CUMBERLAND, Maine — Mary Cowan never got to visit the old-time lumber camp her grandfather ran in northern New Hampshire more than 100 years ago.
But she knows that camp nonetheless. She knows how they worked, who did what jobs, and even how they were paid.
She knows all of that, because of her father’s stories and her grandfather’s love of taking pictures.
Mary is now the keeper of those rare photos and old movie films, including the ones showing a steam-powered Lombard log hauler—a remarkable innovation in the logging industry invented and built in Waterville, Maine by Alvin Lombard.
The Lombard was basically a steam locomotive mounted on skis and tracks that could pull tremendous trains of heavy logging sleds through the snow. Alvin Lombard invented the machine and, in particular, the endless track system that drove it—an invention that led to the bulldozer and many other forms of construction equipment that would build America in the 20th century.
Mary’s grandfather, Clarence Morton, bought one of the machines and took it into the woods in 1911 to harvest hardwood for his family’s Paris Manufacturing Company in South Paris, which built sleds, skis, and furniture.
“That’s Nina, that’s Nina right there,” Mary smiled as she showed the old film of the log hauler chugging through the snow.
“Her name is Nina, they named her,” Cowan explained—meaning the huge steel Lombard had been given a name in the camp.
“I don’t know if any others got named,” she laughed.
Mary was born over 80 years ago, but that was after the glory days of the Lombard in the lumber camp. She learned all about it, however, from her father, who literally grew up in the camp starting at age six.
Mary said she loved those stories from the start and still does.
“I love horses, I love the outdoors, I love winter … and I loved my dad’s story about what it was like to grow up in the woods of New Hampshire and have his own logging operation.”
She especially loves the old photo of her father in the camp with his own pony, a scaled-down logging sled built by the camp blacksmith, and a kid-sized peavey—a handheld tool for rolling logs—that was also made for him.
“And I just thought that was the most amazing childhood you could have,” Mary said.
Those lessons and impressions stayed with Mary as she grew up.
Her father had left the lumber camp when he grew up, went to college, and began a career in a paper mill. Mary graduated from Bates College, moved to upstate New York with her husband, a scientist at Kodak, and had her own career as an executive with the Girl Scouts organization.
But the stories called to her.
So, Mary began to write for older children aged 10-13, writing all sorts of stories and magazine articles and publishing multiple books.
One of those books, titled "Timberrr," came out in 2003, and tells the story of the old days of logging, and brings it up to the modern era. The book includes many of her grandfather’s photos to show 21st-century kids how northern New Englanders worked and lived in one of our most important industries.
That book is now being updated to include current information on the forest and climate change.
At the same time, Mary has also turned those stories from her father’s youth into a novel called “Trouble in Nathan’s Woods.” It features a lead character who might seem familiar: an 11-year-old boy in a New Hampshire lumber camp during the First World War.
“Nathan is 11, and he just learned German spies are lurking in the New Hampshire woods and will try to burn down mills,” she explained, summarizing some of the trouble that unfolds in the story.
Will modern-day kids, whose daily lives are constantly involving computer and video screens, want to learn about Nathan’s old-time world?
“I don’t know, but I'm gonna tell them!” Mary laughed.
Besides writing, she still gives talks at historical societies, libraries, and some schools, showing her grandfather’s films and photos to help modern Mainers understand what it took to build their state—and that marvelous Maine invention, the Lombard log hauler.
The Maine Forest and Logging Museum in Bradley has four Lombard log haulers that still run.