Log hauling record in 1920

The Post-Star kept close tabs on log hauling bragging rights in Stony Creek in winter 1920, and reported on the end of an era for a traveling merchant.

In mid-January, Arthur Baker, a teamster for Langdon Brooks logging contractor, set a record when he hauled 62 logs with one team from West Stony Creek to Stony Creek Station, a distance of almost 15 miles.

Perhaps more accurately, Baker’s horses set the record.

“Both horses on the team Baker drives are over fourteen years old. One of the team is a road and saddle horse.”

A few days later, teamster George Paradise, employed on the same job, broke Baker’s record with a load of 79 logs.

Baker regained the record on Feb. 3 with 85 logs.

“It is considered quite a dexterous feat to load so many logs on one sleigh,” The Post-Star reported.

In another category, teamster Howard Ryther of Stony Creek established a record for hauling hard maple logs with one team with a load of 14 logs, totaling 1,540 market feet of lumber, on Feb. 6.

In other Feb. 1920 news:

“Isaac Fine, a clothing dealer of Northville, who travels throughout the Sacandaga and Stony Creek section with an automobile, has decided to discontinue business after traveling throughout that section for the past 20 years. He will move to Texas where he has interest in an oil claim.”

Sources: The Post-Star Feb. 4,10, 12, 1920.