Located within Collier State Park Logging Museum are a number of historical interpretive displays that highlight the rich logging history of this region. This display is the fourth that visitors encounter while experiencing a self-guided walking tour of logging exhibits. This display's main verbiage reads:
Mighty Machines
Early Internal Combustion Engine Logging
Gasoline and diesel combustion engines transformed logging and milling in the early twentieth century. Cheap and readily available fuel powered superbly designed engines and made logging and manufacturing more efficient, less costly, and safer.
Petroleum powered engines drove locomotives, trucks, bucksaws,
and sawmill equipment. As logging and milling became more efficient, logging companies and sawmill operators began to leave idle the labor-intensive, steam equipment. The mechanic replaced the blacksmith. Tractor logging spread rapidly in the pine region.
Loggers used tractors to drag logs by hanging them from heavy steel arches on wheels.
Specialized Jobs
Logging and lumbering became an exercise in teamwork. Dozens of workers labored in tandem to harvest raw materials and produce finished products. Jobs became more specialized. The millwright became a key figure in running sawmills. His skills in designing and constructing all sorts of devices such as conveyors for carrying sawdust to "burners,"
maintaining peak efficiency of machinery, and looking out for safety were critical to milling operations.