Alligators of the North

A Canadian invention that very few persons have heard of had a profound effect on the pine logging industry during the late 1800s and the early decades of the 1900s. The logging of eastern white and red pine in Ontario's Ottawa Valley, the Georgian Bay and the north shore of Lake Huron was of major economic and social importance. The accessible stands of timber when logged were routed along fast flowing rivers leading into the Ottawa River or Georgian Bay. Once such stands were depleted, the logging moved into the more distant hinterlands. But how to move the timber? Something was needed that could move booms of logs both on a lake and then overland to the next lake, using its own power. Steam power was the new technology of the day. Enter the inventors, John West and his partner James Peachey, who with their foundry staff built the first steam warping tug, which was unveiled in 1889 at Simcoe, Ontario, the first of many that popularly became known as northern alligators.

ISBN 1554887119   Pages 234 ISBN13 9781554887118 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 590 Publisher Dundurn Group Ltd   Published in Toronto Imprint Dundurn Group Ltd   Height (mm) 230 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 230 Publication date 12 Mar 2010   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY 387.2320971   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Foreword
		Ken Armson
		Introduction
		Dave Lemkay
1		In the Beginning		1
2		The West Family in Norfolk County		7
3		The West & Peachey Partnership, 1878		9
4		The Lumber Trade in Norfolk Moves On		15
5		Joseph Jackson and the Warping Tug		21
6		John West's Other Interests		27
7		Evolution of the Alligator Warping Tug		33
8		Alligator-Operated Portable Sawmills and Other Ventures		45
9		The Gilmour Dynasty: Their Tramway and the Alligator		51
10		Steamboats for South America		55
11		The Diverse Enterprises of West & Peachey, 1897-99		63
12		West & Peachey Enter the Twentieth Century		67
13		The Alligator Warping Tug in Newfoundland		75
14		Turn-of-the-Century Improvements and Modifications		79
15		The Story of the Cavendish Lumber Company's Alligator Tugs		85
16		The Role of the Alligator in the Ottawa Valley		89
17		John R. Booth: A Distinguished Ottawa River Client		97
18		Timber Operations in Northwestern Ontario		103
19		Some Alligator Accidents Over the Years		109
20		Technical and Operational Details in the Construction of Alligators		113
21		The Alligator Warping Tug's Steam Engines		119
22		The End of a Dynasty		127
		More...

"Alligators of the North portrays, with the help of excellent period photographs, a triumphant era of inventive progress when steam engines were replacing earlier methods in everything from sailing ships to manufacturing operations."--Patrick Boyer"Muskoka Magazine" (06/30/2010)

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