Thirteen pulpwood receipts to Millinocket were part of a railway-related paper collection I purchased a while ago.
These record pulpwood arriving by rail at the Great Northern Paper plant in Millinocket, Maine. It appears they came from “W.F. Mooers Ltd.”, cut in the year 1955, and shipped in June 1956.
Each receipt shows the number and dimensions of the pulpwood received, with some math to determine how many cords that was. A “cord” is defined as a “racked and well stowed” stack of cut wood occupies 128 cubic feet.
These are listed in “tiers” with dimensions like this: 9 1/6 x 81. I can’t figure out if the “9 1/6” is diameter, radius or circumference of the log. I think the “81” is the number of logs in the tier. I’m guessing the logs are a fairly standard length (4 feet? 8 feet?).
| Date Received | Rail Car | Net Receipt (cords) |
|---|---|---|
| 1956/6/5 | CN 461854 | 18.98 |
| 1956/6/5 | CN 503314 | 18.81 |
| 1956/6/5 | CN 504759 | 18.83 |
| 1956/6/10 | CP 256983 | 17.39 |
| 1956/6/10 | CN 524467 | 17.85 |
| 1956/6/12 | CP 141432 | 20.02 |
| 1956/6/12 | CP 263364 | 18.08 |
| 1956/6/13 | CP 223947 | 17.97 |
| 1956/6/13 | CP 256868 | 18.60 |
| 1956/6/14 | CP 221257 | 19.17 |
| 1956/6/21 | CP 236613 | 18.89 |
| 1956/6/22 | CP 242740 | 19.82 |
| 1956/6/28 | CP 225086 | 18.18 |
There is a gross total of cords in the car, and a net total (shown above). The difference is shown as “rot” or “U.S.” (I’m guessing “unsalable”).
Note that these cars were boxcars – 40′ boxcars, wooden or steel. You can check out the excellent railway freight car rosters at nakina.net (CN and CP) for more information.
The origin, Harvey, was on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), while the destination, Millinocket, was on the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR).
I imagine the cars traveled the 20-odd miles from Harvey to McAdam, then continued west on the Mattawamkeag Subdivision into Maine to Brownville Junction, and handed over to the BAR. From Brownville Junction, they would go northeast to Millinocket.
It’s possible they went up the CPR Shogomoc subdivision to Aroostook, then on the CPR Aroostook subdivision to Fort Fairfield, Maine where they would be transferred to the BAR. That seems longer and with more miles on the BAR, which the CPR wouldn’t like.
The Millinocket mill closed in 2014, but there are still rails through Millinocket. Today the Maine Northern Railway (MNR) runs north from Brownville Junction.
I have never been to Millinocket, but I have two slides in my collection from Richard Louderback that were taken in Millinocket in September 2011. Above, you can see log car NBSR 8009, presumably in the yard. The other slide is a tight photo of locomotive NBSR 9803.
Pulpwood logs in those days were four feet long. Lots of manpower needed to get them in and out of the cars.