During the eighteen and early nineteen
hundreds, removing large quantities of timber from remote forests carried a lot
of challenges. Nevertheless, heavy
vehicle makers from those days built numerous designs just for that
purpose. Eight wheel logging wagons,
heavy-duty logging gears, carts, and even sleds were utilized within this
specialized industry.
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An early logging wagon with solid wood wheels on display at
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Years ago, I wrote an article for our
Wheels That Won The West® website outlining the origins of a giant two-wheeled
design referred to in a number of ways.
The vehicle name often varied depending on the region of the country but
some of the titles it held included “Logging Wheels,” “High Wheels,” and “Big
Wheels.”
These massive logging carts were
engineered to transport large logs over demanding and difficult terrain. With wheel heights ranging from six to twelve
feet, these lumbering giants worked the woods throughout the U.S. Over the last few years, our archives have
acquired a number of 19th century materials highlighting these rare
pieces. One of the makers in this group
of promotional resources is the Gestring (pronounced ‘Guess –string’) Wagon
Company of St. Louis, Missouri. I wrote
a fairly lengthy set of articles for Farm Collector magazine on this company
back in 2010. A few of the other makers
in this trove of ephemera are the Wilson-Childs Wagon Works of Philadelpha,
Pennsylvania… Studebaker Bros. of South Bend, Indiana… Electric Wheel Company
of Quincy, Illinois… Manning, Maxwell and Moore of New York… and perhaps the
most legendary of all – Silas Overpak of Manistee, Michigan.
With most of the images and ephemera
dating to well over a century ago, these original promotional pieces highlight
differences between a variety of offerings.
Features like Georgia rigging, ratchet lifts, and screw rigging with
dogs (hooks) for holding the logs to be lifted were among the variety of designs
shown. Tire widths could be as wide as
eight inches, tongue configurations changed depending on whether the vehicle
was used by horses or oxen, and wholesale prices could range from $110 to over
$200 in the late 1890’s. As time
progressed, some of these Big Wheels were also drawn by steam traction engines.
Weight of a single 7 foot tall wheel
with 5 inch tire is listed by one builder as being around 600 pounds. Total weight of the entire design could
easily register a ton or more. Other
specifications from this literature include the notation that many High Wheel
designs were engineered to carry from 100 to 4,000 feet of logs in a single
load. The timber could range in length
from 12-100 feet. As shown in the photo
above, in a trip to Death Valley last year, we were able to get a firsthand
look at an original set of High Wheels.
Like America, itself, the massive size of these wheels is a reminder of
the challenges, opportunities, and potential rewards for those willing to roll
up their sleeves and join the free enterprise system.
