Loggers in Maine commenced chopping down pine in the southern part of the state as early as 1621. At the time, Plymouth Colony was the latest big thing in domestic adventure. Over the next 250 years or so, the loggers slowly moved north toward and through a vast supply of yellow birch, maple and spruce growing along the state’s remote hardwood ridges.
Between 1830 and 1855, years when the concept of Manifest Destiny ignited with housing and commercial development in America, Bangor, Maine was one of the busiest logging ports in the world. Historians speculate that 8.7 billion board feet of old-growth hardwood logs passed through the town during this 25-year period. They also guess an additional 7-10% of those logs was lost on its perilous way to the mills.