Logging Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Christmas Train Breathing Life Into Old Lumber Town

The Cass Christmas Train, West Virginia’s version of the Polar Express, chugs along the Greenbrier River at around five miles an hour. Big white plumes of steam interlace with black torrents of smoke and sink down to the river hovering just above the surface.

The train cart smelled like cinnamon and petrol.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Inside, the train cars are decorated with garland and ornaments. Families come prepared to this event with bags full of goodies and thermoses filled with hot chocolate. The families in the train cart sing along to Christmas songs, while elves pass out warm cookies and juice.

An orchestrated snowball fight broke out on the train after employees passed around fake snowballs.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Later there is a bake-off in town and a bingo night for the hundreds of weekend visitors to this little town — which has a year-round population of 30 people.

Expanding The Season To Christmas

This is all part of an effort to keep Cass open later in the year and keep a steady flow of tourism through the town, to generate revenue for preserving the town’s history.

The Train Station has been there for over 100 years. It now sells hot chocolate, snacks, and souvenirs.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

J.T. Arbogast has a long family heritage with this town. His great grandfather owned the grocery store that rivaled the paper mill’s company store. Now he works to keep this town alive year round.

“There wasn’t anything past the fall really. Once the leaves were done, the state shut things down,” Arbogast said. “So the houses and the town were pretty dark to come driving through here.”

Arbogast is the third generation of his family to keep Cass’s history alive. *Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The trains used to only be open for scenic rides in the summer and fall.

But then President of the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad Incorporated, John Smith, had the idea to start offering a Christmas train experience. Arbogast said this inspired him to start hosting events during the winter as well.

“We thought, well, if we’re going to be doing that, like… what’s a way that we can create an experience for people who are coming into town?” Arbogast said.

Cass’s History

The town of Cass is an old lumbering town. Every home has the exact same build, and all the town buildings are painted white. There are three rows of identical homes, a community center, a barber shop the size of a shed, the rail station, and a large house on the top of a hill where the mill owners lived. The town was founded in 1900, and the first houses were built a year later.

A single person barber shop sits along the river in the little town.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Tammy Shoemaker grew up around Cass, and now works as an information specialist for the Convention and Visitors Bureau at Snowshoe Mountain and Cass Scenic Railroad.

She says the town was founded by the Virginia Pulp and Paper Company- which is now the multibillion-dollar paper company, MeadWestvaco. They chose to set up in Cass because they needed Red Spruce to make paper. It grows several miles from Cass, in small circles in some highest country in the state, around 4500 feet in elevation.

The Red Spruce was carted down by train and processed at the sawmill in Cass. The whole operation went on like that for around 50 years and created a bustling economy for the area. At its peak, the town had more than 2,000 residents.

“Yeah, that was a busy town — and that’s not counting the woodhicks that lived up in the mountain,” Shoemaker said.

The mountain men responsible for timbering the wood only came down to Cass every six months. They would cash their paychecks, head across the river and party for a few days before heading back up the mountain.

Arbogast said sometimes older visitors will get emotional when they visit the town because it so closely resembles their childhood in a old industry town, that now no longer exists.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The Track Forward

All this history from the trains that went up and down the mountain, carrying timber and the occasional “woodhick” to the company store is preserved in Cass.

In 2018 Cass, and the scenic railroads around it became a state park. Superintendent Marshall Markley says it takes a lot of work and collaboration to keep this park going, but he says the park is unique.

“There are other historical parks, but there’s none quite like Cass,” Markley said. “Cass is probably the best example of a historic railroad logging town, in its most complete version. You notice that we have the railroad portion, of course, and the company houses, and the company store, the depot and all the supporting buildings, which, you know, in a lot of company towns, only a few pieces of that survive.”

This old church is now a Community Center in Cass where the cookie bake off was.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

All this history, and more, is preserved, which Arbogast says is an uncommon fate for little towns like Cass.

“Cass was destined to become what so many of these towns become, which is a memory. Right? Gone,” Arbogast said.

However, Cass remains fully intact. It takes constant repairs to the quickly built, aging homes, special engineering of the steam-powered trains, and a group of people who keep finding creative ways to push this town forward.

“We’re the only place in the country that has these three kinds of steam locomotives working. That’s worth celebrating,” Arbogast said. “The fact that these buildings, these houses, the history — that’s still here, that’s worth preserving and celebrating and figuring out the ways in which you honor that history but carry it forward in a new way for another generation.”

The old company story now has a buffet, a miniature Christmas train, and a photo opportunity with Santa.
*Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Beginning in January the oldest logging locomotive in the world will be running, there are other holiday-themed trains like a Halloween train during October, and through the summer and fall there are scenic rides through the mountains.

