I should have looked at the bark more closely. But how do you know the load was not posed? Each of those logs had one or more smaller mates from the same tree, so it's a fair assumption that a three-log load didn't need to be that heavy. Hauling those babies down curvy mountain roads was not for the faint of heart.

[This is just one of hundreds of photos Russell Lee took while on assignment in Malheur -- almost 200 the day he spent with these loggers. The FSA did documentary photography. Multi-ton logs were not being "posed" for the sake of an interesting picture. - Dave]

in response to another comment, I'm sure those are all butt logs from different trees. By contrast, look at the load in the background. One suspects that they were all put on the same trailer for purposes of the photograph. Posed, as it were.

[They were not. - Dave]

By coincidence, we spent several hours driving through Malheur N.F. yesterday on vacation. I was watching for old growth ponderosa pine like this. Plenty of trees, but nothing larger than about 2 feet in diameter. It will take a couple of hundred years or longer to get back what those logs represent.

[These logs are Douglas fir. - Dave]

Old wood = denser wood and the reason older homes have longer lifespans than newly constructed homes of today. These three trees were left to grow on their own for years and years as evidenced by the tightly packed rings. Modern, planted sustained forest are harvested once the trunk reaches a certain diameter after just a few years and thus have much denser rings.

Is it possible they’re all parts of the same tree? The length of each one on the truck is nowhere near the height of the tree.

Good for medieval battering rams.