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Horse Logging

A man is standing on a load of logs stacked on a sled. A team of two horses are pulling a sled. The logs are large and cut to the same size. The road is steep and covered in snow.

Rosemary Deuling Collection

Horse logging was a common way to move heavy logs to the rivers and lakes.  In winter, the draft horses pulled sleds loaded with logs. Can you imagine how difficult it was for the draft horses to hold back a heavy load of logs on a steep and icy slope? Because of this danger, the teamster would wrap chains around the sled runners to the slow the progress of the sled.

In the 1930’s, Whitepine logs horse logged in the Lumby area were said to be the best in the world.

Whitepine is straight-grained and easily ignited, making it ideal for the manufacture of wooden matches.  Many loads of “match blocks” were shipped from Lumby’s horse logged operations to a match block factory in Nelson, BC.