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Northwestern Wilderness Of Maine
Personal Essays
Pulpwood in the Kennebec River
Several decades ago, scenes like this were common. Pulpwood was cut in the Northwestern Wilderness of Maine and sluiced into the Kennebec River. The largest sluice I remember, was located below Indian Pond, southeast of Chase Stream Pond. I enjoyed traveling to this large mechanical slide to observe the four foot pieces of pulpwood splash into the fast river current.
The pulpwood floated down river to the mouth of Wyman Lake. Large boom barriers, composed of a chain of floating logs enclosing other free-floating logs, were used to catch floating pulpwood. Employees controlled the flow of pulpwood, separating it into individual booms. Tugboat captains pulled the large booms of pulpwood toward the hydroelectric dam, located down on the opposite end of the lake, with high-powered tugboats. This kept the waterway clear for pleasure boat traffic and fishermen.
Although, a dam was constructed across the Kennebec River at Indian Pond to control the flow - raising and lowering the level of water, some pulpwood still became beached on the river banks. The river drivers followed the pulpwood down river in bateaus, a long, light, flat-bottomed boat with a sharply pointed bow and stern, and pulled the pulp free.
It was always an interesting event to stop at the rest areas along the lakeside to watch the tugs.
While, I have worked on the design of many modern hydroelectric facilities, I have never seen how the logs go over the dam.
Roughly two decades ago, when new Maine laws closed the use of Maine waterways to float pulpwood to paper mills, paper companies changed their cutting and hauling technology. Tree length logs are now hauled directly to paper mills, replacing the four foot pulpwood. Log trucks travel on paper company lands as far as possible, over a network of company owned and maintained gravel roads and bridges, before traveling on Maine highways.
The photographs were takes at the mouth of Wyman Lake, north of Bingham, Maine.
