For everyone but the boss in vest and derby, Adirondack lumbering was dangerous, backbreaking work performed with horses, axes, pikes, and two-man cross-cut saws. However, it appears far from lonely, even in the north woods circa 1910.
In late summer, scattered breakaway logs floating on the Hudson and Sacandaga were harbingers of huge rafts of bundled timber herded like cattle by men in hobnailed boots. Into the 1920s, the passing log drives created a carnival atmosphere in the riverside towns.
The Sacandaga River scene below shows a cleanup operation which involves freeing snagged and stranded logs with iron polehooks. Northville, on the Sacandaga about 30 miles southeast of Bakers Mills, was the terminus of a railroad branch line and the site of several sawmills.