An excerpt from “Timber Cruising”
The men who engage in these more essential enterprises wear calked shoes of one kind or another while on their jobs, and forsake this type of footgear only in winter, when the nature of the work and the severity of the weather obviously call for warmer boots. Calked shoes are strictly men’s attire, and their use is confined to certain activities in a man’s world. They are worn by lumbermen, foresters, surveyors and lumberjacks as an indispensable part of their costume during certain pursuits, the kind of calk depending upon the type of work at hand. Calks are metal devices, like nails with pronounced or pointed heads. They are driven into the heavy sole of a woodsman’s shoe by means of a special tool. The calks project downward from the sole and prevent slipping. Some calks, or hobnails, are short with snubby heads and are often used by hikers on rough terrain.
Dewitt Wiley Lt. & Larry Muggins,1926. Wiley was a rare lumberjack jack who carried a camera during the early 1900s.
The forester, while cruising timber, may have hobnails in his shoes, but the log-driver’s calks are long, pointed and sharp to assure him of good footing on floating logs. A riverman is as particular in the selection of his shoes and the supervision of the calking as milady is when she chooses evening slippers. And please do not accuse the log-driver of vanity, for his life depends on his footgear and his ability to use it. Breaking a log jam is a procedure that is neither easy nor safe unless the driver has good calks on his boots. The world in which these men live and the work they accomplish became part of my life after I married Roy Bird, an Adirondack forester.
Left: Logs bound for the paper mill were converted into a variety of paper products. The author has never forgotten his days in Oswego’s Hammermill plant.
Lower Left: A river driver takes a quick lunch break.
Below: 93 year-old Earl Kruizer enjoyed sharing tales of his river driving days