The Maine Frontier
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Bridge that crosses the old dam on Little Moose Pond in Greenville
A story about Jigger Jones- legendary river driver form Fryeburg Maine. Jigger was tough even at the usually tender age of 12, a fact, which he quickly proved during a mealtime scuffle with a grown man twice his size upon his arrival at a logging camp. Conversation at dinner was forbidden, a custom, which was challenged by a new group of loggers who arrived in camp with heavy hangovers, just in time for supper. When one of them insisted on talking loudly at the table, Jigger dutifully told him to shut up, prompting the elder man to jump the boy and push him to the floor where he pounded him. Jigger hugged the big drunk close, set his keen young teeth into an ear, and hung on. When some of the crew pried the pair apart, a good hunk of the ear remained in Jigger’s mouth. In honor of the young “cookee’s” grit and vigor, the crew passed around a hat and bought Jigger a fine new red woolen shirt and a full pound of B. & L. Black chewing tobacco. (photo: Plymouth State University- Museum of the White Mountains)
Filling The Ice Wagon, photo by Isaac Simpson, ca.1900 The ice wagon was used in Maine logging camps until around 1920. It was a cart filled with water and pulled by horses. Some water containers had holes in them and some had a board that could be raised to release water. As the wagon was pulled along the haul roads (the “ice roads”) the water would be released from the container and freeze to the road, creating a smooth surface to haul logs the next day. The job was done throughout the night in the dead of Winter, deep in the woods. Perhaps one of the lonelier jobs in a logging camp…
Cabin in Aroostook Co. Ca 1900
Lombard Log Hauler, Aroostook Co., ca 1900 (Patten Lumbermen’s Museum)
Woods crew, ca. 1900
Patten Lumbermen’s Museum, Patten, Me.
Hunting camp, late 1800s
River drivers (ca. 1890)
sluiceway in what is now Baxter State Park
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