Meadow River Lumber Company

After reading Philip V. Bagdon's book on the Meadow River Lumber Company which operated the largest hardwood lumber mill in the world from 1910 to 1970, I was impressed with the hard work, ingenuity, and dedication of the men that brought the hardwood trees from the forest to the mill.  One operation cost, the workers salary, seemed to be the bottom priority of the company.  In all instances where more money was demanded to retain a valued employee, the employee left.  On top of this the work was very dangerous.  Seemingly benign routine activities like durmping logs from the Russell Bunks (type of railroad car that hauled the logs to mill) could kill you.  This happend to O. C. Garten when he used his cant hook to trip the stake pockets from the back side on a log car at the mill pond.  A short log somehow flew back striking the poor man and killing him.  Vetran mill brakeman, Leonard Carr was crushed when a boxcar he was riding jumped the track and plowed into a lumber pile.  John Roberts was replacing a cotter key to repair a cut-off lever on a railroad car when another car which had been cut loose from a log train came down the wrong track due to improper switch allignment.  Roberts was killed by the impact.  In spite of these hardships the workers demonstrated great pride and dedication to their work.