By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS Collection

TITLE: THE DONKEY STEAM ENGINE: Logging was the big industry in the early 1900s in the San Bernardino Mountains. The largest operation was the Brookings Lumber Company. They logged 8,000 acres between Fredalba and Hunsaker Flats, which is present-day Running Springs, and extended northward to Heap’s Ranch and Lightningdale, which is near Green Valley Lake. They operated continuously between 1899 and 1912. John Dolbeer was a partner in an early lumber operation in Humboldt County and in 1881 he patented a piece of machinery called a logging engine, variously called a donkey engine, steam donkey or donkey steam engine. It revolutionized logging well into the 20^th century. This week’s image shows workers posing around a donkey engine at the Brookings site. It was a simple steam engine mounted on a wooden skid which enabled loggers to employ cables to move giant logs across long distances or steep terrain to adjacent railways or waterways. The invention of the steam donkey increased lumber production by enabling loggers to cut trees that they would not have previously been able to transport. They also enabled logging in hot or cold weather, which was not previously possible with the use of animal power. A logging donkey consisted of a steam boiler and a steam engine connected to a winch mounted on a sled called a donkey sled. The donkeys were moved by simply dragging themselves with the winch line, originally hemp rope and later steel cable. In the simplest logging setup a ‘line horse’ would carry the cable out to a downed tree. The cable would be attached, and, on signal, the donkey’s operator (an engineer) would open the regulator, allowing the steam donkey to drag, or ‘skid,’ the log towards it. The log was taken either to a mill or to a ‘landing’ where it would be transferred for onward shipment by railroad, road, or river.