The Sierra Nevada Logging Museum has an extensive array of donated artifacts of all sizes. Some are quite rare. One of the largest, a Willamette “steam donkey” weighs approximately 66,000 pounds. Built in 1916, it was last used near Cherry Lake in Tuolumne County and was donated by Sierra Pacific Industries.
There are three crawler tractors on the site, ranging in size from a small 20 horsepower gas-powered Caterpillar Model 20 to a Caterpillar Model 75 diesel. The 75-diesel is rare, being produced only a few years before CAT changed its designation to D8. Crawler tractors replaced steam donkeys for skidding logs.
A fourth tractor, a CAT-D6 diesel may be moved to the site in the near future.
Three logging arches displayed at the Museum site (and dating from various periods) were used to raise one end of logs off the ground, reducing drag and the “nosing in” of logs as they were pulled along the ground.
A logger’s cabin, portable sawmill, a circular 40-foot band saw (two edged) and other large equipment are displayed. Also a lumber carrier, an antique Adams road grader, and a Shay locomotive, our largest, heaviest artifact, are also on site.
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