Two horses stand hitched to a massive set of “big wheels” as men pose beside a long log in the Beaver Island woods. Before trucks and skidder machines, this was one way to move heavy timber: lift one end of a log off the ground and roll it out.
National Park Service history notes that Michigan-made “big wheels” were about 10 feet in diameter and were pulled by horses or oxen to haul logs even when there wasn’t snow on the ground. Beaver Island had its own boom years, too. The Beaver Island Lumber Company went into operation in 1903 and built a large mill near St. James Harbor, with logging camps and a rail line tied to the work.
Do you have family stories about logging on Beaver Island — or recognize this kind of gear?
#BeaverIsland #MichiganHistory #LoggingHistory #LakeMichigan #CharlevoixCounty
