Abandoned logging equipment, Alaska

[Treewolf]

In another forum I belong to someone recently posted a link to an amazing photo thread with countless photos of heavy equipment that was abandoned in Alaska when the logging industry collapsed. The amount and diversity of machinery simply left behind is staggering. Trucks like the astonishing Hayes HDX-1000, Hayes HD, Peterbilts, and Kenworths, bulldozers, graders, mobile skyline spars. You name it, it's there!

 

This is extremely remote logging country and in most cases the cost of recovering the equipment was far greater than the value of the equipment. Sadly the guy who started the thread eventually stopped posting photos because it seemed to be encouraging the theft of machinery for scrap.

 

Although it is a bit off-topic compared to the UK arb scene I thought that some here might find it interesting, so here's the link:-

 

Alaskan Logging Equipment, Left to Rust

[leedeerman]

Would be worth a vist just for a nose around

[Rupe]

I went to Alaska for three months in 1990, was an amazing place, saw lots of old trucks, not necessarily logging kit but lots of earth moving type stuff and cars etc.

 

Got quite a lot of photos but all pre digital.

 

Met a bloke who lived up there after buying land from the state at 1 dollar an acre, he then cut down trees to make a runway for the plane he had built, then used those trees to build a house etc etc. he was a very clever man! An ex engineer who had decide to retire in Alaska.

 

Anyway he use to like going out trekking for days on end (well you would!!) and in the area he lived there was lots of copper mining activity. One day he came across an Old Ford Model AA in the middle of some woods, probably an old prosprectors vehicle. Now, an AA is a flat bed model of the original Ford Model T. So quite a special vehicle.

 

He looked it over and figured he could get it running! SO he walked the 2-3 days home got some tools and walked back again. Then back and forth on and off for three consequetive summers when he had time and on the third summer he drove the vehicle back home but had to cut down trees as he went so that took 4 weeks!

 

We did some work for him in exchange for decent meals hot showers etc (all home made solar powered showers of course) and the truck was in use hauling wood.

 

Here it is loaded up, doing what it does best. Notice he's named it "rigor mortis".

[WorcsWuss]

Awesome story Rupe! Can you remember his name?

Thanks for posting treewolf, I love things like this, another pin on the map of places I want to visit!

[tommytopsoil]

Treewolf, I have followed the original thread since it was started and I find it absolutely fascinating - not just the equipment, but many of the accompanying tales that have been told and yarns that have been spun.

 

Yes you are correct, the OP occasionally returned to some locations to find the equipment gone and the tell-tale signs of gas-cut slag on the floor...

 

After these thefts some of the machinery owners became particularly irate that the OP had posted a photograph, even though he had never breathed a word regarding specific location...

 

And so it has become that if anybody should recognise any of the locations of any of the equipment in any of the posts in the above thread, please please keep it to yourself.

Somebody will still bear title to the equipment and not only is the taking of the machines THEFT from the owner, it is also a tragic theft from our history and from the enjoyment that future generations may gain from seeing/learning from it.

 

I believe a very small amount of the equipment is being restored and some even put back to work as a result of the above thread however, so it is not all bad news.

 

I hope other people can get the same enjoyment from our logging history as I have. Enjoy, and thanks for posting Treewolf.

[Rupe]

Got lots of pics but like I say they are all pre digital and not many scanned in.

 

This one is of where we stayed. Its an old Copper mining town, deserted now, this picture is just the copper processing plant, the copper would come in the top from tramways running off the mountain then gravity fed processing would take it down and be loaded onto trains that ran through the bottom level. Well this was the end of the line for the train track.

 

Alll this built in the early 1900's and all the wood either cut down in the area or hauled in by horses. The railroad was built by a different company who refused to build it until there was coppper ready to bring out, so all this was built before the railway came in!! There was a whole town around this as well all deserted in about 1938. We looked in the old hospital and found records of accidents etc. was a very tough place to be!

 

The area in the foreground is glacier but covered in rock was from the plant.

[tommytopsoil]

Great stories Rupe - that is exactly what I meant

Edited February 27, 2013 by tommytopsoil
Grammar - Rupe posting faster than I can reply ;)

[Rupe]

Awesome story Rupe! Can you remember his name?

Thanks for posting treewolf, I love things like this, another pin on the map of places I want to visit!

 

 

Really cant remember his name. He's be pretty ancient now though, great bloke. Kind of Fred dibnah and dick strawberry and ranulph feines rolled into one!!

 

We managed to get into the old copper mines, even though all entrances were official closed up in 1938. We found an airshaft and got in. Was like something out of indiana jones movie, spent two days down there looking at stuff!

 

The area is a tourist resort now though, but only open for a month or two each year as its so remote. There was a lodge that opened up for a month while we were there and the same owner still has it now.

 

Just found this on you tube, theres a frickin visitor centre now!!!!

 

Well I was there when it was proper deserted!

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Fq3bYsxaE]Kennicott Glacier Lodge - Alaska Vacation - YouTube[/ame]

[renewablejohn]

Unfortunately the downside of google maps is that any equipment left out in the open can be located by anybody with a computer and magnifying glass.

[Rupe]

Locating it on google maps and going and stealing it are two totally different things though. Some of this kit is in vry remote places, if not then it would all have been weighed in years ago.