Originally shared by Irina T.
#throwbackthursday
“Other states had Rosie the Riveters. New Hampshire had Lady Log Rollers.
In September 1938, a devastating hurricane killed more than 600 people in New England and caused property damage equal to $5.5 billion in today’s dollars. It also blew down 2.6 million board feet of timber — enough to frame more than 170,000 homes.
More logs ended up in Concord’s Turkey Pond than anywhere else after the U.S. Forest Service launched a massive salvage effort to harvest the tangled mess of timber and bring it to portable sawmills set up near storage ponds and fields. But by 1942, with men flocking to join the military during World War II, the sawmill at Turkey Pond couldn’t keep up.
Enter “the gals,” as the federal government called them.”
Read the rest of the story ( book review, “They Sawed up a Storm” by Sarah Shea Smith) at
Image source ( unrestricted use)
Women Lumberjacks Carrying Logs at Turkey Pond, New Hampshire, as Part of an Experimental Project to Saw up Seven Million Feet of 1938 Hurricane Lumber