Does anyone have knowledge about the practice of "mining" the swamps in the Pines for old, waterlogged prehistoric cedar trees? Supposedly during colonial times the practice yielded trunks of such size that they were useable as ships' masts. Some have claimed that the recovered old cedars were more than a thousand years old and had been preserved by the oxygen-free environment of the deep sludge of the swamps, and that when slow dried and milled they still had the aroma of cedar.
I heard about this from my dad , who had heard it in his youth, when I was a boy, but have never met anyone with living memory of the practice. In recent years quite a business has sprung up in harvesting waterlogged timber from the Great Lakes. The trees had been cut in the 18th century from pre-colonial virgin/old-growth stands and some became waterlogged while being rafted to the mills in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and sank. This old-growth, close-grained wood is now being salvaged and is highly sought after by mills that supply the needs of up-scale finish carpenters and craftsmen.
My interest is that when my joints and other reminders of advancing age keep me (only temporarily, mind you...) from another camping trip, one of my time-wasting habits is to putter in the shop making lots of sawdust and a few folk harps - and playing one in the evenings between sips of single-malt scotch. Western red cedar makes a great-sounding soundboard for a harp, and I've begun to wonder if quarter-sawn close-grained cedar from the depths of a Pine Barrens cedar swamp might do the same.? Truth-to-tell, even if it turned out not to be superior to other, more traditional tonewoods, I like the idea of a piece of the ancient history of the Pines being a part of a harp that I made and play.
Is there anyone out there who could tell me if such salvaged ancient cedar wood from the swamps is still harvested and if is it commercially available?
Many thanks,
Dave Graham
I heard about this from my dad , who had heard it in his youth, when I was a boy, but have never met anyone with living memory of the practice. In recent years quite a business has sprung up in harvesting waterlogged timber from the Great Lakes. The trees had been cut in the 18th century from pre-colonial virgin/old-growth stands and some became waterlogged while being rafted to the mills in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and sank. This old-growth, close-grained wood is now being salvaged and is highly sought after by mills that supply the needs of up-scale finish carpenters and craftsmen.
My interest is that when my joints and other reminders of advancing age keep me (only temporarily, mind you...) from another camping trip, one of my time-wasting habits is to putter in the shop making lots of sawdust and a few folk harps - and playing one in the evenings between sips of single-malt scotch. Western red cedar makes a great-sounding soundboard for a harp, and I've begun to wonder if quarter-sawn close-grained cedar from the depths of a Pine Barrens cedar swamp might do the same.? Truth-to-tell, even if it turned out not to be superior to other, more traditional tonewoods, I like the idea of a piece of the ancient history of the Pines being a part of a harp that I made and play.
Is there anyone out there who could tell me if such salvaged ancient cedar wood from the swamps is still harvested and if is it commercially available?
Many thanks,
Dave Graham
