Re: Exploring more of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Grades...

My guess is these lines at the top of the incline were used for up to two years. Madera Sugar Pine had a different mainline into the woods prior to 1922. The new mainline up towards Big Sandy was probably built in 1921-23 time frame. Camp Two was established around this time (Called 1923 Camp on Donald DeVere's map). The Big Incline was most likely built between 1923-24. The Camp at the top of the Incline is called 1924 Camp and was probably used for the entire 1924 season. At the end of the 1924 season all of the lines were pulled up and a brand new line was built out of Sugar Pine to log the west side of Speckerman Mountain and points east. Also, the spurs I'm finding were not all in place simultaneously as a spur would be laid down to harvest the timber and then pulled up and the supplies used elsewhere. Madera Sugar Pine built seven inclines during their logging era. This was the biggest one and had extensive trackage at the top requiring Shays to be hauled up the incline for use on the spurs above.

It is amazing how much money was expended to get the timber. Back then labor was cheap and as all of the locomotives and donkey engines were wood burners they had a steady supply of fuel.