Archive Photos of the Day: Tree Felling Using Springboards

This is probably the most specific theme topic I’ve had for my Archives Photos of the Day series however when you’re on the trails of Stanley Park as much as John and me, finding a single image showing “Tree Felling Using Springboards” is pretty fascinating. There is still evidence all over the park – and in any other previously logged forests in the region – of this spring board technique. Once you spot these notches on familiar old stumps, you get an idea of how old they are and just who might have been (painstakingly) chopping away at them.

Left: 2013 – Stanley Park.
Right: 1900s – Tree felling using spring boards. Archives item# Tr P35.

Left: 1900s – VPL Number: 4102. Photographer: Leonard Frank.
Right: 1890 – Shawnigan Lake. Archives item# Log P29.

Left: 1890s – Archives item# LGN 727.
Right: 1890 – Men on spring boards felling a tree near 9th Ave & Waterloo. Archives item# Log P11

1891 – North Arm Fraser River near Vancouver, George Oliver’s contract. Archives item# Tr P44. Photographer: Bailey Bros.

For more information, photos, and artifacts about early logging in the area, I recommend paying a visit to the North Vancouver Museum and Archives.