From Stump to Ship
Encyclopedia
From Stump to Ship is an amateur industrial film by Alfred Ames, owner of the Machias Lumber Company, in Machias, Maine. The half-hour 16mm film was shot over the winter of 1930 in the logging woods and shows logging in the forest with hand tools and horses, then moves to the spring log drive, with logger
s using peavey
s to break up log jam
s on icy rivers as the logs are moved from the forest to the mill. Detailed views of mill work, changing the bandsaw, and making shingles. Lumber is loaded onto schooners in Machias for transport to New York. The film was originally silent, with a typed script which Ames read aloud when he showed the film. In 1985, with funds from the Maine Humanities Council
, the narration was recorded with the film. The film is distributed by Northeast Historic Film
, in Bucksport, Maine. Footage was included in the compilation documentary Woodsmen and River Drivers, Another Day, Another Era which also interviewed the surviving woodsmen of the Machias Lumber Company.
In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...
s using peavey
Peavey (tool)
A peavey or peavey hook is a logging tool consisting of a handle, generally from 30 to 50 inches long , with a metal spike protruding from the end. The spike is rammed into a log, then a hook grabs the log at a second location...
s to break up log jam
Log jam
A log jam is an accumulation of Large Woody Debris that can span an entire stream or river channel.-Effects on stream/river geomorphology:...
s on icy rivers as the logs are moved from the forest to the mill. Detailed views of mill work, changing the bandsaw, and making shingles. Lumber is loaded onto schooners in Machias for transport to New York. The film was originally silent, with a typed script which Ames read aloud when he showed the film. In 1985, with funds from the Maine Humanities Council
Maine Humanities Council
Located in Portland, Maine, the was founded in 1975 as a private nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is one of 56 in the United States and its territories....
, the narration was recorded with the film. The film is distributed by Northeast Historic Film
Northeast Historic Film
Northeast Historic Film is a regional moving image archive located at 85 Main Street in Bucksport, Maine. NHF is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing film and video related to the people of Northern New England.NHF safeguards film and videotape...
, in Bucksport, Maine. Footage was included in the compilation documentary Woodsmen and River Drivers, Another Day, Another Era which also interviewed the surviving woodsmen of the Machias Lumber Company.
In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".