And it grows straight upward with little taper, making the lumber yield from each tree very high. With few branches, the tree rarely forms knots or imperfections. Redwood makes excellent lumber, being resistant to fire, insects, and rot. Smith and Moore, aware of the vast stands of pine, cedar, and redwood that blanketed the western slopes of the high Sierra, began accumulating timberland. He owned mines and ranches and lived in a sumptuous mansion in San Francisco.Īccording to the Timber and Stone Act of 1878, anyone could claim up to 160 acres of timberland in Washington, Oregon, California, or Nevada if he paid $2.50 per acre and swore that he had personally inspected the land. While Smith was a true lumberman, managing and building each new operation, Moore, the majority owner, was a venture capitalist. Moore, prominent San Franciscans who ran sawmills in California and Washington, began buying up property there in the 1880s. The high Sierra Nevada was a wilderness when Hiram C. ![]() It also supplied the money and water that turned California’s San Joaquin Valley into a very successful farming area. Built in only 13 months, it was in use from 1890 to 1923 and eventually grew to be the longest in the world, contending with bankruptcy, fire, and death while it permitted the harvest of the world’s largest trees. Most majestic of all the flumes was the Kings River flume in Fresno County, California. Before today’s heavy-duty trucks and roads, loggers could move this lumber out of the remote backcountry only by constructing gigantic aqueducts designed to float it miles down the sides of mountains. Lumbermen built flumes of epic proportions, using water and gravity to bring some of the nation’s best wood to market. This silly but exhilarating amusement ride once served a greater purpose than mere entertainment. Climbing into long, narrow boats molded and colored to resemble hollowed-out logs, Americans by the thousand ride these liquid roller coasters every summer, letting the splashing water soak them as they fly downward. Riders are issued guns that they can aim at targets embedded along the route.“RIDE THE LOG FLUME!” CRIES THE AMUSEMENT- park advertisement. As a bonus, Adventure Canyon doubles as kind of a moving shooting gallery. They next enter the casino and pass Old West scenes as well as curious patrons. The adventure begins outdoors as passengers climb up and into a mountain and then splash down. Adventure Canyon Log Flume gives new meaning to the gambling expression “let it ride.” If riding a log flume inside a mall is odd, imagine one that cuts right through the middle of a casino. Primm Valley Casino Resorts, Primm, Nevada But in a a nod to Minnesota folklore, the attraction also includes a cameo from Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The Knott’s folks originally built the park, and it was first known as Knott’s Camp Snoopy. If some of the old-timey, sawmill-themed scenes resemble the ones from Knott’s Log Ride, it’s no accident. Still, the Log Chute kindly keeps the splashing to a minimum. Otherwise, Nickelodeon Universe, located in chilly suburban Minneapolis, could only operate its water ride few months of the year without giving its customers pneumonia. It might seem odd to have a log flume ride at an indoor, climate-controlled park, but it's also practical. It proved so popular that Six Flags added a second flume adjacent to the first one in 1968 to accommodate the crowds. Located in the Spain section, the historic ride is known as El Aserradero (The Sawmill). The first-ever log flume ride debuted in 1963 at what is considered the first regional theme park: Six Flags over Texas in Arlington. In addition to plummeting down a hill, riders get soaked – or at least a bit wet – when the vehicles hit the splash pool at the bottom. Typically, conveyer belt-style lifts bring the vehicles up a hill, and then gravity and the water's current keep them moving through the flume.īut unlike roller coasters, which usually unleash their biggest drops near the beginning of the ride, flume rides save the suspense for their finales. Mimicking timber floating downstream to a lumber mill, passengers sit in hollowed-out “logs” and meander along a winding flume. The concept of the amusement park staple is fairly straightforward. ![]() They have not been around as long as roller coasters and carousels, but log flume rides have been thrilling – and dousing – visitors for decades. View Gallery: America's best log-flume rides, from Splash Mountain to El Aserradero
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