Mountain Extension - Official Work Thread

[Mike Fox]

Sorry I missed your question Fred. See James' photo from this weekend for the location.

[Fred L. Kuhns]

 Mike, In last few weeks of January the woods crew has been clearing a area for the new mills spur and field for special events at TOM.  Will they possibly try to remove some of the small trees along the 650 feet of graded R. O. W. this winter?  Fred L. Kuhns

[Mike Fox]

Fred,
The plan is to focus on the clearing for the field and mill site. The ROW was cut probably 7 or 8 years ago.

[Brendan Barry]

Clearing progress at Top of the Mountain. Fred and Steve Z. measured and came up with a little over half an acre cleared so far.

Pictures taken from the south switch. First picture looks west from the tracks down the property line. Second picture is looking north towards the old camp road to Porcupine Palace.





Looking north from the south end of the clearing. The diesel is sitting on the first crossover switch. The crane is parked at the present end of the main line.



Looking east from the western edge of the clearing.



Picture from the east side of the tracks about the mid point of the siding.

[Philip Marshall]

Wow that's impressive. Great work, everyone!

Is the big tree in the middle (looks like a red maple) being retained as a shade tree?

[Bill Baskerville]

 Put Fred's chair beside it and it won't get cut down.

[Bill Fortier]

A panorama shot.

[Fred Morse]

When its done, this will make a nice large level field for the siding, shingle mill, and saw mill and anything else we plan on in the future. It probably was a field years ago.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Hi Philip,

The lone tree is a poplar, we didn't cut it when we cleared that section due to wind from the west.  We plan to cut it next weekend.  It is a pretty tree, too bad it's not a maple but there isn't much maple on the lot.

Stewart

[Philip Marshall]

Thanks, Stewart!

[Philip Marshall]

It probably was a field years ago.

Yes -- poplar and balsam fir plus a few white pine sounds like an old field, or at least an old clear cut. The number of rings on the pine stumps will tell you how long ago it was, because the pines will always be the oldest component of a mixed stand like that.

[Mike Fox]

Lots of older rotted stumps from trees harvested probably 30 years ago. Older aerial photos show the cutting that was done back around the 50's

[Philip Marshall]

Older aerial photos show the cutting that was done back around the 50's

That sounds about right, judging from the DBH of the pines.

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

Adding to the notes about the field at TOM, we found a 10' piece of line fence when clearing trees a couple months ago.  The line fence was right where it had been along the edge of the railroad owned land about 50' north of the old road.  (This is near the south switch)  The line fence was a wire on post type fence and the wire had hand made barbs which probably dates to the 1920's or earlier.  We saved the piece and may have it on display once the saw mill building is built.   We consider this further proof that the land at TOM was open pasture back in the early part of the 20th century.

[Richard Cavalloro]

Has anyone run a metal detector around there?