The forests covering much of 19th- and early-20th-century Innsifil represented a valuable resource, so there were numerous sawmills operating in the township.
Harvesting the logs that fed these mills was mostly a winter activity. The reason for this was largely twofold. First, hauling logs out of the woods was more easily done by sleigh. Additionally, during the winter, there was a ready pool of labour available in the form of farmers with time on their hands and a burning desire to earn additional income.
Indeed, some local farmers might have gone much farther afield, into northern Ontario, in search of winter employment at a logging camp.
We have an image in our minds of what these lumberjacks did. Axe and saw in hand, they set to work felling trees. You’ll note in most pictures of the day, some of these men were not wearing coats. Coats were frowned upon because it was believed if you needed one, you weren’t working hard enough.
But not everyone at a logging camp, whether it was local or in the deep forests farther north, spent their days chopping and sawing trees. There were several specialist jobs that have been almost forgotten.
Teamsters were experienced hands who were particularly good with horses and earned a higher income because of their skills.
Ever marvel at how horses could pull those sleighs heavily loaded with logs? The secret was the ice roads carefully made by particularly experienced teamsters. It was their job to create and maintain haul roads.
The first step was to run a wooden plow over the haul roads to push the snow off. This was vital because the ground had to be thoroughly frozen to bear the weight of sleighs carrying logs; snow, a natural insulator, slowed the freezing process.
Then, these roadmen would pour water over the road so it would freeze. The task was typically done at night so the two-man crew — a teamster and an operator — would have the whole road to themselves rather than sharing it with sleighs laden with logs. Also, working in the colder nighttime temperatures ensured the water would freeze quickly. This job was so important, those involved in the making and maintaining the ice road were paid a premium wage.
A man known as a sandpiper travelled the road, shovelling sand onto grades so the sleigh did not pick up speed and endanger horses and teamsters alike. This sand was carefully heated and burned to eliminate any moisture that could possibly form ice. A precise amount of sand had to be applied. Too much, and the sleigh might stop or, perhaps worse, the friction would cause the runners to heat up and melt the ice.
It wasn’t just sand that could impede runners; horse waste could as well, so a young man known as a chickadee was assigned the task of following horses and cleaning up after them.
Additionally, whether the camp was a local operation of modest scale or large northern one employing several dozen, there was sure to be a cook. Employers knew well-fed crews were happy crews, and working hard all day burned lots and lots of calories. So, there was always someone — a man hired purposefully for the task or the wife or daughter of the employer — one hand to prepare copious amounts of pancakes, pies, breads and other high-caloric foods.
As we entered the 20th century, local logging operations became increasingly more modest in scale, so many of these specialist jobs disappeared. They lingered, however, in the deep woods camps of northern Ontario for many more decades.