blizzards, though Sundays were always a day of rest, and Saturday night was the usual night for extra revelry, from dances to all-night card games to visits to nearby camps.36
Figure 5. Cookshack on the Red Deer River, c. 1908.
Source: Prince Albert photographer T.H. Charmbury, SAB Photograph R-B333.
Figure 6. Prince Albert Lumber Company.
Source: Glenbow Archives, N-303-239.
After the turn of the century, the smaller mills—such as the Sanderson, Moore and McDowall, Telf
ord Brothers, and Cowan mills—were dwarfed by two commercial enterprises. The Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company began operations in 1902, and the Prince Albert Lumber Company was opened by a syndicate of American businessmen in 1905. This company was able to purchase many of the timber berths owned by the Telford mill, which burned in the spring of 1905: “Saw-Mill Destroyed by Fire. Telford’s Lumber Mill completely gutted. To the value of $100,000 buildings and machinery were totally ruined. Started in the sawdust carriers. Although partially covered by insurance they will not be able to take part in this season’s work. Owing to the fire almost 100 men are thrown out of employment and the loss of one of the most complete and up-to-date saw mills in the North West will considerably reduce the output of the season’s cut.” 37
With the coming of the second railway to Prince Albert, the Canadian Northern in 1906, the logging industry grew again. The peak year of the combined mill output at Prince Albert was 1909: over 50 million board feet of lumber worth over $1 million were exported.38 The two larger, more commercialized firms led not only to intensification and expansion but also to industrialization. In the 1907 edition of The Wheat Belt Review, Prince Albert was described as the “lumber mart of the prairie provinces.”39
At its height, between 1906 and 1913, as many as 2,000 men worked in various lumber camps north of the river. A large camp would house as many as 200 men.40 Loggers required outfitting for extreme outdoor labour. General merchants and storekeepers in Prince Albert stocked up on mittens, moccasins, heavy shirts and pants, rubber overshoes, underwear, coats, and fur hats. Axes, saws, hammers, sleigh runners, cant hooks, pulleys, and other tools were also sold. Blacksmiths were hard at work shoeing horses for the heavy winter hauling, often with special spiked or sharpened shoes used on the ice roads. Hotels and bars, boarding houses, restaurants, and livery barns were full. Wholesalers were busy organizing bulk food supplies for the lumber camps. These retail and service trades experienced a direct economic spinoff that was an important part of the Prince Albert economy. Indeed, the Prince Albert Times noted that “we are a year-round town, not just busy in the fall when the harvest comes in,” in contrast to the seasonal cycle of prairie towns tied to the wheat economy.41 The same retailers experienced another surge when the camps broke up in the spring and the men came to town with money in their pockets. Novelist John Beames characterized the atmosphere in Prince Albert as raucous and rowdy the two times of the year—fall and spring—when lumberjacks congregated.42
Once spring arrived, work in the bush was finished. Most lumberjacks dispersed to their homesteads, but some would wait for the spring river drives in which they could earn money bringing the logs downriver to the mills. Transportation limitations to bringing the logs out of the bush and to the nearest mill meant that those stands closest to Prince Albert were logged first. Once the closest berths were logged, camps moved farther north. Owners soon learned that overland hauling by horse or ox was ineffective and inefficient. Timber berths were chosen for their proximity to rivers, particularly the Sturgeon River and Shell River systems, which empty into the North Saskatchewan just upstream from Prince Albert, and the Spruce or Little Red River system, just downstream from the main settlement. Logs were collected on the banks of these rivers. Come spring thaw, river drivers brought the logs down to Prince Albert.43Allan Kennedy, the Ontario-turned-Saskatchewan lumberjack, claimed that the goal, once the rivers opened, was to keep the logs moving twenty-four hours a day. They could run up to a million board feet per day, and a successful drive would run for about twenty to twenty-five days.44
Once the trees were cut and moved to the mill, the second stage of the lumber industry began. The Prince Albert Lumber Company, formed by a conglomerate of American businessmen, operated two mills in Prince Albert and was by far the largest local employer. The first mill was developed for its industrial capacity, with all the latest technology. A typical mill would have a sawing mill, a planing mill to finish the lumber, dry lumber storage, barns for horses, machine shops, and repair shops. Debris, including bark and sawdust, would be repurposed as fuel for the steam engines that ran the mills. Finished lumber could be loaded directly onto railcars from a siding that could accommodate twenty-five railcars at a time. Its output, including finished lumber and cordwood made from the odds and ends of unfinished logs, was shipped to the prairie. This mill was surrounded by what was virtually its own town, with married mill men’s houses, bunkhouses, snooker shacks, laundries, its own water system, a library, and a store. The other company mill, at the other end of town, was the old Sanderson mill operated primarily for the local market. It had its own lumberyard for retail sales. For those who worked at the two mill sites, the lumberjacks, and the logdrivers, the Prince Albert Lumber Company had a payroll of between $30,000 and $50,000 per month, employing as many as 2,200 men each year.45
The Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company, a homegrown Prince Albert business built on the timber leases and experiences of local men Dan Shannon and A.J. Bell, was unique. Its mill was right at its timber limits, in the Sturgeon Lake district more than twenty miles from Prince Albert.46 A virtual town—with log shacks, bunkhouses, and a company store—grew up around the mill. It also had its own post office, Omega, named by Bell, who thought that this timber limit was the farthest place from Prince Albert anyone would move to.47 The distance between the mill and Prince Albert meant that, instead of transporting raw logs, the company transported the finished product, lumber, to the railhead at Prince Albert. Begun in 1902, the company soon discovered that overland transportation was expensive. Water transport was not an option for finished lumber. Wood without its bark would become water-logged and warped if immersed, and edges banged and broken. Finished lumber of high quality was worth more than logs, and companies could not afford risking damage. Moreover, while finished lumber could be moved on scows in larger rivers, the Little Red and Sturgeon Rivers were too small—as it was, logs often became jammed and hung up on edges, meandering corners, beaver houses, and low-water pools. Dynamite was often used to keep logs moving.
