Mystery in Northern MN?

[bearfat]

The past 17 years I have been hunting in and around The Split Rock Light House on the North Shore 50 miles North of Duluth MN. Giant cedar tree stumps (mostly) which have obviously been burned are scattered all over. I'm just wondering how old you guys think these things are? Like I say they have been there the 17 yrs I've been hunting in the area. Suppose they are 100 years old? What year did the fire occur? Must of been a heck of a fire.

One other mystery I've seen with plain old birch and poplar up there. The guys we bought the cabin from 17 years ago used ATV's and threw down birch/poplar logs into mud holes to prevent them from getting worse. I have continued to drive over the logs and they are not rotting! They get wet, but are laying in a mud/clay mixture. Is that mixture versus top soil preventing them from rotting?

Just a couple of weird things a guy thinks about when they're sitting in a tree for a week in Northern MN waiting for the big buck.



                                        Same tree different angle

As long as I'm at it. What the heck is this thing? It's not a nest. Just seems to be some kind of wild growth on the tree. I have run into a few scattered in the woods.

[Bldr Bob]

I was watching a show on the History channel that was on salvaging old timbers. Some guys would buy old barns and make flooring from the lumber etc.  Well one the the outfits they talked about would dredge up these old timbers from the mud on the the bottom of a lake.  Apparently they fell off of some ships.  Well they would take these timbers and sell them for top dollar because they were in such good shape and not rotted.  I can't remember why exactly but I seem to recal it had to do with not being exposed to much oxygen.

[Friar_Tuck]

Hello Bearfat,
I hunt west of you, in the Northome area.
We have the same big cedar stumps like that that are also burned.
I would imagine there have been several fires through the area over time.
My father, who lives in that area, uses the cedar from those stumps for carving, and loves it.
The other thing is what we always called a "witches broom" no idea what causes them to grow, but they are just a mass of branches gone wild.
We all tend to take the time to let our minds wonder, and think about the wierdest things while out there!
Jim

[bearfat]

"Witches Broom" ehhh? I can see why they name it that. First time I saw it I thought some kind of weird animal lived in it.

Got any pic's of the stuff he carves from the cedar?

We had a big old cedar stump finally fall in one of our shooting lanes I'm thinking of cutting it up and using for planking across some very small creeks if you will. You can step across the creek almost but the ATV is chewing up the banks on both side making ruts.


The other option which would be better is pile in alot of rock. We have some guys that tore up their ATV trail something fierce 2 miles south of us. There is no repairing the damage once the ruts are there. Just keeps getting worse.

[bearfat]

would dredge up these old timbers from the mud on the the bottom of a lake.  Apparently they fell off of some ships.  Well they would take these timbers and sell them for top dollar because they were in such good shape and not rotted.  I can't remember why exactly but I seem to recal it had to do with not being exposed to much oxygen.

I suppose the mud in the ruts the logs lay in acts like a seal almost to keep the oxygen out. I remember when I was scuba diving alot a buddy of mine was seaching for a couple of black walnut lumber wagons rumored to have gone down in his lake (Steamboat Lake, near Leech about 15 miles NW) at the turn of the century. He said only about a 1/4" of the ouside would be rotten. Rest of the logs like money in the bank! I have bought some white pine from an old guy above Hastings MN dam that runs a mini-mill. He supposedly searches for deadheads that pop up to the surface of Mississippi and mills them down. He's told me some of the white pine he has sold me is over 100 years old.