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Spanish Forest Logging Camps of 1945 to 2002

Transportation of the Harvest
In the first decade of operation wood from camps 1,2,3,4,6,and 9 was floated down the Wakonassin River to the Spanish while wood from camps 7,8 and 11 went down the Agnes to the Spanish.
Camps in the 100 series put their logs directly into the Spanish or by Bannerman Creek to the Spanish. Wood from camp 301 went via Mollie River to CNR at Makwa and wood from camp 601 was loaded to CNR at Anstice.

Wood from the 500 series was sleigh hauled on ice roads or trucked on all weather roads to CPR at Ramsey, Sultan or Tophet.

By the end of the first decade mechanization was taking hold, all the horses were gone, all weather roads were built and 24 camps were closed.

The second decade, to 1967, saw the end of the river drives, 4 more camps built or acquired and 15 camps closed. The road network extended from Webbwood to Ramsey on the West Branch Road and a road west to Sultan from Ramsey and east to what is now Hwy. 144.

The CPR loading stations at Sultan and Tophet were gone and Ramsey was now using a central slasher and loader to load rail cars. The 100 series of camps were now all closed. Commuter operations were used in various areas in the forest.

In 1973 a tree-length dedicated rail operation began from Ramsey with a small component at Benny. It consisted of 110 rail cars; each carrying 75 tons of 66 foot trees, up to 36 cars per train. All this wood was directed to the new sawmill at Nairn Centre and the chips were trucked to Espanola. Soon tractor-trailers were developed to haul from some nearby sites.

In 1999 the rail tree-length operation ceased and the trucking continued until 2002.

In 2002 the tree-length operation at Nairn changed to cut logs both 16 and 12 foot and 8 foot pulpwood to Espanola. In both cases delivery by both rail and truck.