In a unique move, the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company purchased a small steam caterpillar engine that was transported to Prince Albert during the brutal winter of 1906–07. Indeed, the train on which the engine was being transported became stuck in a snowdrift, and the manager of the company went with a crew to help dig out the train and retrieve his new engine. Calamity continued: “Upon its arrival here, the fell, headlight, oil cup and everything moveable was found to have been taken off the engine. It took all day Saturday to replace the missing parts and fix it up. A platform was erected and Saturday afternoon the engine was run off the car. Quite a crowd witnessed this.” The newspaper went on to exclaim that “the steam engine for the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Co. arrived on Friday night. It is a good looking and powerful machine and is built to run on ice roads.”48 Using the caterpillar tractor, larger loads of lumber, up to 150,000 finished board feet at a time, could be moved from the mill to Prince Albert on an ice road thirty-five miles long.49 This steam engine, known locally as “Dinky,” became a fixture in local memory. Photographs of the engine at work can be found in several local history books, along with stories of working at the lumber mill and logging camps, driving on the ice road, or supplying feed and food to the camps. This engine proved so successful that more were purchased, both by the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company and by its main rival, the Prince Albert Lumber Company.
Figure 7. “Dinky” engine hauling logs on ice road.
Source: Footprints of Our Pioneers, 814.
Impact of Logging Industry on Local First Nations
Both Sturgeon Lake Reserve (known at the time as William Twatt’s band) and Little Red River Reserve (sometimes referred to as New Reserve or Billy Bear’s Reserve) were embedded in the major wood “basket” of the north Prince Albert region and straddled both the Sturgeon River and the Little Red River systems.50 Extensive commercial lumbering in the region led to both opportunity and loss. F
irst Nations men worked in the lumber camps, freighted supplies, cut and traded hay and oats, provided fresh meat, and worked on the river drives in spring.51 Women found a ready market for moccasins and mittens, jackets and belts. Members living on these two reserves derived considerable income from the lumber camps, either through direct wage labour or in a supply capacity. Little Red River members in particular were closely tied to the lumber camps. The Indian Department noted in 1901 that residents of Little Red “derive their income from grain, potatoes, the sales of lumber, hay, freighting, and day labour (lumbering).”52 Reports from the Indian Department until the end of the First World War reiterated these occupations, along with continued fishing and hunting.
The extensive lumber industry, however, had a negative ripple effect in the region. Trapping and fishing activities along the rivers were severely disrupted by the large log drives. Hundreds of men, strange sounds, and extensive environmental disturbance virtually eliminated local hunting opportunities, and hunters were forced to go farther and farther away from the reserves to find meat. Finally, the two reserves contained excellent saw timber. In particular, the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company and the Prince Albert Lumber Company desired those trees, and documents show that both companies culled valuable timber from Sturgeon Lake Reserve land without compensation or authority. In 2001, the Sturgeon Lake band succeeded in settling a major claim with the federal government for the loss of this wood revenue.53
The Little Red River band (as of 2013) is in the process of prosecuting a similar claim, but the economic and environmental impacts of lumbering on their reserve were more complicated. It was set aside as a farming reserve for the Montreal Lake and Lac La Ronge bands by 1897, but permanent farming was slow to take hold. In 1903, A.J. Bell, manager of the nearby Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company, requested disposal of the standing and fallen timber on the reserve.54 The Indian agent went to Montreal Lake to consult with the chief and council there and came away with a signed deed of surrender, which initiated a series of problems. The Montreal Lake band expressed uncertainty over whether or not they should sell the timber and left it up to the Indian agent to make the final decision on their behalf. In effect, the band signed a carte blanche: “We have decided to leave the question of the sale of the standing and fallen timber in [the agent’s] hands, if after he goes through the timber, he considers it best to leave it at present, we agree to that; if on the other hand he thinks it should be sold then we agree to that.”55 The agent decided that the timber should be sold for several reasons: it was at its maturity and thus at its economic height for merchantable timber; nearby timber limits were currently being logged, particularly the Shannon and Sanderson timber berths; the slash from those nearby limits heightened the fire potential of the area, and if a forest fire swept through before the timber could be logged it would be virtually worthless; the merchantable timber within the reserve was estimated at most to be 2.5 to 3 million board feet, considered a small cut. It would be better, the agent thought, to sell the timber when loggers were nearby and it was practical to cut it. A second surrender, this time from members of the band living on the reserve, was also taken.56