Lumberjack
Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees.
The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers.
The first attested use of the term combining its two components comes from an 1831 letter to the Cobourg, Ontario, Star and General Advertiser in the following passage: "my misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an incorrigible, though perhaps useful, race of mortals called lumberjacks, whom, however, I would name the Cossacks of Upper Canada, who, having been reared among the oaks and pines of the wild forest, have never been subjected to the salutary restraint of laws.
"[6] The term lumberjack is primarily historical, and of colloquial contemporary usage; logger is commonly used by workers in the 21st century.
[7] When lumberjack is used, it usually refers to a logger from an earlier time before the advent of chainsaws, feller-bunchers and other modern logging equipment.
Other terms for the occupation include woodcutter, shanty boy[8] and the regional woodhick of Pennsylvania, United States.
The term lumberjill has been used for a woman lumberjack; for example, the Women's Timber Corps in Britain during World War II.
[12] Lumberjacks worked in lumber camps and often lived a migratory life, following timber harvesting jobs as they opened.
Lumberjacks could be found wherever there were vast forests to be harvested and a demand for wood, most likely in Scandinavia, Canada, and parts of the United States.
[16] The natural division of labour in lumber camps led to other specialized jobs on logging crews, such as whistle punk, high climber, and chaser.
Animal or steam-powered skidders could be used to haul harvested logs to nearby rail roads for shipment to sawmills.
The term "skid row", which today means a poor city neighbourhood frequented by homeless people, derives from a way harvested logs were once transported.
[20] Among the living history museums that preserve and interpret the forest industry are: Tomczik (2008) has investigated the lifestyle of lumberjacks from 1840 to 1940, using records from mostly Maine and Minnesota logging camps.
In a period of industrial development and modernization in urban areas, logging remained a traditional business in which the workers exhibited pride in their craft, masculinity, and closely-guarded individualism.
When not at work, they played rough games, told tall tales, and built up their reputations by consuming large amounts of food.
[35] The term "lumbersexual" is a near antonymous play on the earlier "metrosexual",[36] a metropolitan-heterosexual man who values appearances, apparel and aesthetics.
Unlike the metrosexual, the lumbersexual is a man who adopted the stylistic traits of outdoor gear, namely a beard, plaid shirt, and work boots, in urban environments.
Whereas commentators discussed whether the lumbersexual is an attempt to "reclaim masculinity",[38][39][40][41] researchers show that the term is a media representation that very few people actually use for self identification.
[35] In popular culture, the stereotypical lumberjack is a strong, burly, usually bearded man who lives to brave the natural environment.
He is depicted as wearing suspenders, a long-sleeved plaid flannel shirt, and heavy spiked caulk boots, and is often characterized as having a voracious appetite, especially for flapjacks.
[43][44] He works by cutting down trees with either an axe or with the help of another lumberjack and a crosscut saw, as opposed to the modern chainsaw.
Men such as Jigger Johnson, the Maine woodsman who supposedly kicked knots off frozen logs barefooted,[47][2] and Joseph Montferrand (better known as Big Joe Mufferaw), the French-Canadian known for his physical prowess and desire to protect the French-speaking logger,[48] have been celebrated as folk heroes throughout North America, and have contributed to the myths of the lumberjack.
