Here we are again, beginning another season of these talks on common\u00a0things, that have somehow, unintentionally but\u00a0irresistibly, become talks\u00a0on old-time things. We make no promises about the content of this season’s\u00a0talks. Just as we have done in the past, we shall let you listeners pretty\u00a0much decide. It is <\/em>you who have made :the continuance of these programs possible.<\/p>\n It is <\/em>you who have furnished material, corrected our mistakes, given\u00a0us valuable pointers. We are grateful to you, and both your broadcaster and\u00a0the Keyes Fibre Company want this to continue to be your program, not ours.\u00a0You hear quite enough about war on the newscasts and from the commentators.<\/p>\n Yet on this program we cannot ignore it altogether. Of all common\u00a0things, what a tragedy it is that one of the commonest is <\/em>war. It is <\/em>now\u00a0so common that we can’t even wait for a new generation, but the same boys\u00a0must twice endure the horrors of modern combat. Every sensible person knows\u00a0there ought to be some way to avoid this savagery. We cannot believe that\u00a0the common people of Russia want war any more than do the common people of\u00a0America. Yet the governments of nations, blind leaders of the blind, keep\u00a0on killing not merely boys in uniform, but women and children behind the\u00a0lines. In our time no war, however necessary and however provoked, is <\/em>good.\u00a0When will we finally get it into our heads that war itself is evil that\u00a0not the immediate enemy alone needs to be conquered, but the institution of\u00a0war itself.<\/p>\n What a mad world this is! <\/em>Only a few years ago we were loudly praising\u00a0our Russian allies who fought so bravely at Stalingrad. And how we hated the\u00a0inhuman brutality of the savage little yellow men of Japan. That was less\u00a0than ten years ago. Now look at us. As we approach a third world war, see\u00a0whom we number among our allies: Japan and Spain. Those we called savage\u00a0little yellow men have suddenly become good boys, and our great democracy\u00a0makes a diplomatic bed-fellow out of the fascist dictatorship of Franco’s\u00a0Spain.<\/p>\n If any of you understand all this, I wish you would tell me about it.\u00a0Is there no such thing as consistency in government? Does democracy mean\u00a0one thing in 1940 and something else in 1950? Frankly, I don’t know. What\u00a0I do know is that our boys are dying on the battlefield, and I hope with\u00a0all my heart that God will show us a way to stop that slaughter soon.<\/p>\n Having gotten that off our chest, let’s get back to some of the things\u00a0we were talking about last spring. You will perhaps recall that one of our\u00a0last programs referred to that unique railroad, built far in the wilderness\u00a0of Maine’s northern lakes — <\/strong>a railroad that few Maine people have ever seen.\u00a0We asked for more information about it, and listeners have kindly responded.<\/p>\n Maurice Coughlin of Oakland has loaned us a copy of the Northern for\u00a0November, 1926. That is the magazine published by the Social Service Division\u00a0of the Great Northern Paper Company. In the issue of November, 1926 the\u00a0leading article is entitled, “Another Advance Step in Woods Transportation.\u00a0The Great Northern Paper Company Builds a Railroad from Eagle Lake to Chesuncook\u00a0Lake.<\/p>\n This article describes how the road was built and names many men who\u00a0had a leading part in <\/em>its construction. It gives due credit to that modern\u00a0Paul Bunyan of the Maine and Canadian woods, Edward LaCroix. But the article\u00a0fails to answer the question I asked last spring; namely, how did they get\u00a0those heavy locomotives in from the regular\u00a0rail head\u00a0to the lakes? All we\u00a0are told is (and I quote): “All of the material for the ChesutAcook end of\u00a0the road arrived at Greenville and its conveyance from that point to the\u00a0terminal was a job in itself. On the road special equipment for handling it\u00a0was sometimes needed, as for instance the large eight-wheel trailer which\u00a0was used to move the locomotive.” That doesn’t tell us very much.<\/p>\n NOW, thanks to one of our Waterville listeners, Raymond Vigue of Water\u00a0street, we have not only the answer to how they moved the locomotives, but\u00a0many other details not included in the magazine article.