Brian;
I drive by that tree every year on the way back from the Southwest!

Continuing our trip exploring the Converse Basin area. The Sanger Lumber Company used an incline railway (they referred to it as a hoist) to haul logs up out of Converse Basin to the top of Hoist ridge and then down the other side to the waiting Sanger narrow gauge railroad that took the lumber to Millwood where it was cut and then flumed down to the town of Sanger.
After hiking to the Chicago Stump I took a short detour to go see part of the tram.
Here's a look at part of the grade of the hoist:


We are looking north towards Converse Basin which is about a mile away.

Here's the view looking south towards the top of the hoist:


Hunting around you can still find ties from over 100 years ago...

Returning to my truck, we drove back to the top of hoist ridge. The road is on top of the hoist grade for the last 300 feet. Here's a view looking north from near the top of the hoist down the grade towards Converse Basin:


It didn't take long to find an artifact:


To be continued...