Justice Administration Proposes Parkland Logging

Gov. Jim Justice’s administration has proposed opening West Virginia’s state parks to logging.

Legislation introduced by the Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders at Justice’s request would authorize the Division of Natural Resources to implement “a sound silvicultural management plan.”

It calls for limits not exceeding “the average of four trees per acre per tract” and not to exceed half the sellable timber on an acre.

Trees would have to be at least 16 inches in diameter at chest height. Proceeds would help maintain state parks.

Conservation groups said lifting the 80-year ban on commercial logging of parklands is the wrong way to help them.

Jim Waggy of the Kanawha Forest Coalition said visitors come to West Virginia for the beauty of its forests, not to hear chain saws.

W.Va. Timber: Mechanization Driving Change in Logging Practices

Most of the state’s trees are harvested by small-scale logging operations, using chainsaws, but a growing number of logging companies use large, mechanized logging machines that can do much more, faster.

Jean Snedegar joined veteran logger Jerry Huffman on Knobley Mountain, in Grant County.

“We’re about 5 or 6 miles from Maysville, about 15 miles from Petersburg,” Huffman said.

Huffman owns three businesses related to logging – based just outside Petersburg – which employ more than 40 people. He’s been in the business more than 60 years.

“This timber was probably cut over about 25 years ago. This is not a clear-cut – it’s a select cut,” he said in a timber stand about 6 miles outside Maysville. “The timber was marked by a professional forester. You can see there are a lot of trees left. Probably in 20 or 25 years they can cut it again.”

Huffman sends out four or five teams of loggers every work day – some conventional crews using chainsaws and others using huge logging machines.

The Tigercat

“This machine cost about $500,000,” Huffman said, pointing to a yellow and black machine with a combination claw and saw on an articulated arm.

He said that while he has to cut a lot of timber for the machine to pay for itself, there is another consideration.

“It’s the safety factor with these machines.”

The stand is on the eastern side of the Allegheny Front and it’s a lot drier over there than the other side. Huffman said that means that the trees are different as well.

“In this area, the timber grows more slowly than West of the Alleghenies, where they get more rainfall. Most of what we’re cutting here is oak – chestnut oak and red oak. Whenever you get over the Alleghenies you get more cherry, hard maple and soft maple. And the further west you go you get into more poplar. Out towards Clarksburg and Fairmont area there’s more poplar.”

Jerry Huffman is a third-generation logger. His son – and two grandsons – are also in the business with him. The machine operators are highly skilled.

Making the Cut

The big machine approached a marked tree. It picked up the tree, and it guided it as it fell.

Using a giant arm, the machine operator cut the individual branches off, topped the tree, picked it up as if it were a toothpick, swung it around and then cut it into lengths suitable for transport.

It all happens so fast you can easily miss it. Meanwhile, two skidders went back and forth, up and down the mountain, dragging the cut logs to the log landing – a level area at the bottom of the mountain.

One Tigercat machine can cut enough trees to fill four log trucks a day.

Tigercat operator Charlie Bow said he spends about 7-7.5 hours a day in the air-conditioned cab.

“I have to say, this seat is very comfortable.”

Rolling with the Terrain

Huffman said the terrain determines whether he can use a Tigercat or a conventional crew.

“If it’s too steep, then they can’t cut with the mechanized equipment,” he said. “Right now, I’m about 90 percent select cutting. Clear-cutting is a good tool to use in places it can be used. We do some clearings. In fact we’re doing a clearing job for a farmer who wants more pasture. A lot of farmers in our area have to haul their cattle somewhere for pasture, and if they’ve got an area they can clear and keep them close to their farm, that’s what they like to do.”

In his more than 60 years of logging, Huffman said he has seen dramatic changes in how things are done.

“My early days of my logging I worked with my dad, and we started out with horses. I was not very old then – just a teenager, 12 or 13 years old – worked with him up through the woods. And then we went to a small dozer where we skidded with them, and then we’d dig out a hole and push the logs on the truck – we had skids and stuff – which made it a little easier than rolling them all by hand. And then probably in the mid-60s is when the skidders first came into this country. And we were able to get one back then,” he said. “As equipment got better, we got log loaders and finally got to these cutting machines. I’ve lived in a time – and anyone from my generation — when we’ve seen more change in this business than it was way before that – because everything stayed about the same up until then.”

Huffman said he would advise youngsters growing up in West Virginia today to go into the timber, logging or wood products business.

“because I don’t think there are going to be too many people who do it. And if you want to work, you can make it at it.”

Correction: This story has been changed to accurately reflect the Tigercat brand name.

This series is made possible by support from the Myles Family Foundation.

