Abandoned logging equipment, Alaska

[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!

 

 

Come to think of it, everyone in Alaska is called "Jim"! But cant remember his second name.

[easy-lift guy]

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".

 

Nice story. I was really expecting Jethro in at least one picture:thumbup1:

easy-lift guy

[KnotSure]

Nice truck there, and an amazing story about its revival. I want to go live in Alaska when I retire.

[Craig.]

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

 

The someone on utube, might be the same bloke posting videos of finding old equipment in the woods, but a lot more over grown than what I seen in the first few pages I looked at on your link.

[face cord]

Sadly the guy who started the thread eventually stopped posting photos because it seemed to be encouraging the theft of machinery for scrap.

 

Surely recycling is a good thing in a way though as its clearing up the place?

 

Suppose it depends on your viewpoint ....

 

Must of being alot more relaxed enviromental regs then as you wouldn't get away with leaving stuff or dumping @ sea etc now or maybe you still would I dunno?

[Treewolf]

Surely recycling is a good thing in a way though as its clearing up the place?

 

Suppose it depends on your viewpoint ....

 

Must of being alot more relaxed enviromental regs then as you wouldn't get away with leaving stuff or dumping @ sea etc now or maybe you still would I dunno?

 

I guess that one problem is that all that stuff belongs to someone, and they may be a bit miffed if it is recycled without their consent (we all get miffed when certain members of certain communities "recycle" saws from our trucks/lockups without consent).

 

I don't look favourably on people whose motives are financial not environmental in this context. They'll take the stuff to make money from the scrap, not because thay want to clean up the environment.

 

Furthermore, artefacts like those are a record of a chapter of history. An abandoned logging truck isn't an environmental disaster waiting to happen, and will in a few thousand years recycle itself. In the meantime it is as much a part of history as a ruined castle in this country - you could recycle a castle but there would (rightly) be an outcry.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

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

 

AMAZING pictures in that link.

[Andy Collins]

I think tht thread is so interesting, from so many angles, the machinery, the wildlife, the scenery for starters. Nice find that

[DN22 Gardening]

Well, just managed to pass two hours on a rainy morning.

 

Great post.

 

i'd love to go out there, have a nose around and chat to the old loggers over a beer

[scott123]

absoluty shocking photography and wat a waste of gear