<\/p>\n Mr. Vigue shows that an important factor in the story of this unique\u00a0railroad is the private highway leading from the Canadian boundary at Lac\u00a0Frontiere to Churchill Dam, or to what is more correctly called Churchill\u00a0Depot Camp. That road, extending 45 miles through the Maine wilderness, is\u00a0familiar to many Maine fishermen and to others who have taken the famous Allagash\u00a0trip. I have never been over the road, but I came very near traveling it in 1941. My son was then, for the fourth time, taking the Allagash trip\u00a0with a single companion, who was a good canoeist, but who had no experience\u00a0with Maine waters. As usual my son planned to start the trip at Caucmogomac\u00a0Lake, make the long carry into Allagash Lake, down the stream into Chamberlain\u00a0Lake, through Indian Pond into Eagle Lake, then through Churchill Lake into\u00a0the Allagash.<\/p>\n Do you remember how dry it was in 1941? Every Maine lake revealed rocks\u00a0and shallows never before seen. Could these two canoeists get beyond the dam\u00a0at Churchill Lake? Was there enough water to get them on down the Allagash?\u00a0If there was, I would meet them at Fort Kent. If not, I must make the 200\u00a0mile drive to Lac Frontiere, obtain the necessary permit to use the private\u00a0road, then travel those long, lonesome 45 miles to Churchill Dam.<\/p>\n Believe me, that summer I had reason to be grateful to Patrolman Thibodeau\u00a0of the Waterville police. I was worried lest a message sent me by my\u00a0son should fail to reach me, and that I should arrive at Fort Kent only to\u00a0find that I must now travel nearly 500 miles to get to Churchill Dam.<\/p>\n Patrolman Thibodeau solved my problem. He asked me to come to his house\u00a0when he was off duty, and from there he called his brother, who was fire\u00a0warden at Churchill Dam. What a relief when the brother said: “Those two\u00a0boys went through day before yesterday. By this time they are half way\u00a0down the Allagash.” So I drove to Fort Kent where those two boys met me on\u00a0the dot.<\/p>\n I have told this incident at length, in diversion from our main story\u00a0about the railroad, in order that you may comprehend the size of the Maine\u00a0Wilderness, and the immense distances that must be traveled to reach points\u00a0not far apart, as the crow flies.<\/p>\n What started us off on this diversion was the 45 mile road from Lac\u00a0Frontiere to Churchill Dam. The first sixteen miles of that road, to the\u00a0point where it crosses the st. John River, were built in 1924, and during the\u00a0the next two years the remaining 29 miles were completed.<\/p>\n The man whom we have called the Paul Bunyan of the Maine woods, Edward\u00a0Lacroix, is of course a Canadian citizen, from St. George, Quebec. In the\u00a0early 1920’s Mr. Lacroix owned an extensive tract of timberland in Aroostook\u00a0and Piscataquis Counties. So extensive was this tract that it covered many\u00a0entire townships. It was in what is commonly called the Allagash Country,\u00a0one of the wildest and most remote, uninhabited sections of the whole United\u00a0states. It was covered with forests of virgin spruce and pine.<\/p>\n When Mr. Lacroix started lumbering in this region he confronted a major\u00a0problem. How would he get the long logs and pulpwood from the Allagash-St.\u00a0John watershed to waters which emptied the other way into the Penobscot? Lacroix\u00a0and his associates hit upon a private railway system, isolated and completely\u00a0disconnected from any regular railroad. The main line was 16 miles\u00a0long, connecting Eagle and Chesuncook Lakes. Construction was started in 1926\u00a0and finished in the fall of 1928. That was before the day of the gigantic,\u00a0modern bulldozer, and the clearing, grading, and rail laying was all done\u00a0by men and teams. Many trestles had to be built, the longest being a wooden\u00a0structure of 1,700 feet across the tip of Chamberlain Lake. In addition to\u00a0its four rock piers, its supports were huge spruce logs, driven into the mud\u00a0of the lake bottom. Mr. Vigue tells us that tree-length logs with butt diameter\u00a0of nearly two feet were driven sometimes as deep as 40 feet before\u00a0solid bottom was reached. The cross ties and supporting beams were axe-hewn\u00a0timbers cut near by.