The Finished Product, Ready for Shipment

After the logs were sawed, the lumber was taken to the lumberyard where it was sorted into several categories, including species type (for example, all of the poplar was placed together in one area, all of the oak was placed in another), dimensions of board (2x4, 2x8, 4x4, etc.), and grade (density and quality) of lumber, so that it was easier to collect when shipped to the buyer. If the lumber had been taken from a log pond, it was left in the stacks for several days to dry before it was ready to be shipped. The stacks were usually tilted so that water could easily run off the wood if the weather was rainy. Lumber yards were often very large, and the stacks of lumber could easily reach heights of twenty feet or more.

The lumber yards had narrow guage company railroad lines running near or through the stacks, which made for easy loading. The workers would load the sold lumber onto the company trains, which would take the wood to loading stations with larger railroads. Several railroad companies worked with the lumber industries of the Southern Appalachians. Some examples are: Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio (CC&O); East Tennessee and Western North Carolina (ET&WNC); Norfolk and Western (N&W); Big Sandy and Cumberland (BS&C); and Iaeger and Southern (I&S).

The lumber was sold to various companies in various places throughout the world. Many manufacturers preferred (and still prefer) hardwood lumber over softwood lumber for their products, and the Southern Appalachian area is one of the world's leading producers of hardwood lumber. The Southern Appalachian hardwoods are still used to make furniture, hardwood flooring (the Ritter Company at one time was the leading producer of wood for hardwood flooring), housing, and many other products.

Many things have changed since the beginning of the Southern Appalachian hardwood industry. First of all, the process of harvesting the lumber has become very mechanized, and the number of workers employed by logging companies has decreased due to this mechanization. Railroads are still used to ship the logs and lumber from woods to sawmill to buyers, but large trucks are now also in common use. Also, the practice of clearcutting forests is no longer standard, and replanting is also common, so that the area is never without future trees. With smart use of the nation's forests, we perhaps can have forest area and hardwood products for years to come.