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2. Squared Timber
The history of logging can be divided into two eras; the squared timber era and the sawn lumber era. During the first, lumbermen used to square the timbers with nothing but a broad axe.
Here see the example of a squared timber. Notice how the end is angled. This was done with a broad axe to protect the valuable wood from splitting as it floated down the river and through rapids. It took a gang of six men a whole day to cut and square a log of white pine.
A typical timber raft contained 2000 pine logs - imagine how long that took to cut and square. Once the logs were cut and squared they had to be taken to the river and floated past the log slide and then assembled into the rafts to be floated down the Ottawa River. On average, an Ottawa River raft might contain up to one hundred separate cribs. The rafts were floated to the Chaudière Falls, a bay just below the Parliament Buildings, where an auction was held to sell the timber. Once sold, the timber rafts were then floated to Montreal and onto Quebec City where the rafts would be disassembled and loaded onto ships bound for Europe.
By the 1850's the timber market in Quebec City became glutted with excess timber and the value of timber began to fall. The value of square timber peaked in the mid 1870's and the last crib passed through the Chaudière Falls in 1910.