Logging in W.Va.: Finding A Balance Between Preservation and Profits

Halfway between Mill Creek and Helvetia, West Virginia, four miles or so off the main road, Scotty Cook, the owner of a small-scale logging operation in Elkins, trudges along a muddy, deep gullied logging road.

Cook has been working in the industry for about 20 years and got started because of his family.

“My dad and them, they [were] in it all their lives,” he said. “Tradition I suppose.”

Logging in West Virginia

Most of the state’s trees are harvested by small-scale logging operations like Cook’s.

He is logging for Northwest Hardwoods, a company based in Washington state which has four sawmills in West Virginia – two of them in Randolph County. The land is owned by Coastal Timberlands, which owns property in 11 states.

He and his crew of about 7 are logging 100 acres of trees, working on the job for months at a time.

Cook watches as in the distance a chainsaw operator begins cutting an 80-foot tree. It falls to the ground and then he begins to explain what happens next in the logging process.

“He’s cutting all the limbs off of it, up to where he’ll cut the whole tree top out of it,” Cook said. “He’s getting it ready for a skidder to come back and hook to it, to take it to the landing to get cut up into log lengths to go to the mill.

A large bulldozer-like machine called a skidder – operated by Cook’s nephew – backs up toward the downed tree.

“He’ll turn around and back right up to it. He’ll hook up a chain-choker around to it, and pull it in with his wench,” he said.

A skidder drags a freshly harvested tree down the mountain side.

Cook helps his nephew hook up the huge log to the skidder. While the chainsaw operator continues to cut down trees and remove their branches, the skidder goes back and forth, up and down the mountain, hauling the long, uncut logs to the landing.

Cook said on this job, his crew has mostly been logging poplar, beech, birch and hard sugar maples, maybe a few oaks here and there, but very few.

He followed the skidder down the mountain, through the deep mud and back onto the logging road.

The Viability of the Industry

Cook said the industry– a muddy one– could pay a lot more, especially when you calculate the cost of taxes and fuel. He is no longer sure it’s a good industry for young people in West Virginia to get into.

“All your timber, it’s being cut out,” he said. “You take a lot of people – they’re doing all kind of clear cuts. I suppose they just want the money and need the money so they just cut it.”

Editor's Note: This story is part of an occasional series from independent producer Jean Snedegar about the timber and forest products industry here in the Mountain State — from seedlings to final products.

“I’ll never see a lot of places cut again,” he added. “We’re just select-cutting. We don’t clear cut.”

In a clear cut, most or all of the trees are cut down. In a select cut, foresters decide which trees to take and which to leave behind for a future harvest.

“In a couple years a man could come back and work again – take some more timber out,” Cook said. “If you take everything now, you ain’t gonna have nothin’.”

Marking the Trees

Cook points to blue spray paint on certain trees in the area where his crew is working.

“Them’s the only trees we’re allowed to cut,” he said.

Cook explained Coastal Timberlands has its own foresters who, once or twice a week, walk through the forest and mark the trees and their stumps that are allowed to be forested.

“And if they find stumps that don’t have any paint, they’ll stop you right there,” Cook said.

“At times there may be a big tree behind and a small one in front, and you may have to cut it out of the way for safety,” Cook said. “We always have to look at the safety first, because we don’t want anybody hurt or killed, [but] if you cut it out of the way, they say ‘just cut it and leave it on the ground.'”

A stationary log loader stacks cut trees according to lengths, to prepare them for loading on a logging truck.

The Landing

Down the mountain on a big level area called a log landing, Cook’s father, Gene Cook, operates a huge machine called a stationary log loader.

Gene Cook has been working in the logging industry for 60 years, back when horses were used instead of massive machines. Still, Gene said the machines make the work easier and at 85 allow him to continue working full time.

“I can do the same now as I could 20 years ago,” he said.

Gene measures and then cuts the logs into lengths suitable for the sawmill.

In the final operation, a man sitting on top of the logging truck — using a giant mechanical arm – picks up each log that Gene has put down and places it very neatly on the logging truck.

Once the truck is full, he will head down the mountain to the Northwest Hardwoods sawmill in Mill Creek.

Logging Company Cited for Worker Safety Violations

Federal regulators have cited a logging company for 22 serious worker safety violations.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration says Ray Clearing Inc. of Bickmore also was issued one other-than-serious citations. The citations stem from an inspection by OSHA’s Charleston Area Office at a site in Cabin Creek on Aug. 4.

The agency said Wednesday in a news release that the serious violations included employees without heavy duty logging boots and other proper protection using chainsaws to fell trees.

Other serious violations included permitted employees to ride as passengers on mobile vehicles without a seat belt and assigned seat, exposing them to falls and crushing injuries.

The agency has proposed penalties totaling more than $35,200.

A telephone listing for Ray Clearing could not be found.