North Country At Work

International 10 20 steel wheeled tractor pulling a corn binder behind it at edge of corn field. Harvesting corn in late summer. Circa 1930s. Hammond, NY.

Steam powered road-roller in action, packing down stone for road base, one of the first steps in road laying. Circa 1920s or 30s. Hammond, NY.

Floyd Babcock making his rounds, as caretaker of island properties on the St. Lawrence River. Scow Island is in the background. Circa 1950s. Chippewa Bay, NY.

Stooking oats–bundling of oats set upright together to allow the grain to dry in the field before threshing (separating grain from chaff)–on the Demick farm, circa 1920s. Hammond, NY.

“Jumping” hay with a jump press, which made hay bales by compressing hay using human power. Horses are hitched in background to a sweep-power which compressed the bales further.  On right there is a “Stillyard scale,” used to weigh the compressed hay bales. At the time, this was the only way to bale hay for […]

Ed Denner (far right), a St. Lawrence skiff builder, working on a skiff in Chippewa Bay. Circa 1900-1910. Chippewa Bay in the town of Hammond, NY.

Threshing time in late summer on a Hammond farm, using a traction steam engine and an elevator threshing machine. Oats being fed through the machine to separate grain from straw. Lots of workers, possibly a neighborhood work circle, some bringing in the grain, some feeding it. Robert Rutherford and Daniel Stout are within the men […]

Mess halls and streets at Pine Camp (later Fort Drum) in Jefferson County, NYS. Unknown date.

Soldiers setting up tent camp in 1935, Pine Camp (later Fort Drum), Jefferson County in NYS.

“Teams of horses were employed to construct the canal at our first mill in Deferiet, New York. The canal was used to channel water to the plant from the Black River. Construction on the giant project was completed in 1901.” Circa 1900. Deferiet, NY. Originally printed in the St. Regis News Volume 2, Number 9 […]