<\/p>\n Rolling stock, says Mr. Vigue, consisted of four locomotives, all of\u00a0which\u00a0were converted from coal to fuel oil. Remember this was in 1928, long\u00a0before the coming of the Diesels or any general use of oil-burning engines.<\/p>\n Fire from locomotive sparks was a real hazard, and everything possible had\u00a0to be done to prevent it. So, ‘far ahead of his time, Mr. Lacroix converted\u00a0the locomotive coal tenders to fuel oil tanks. The two main-line locomotives\u00a0weighed 75 tons and 100 tons. The larger had formerly been the property of\u00a0the New York Central, and the smaller came from the Quebec Central. The other\u00a0two engines were much smaller about 20 tons each — and were powered by\u00a0gasoline engines. They were used only as switching engines, one located at\u00a0each end of the mainline.<\/p>\n A total of 45 pulpwood cars of standard size transported the 4-foot\u00a0pulpwood. They were equipped with rack bodies, the sides of which swung open\u00a0at the bottom to speed up unloading.<\/p>\n Well, it’s about time we answered that question of how this heavy rolling\u00a0stock, especially the locomotives, was brought in to the terminal. Remember\u00a0the nearest regular line railroad was fifty miles away. Here is Mr.\u00a0Vigue’s explanation.<\/p>\n The locomotives and cars were dismantled at Lac Frontiere, and were reassembled\u00a0at the new\u00a0rail head\u00a0at Eagle Lake. Special sleds, designed for\u00a0heavy loads, were built to carry the truck Wheels, frames, boilers, and tenders,\u00a0as well as the many tons of steel rails.<\/p>\n How were these sleds hauled? Without the genius of a Waterville inventor\u00a0the job could not have been done. The Lombard log-hauler provided\u00a0the\u00a0indispensable\u00a0traction. It was those Lombard tractors that hauled the\u00a0sled trains carrying the dismantled parts of Mr. Lacroix’s locomotives.<\/p>\n Because the hauling was done in winter, the St. John could be crossed\u00a0on the ice. But sometimes the heavy loads broke through, causing damage and\u00a0loss. But it was not until 1931, three years after his railroad had been\u00a0completed, that Mr. Lacroix bought the steel bridge Which spanned the Chaudiere\u00a0at St. George, Quebec, moved it in small sections to the st. John, and\u00a0there reassembled it to connect the two sections of his highway from Lac\u00a0Frontiere to Churchill Dam. That bridge, 400 feet long and 9 feet wide,\u00a0standing fifty feet above the water still does service today.<\/p>\n Getting in the steel rails was no small job of itself. There were 6,500\u00a0of them, 30 feet long and weighing 1,800 pounds a piece.\u00a0That little road was a part of the gigantic operations carried on by Mr.\u00a0Lacroix in the Allagash region during the decade before the Second World War.<\/p>\n At one time 4,000 men were on his payroll in the Churchill-Chesuncook area,\u00a0and he used 780 horses in his peak season of 1929. Fifty cooks prepared\u00a0food in the widely scattered camps. Tote teams hauled supplies day and night,\u00a0several of them hauling only fodder for the horses. Butter, eggs, pork,\u00a0beans, and other foods were bought in carload lots at Chicago and shipped\u00a0direct to Lac Frontiere.<\/p>\n Although pulpwood was the principal product, and most of it went over\u00a0the new railroad into Penobscot waters, the long log operations were still\u00a0among the largest in the country. The annual average of long logs was 25\u00a0million feet, and in one year the cut exceeded 40 million feet. These all\u00a0went down the AllagaSh and St. John Rivers to the Lacroix mills at Keegan,\u00a0Maine, over 200 miles away. In twelve years the total drive from the Allagash\u00a0forest to Keegan was over 2! billion feet.<\/p>\n Such is the story — or rather only part of the story — of the unique\u00a0railroad in the Maine wilderness. And I know of no better way to close the\u00a0narrative than to tell of Mr. Lacroix’s tribute to a Waterville man. Mr. Lacroix\u00a0has often said that without the Lombard Traction Engine, his railroad\u00a0could not have been- built. “It never occurred to me that the project was\u00a0feasible”, he said, “until I saw those huge tractors prove their worth under\u00a0practically impossible conditions.”<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #75, broadcast on September 17, 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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