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 fifth that visitors encounter while experiencing a self-guided walking tour of logging exhibits. This display's main verbiage reads:
Gettin' The Cut Out
Post World War II Logging
Housing In Demand
The Great Depression and World War II created a massive, pent-up demand for housing. During the 1930s millions of Americans could not afford to build or purchase homes.
Between 1941 and 1945, World War II diverted capital and energies. When peace returned, Americans rushed to build.
The government helped make new construction possible.
The Federal Housing Authority and the Veterans Administration offered low-cost, long-term loans. Ownership of single-family dwellings became a reward for those who had endured years of hardship.
Boom Times
Logging and lumber manufacturing boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. "Gettin' the Cut Out" expressed big-scale logging of the late twentieth century. Extensive road systems,
heavy equipment, log trucks, and clear-cuts drove high production levels. Heavy-duty trucks, impossible to purchase during wartime,
hauled massive loads of logs to sawmills. Gasoline-powered chain saws replaced the crosscut saws and cumbersome mechanical bucksaws. Some companies-such as Weyerhaeuser-used expansive railroad systems in conjunction with truck hauling to move raw materials to mills.
Sawmill design became an art where engineers and millwrights updated the machinery with new,
electrical motors, efficient saws, massive headrigs, and smooth conveyors. Burners disappeared as sawdust and ships became valued raw materials in the manufacture of fiberboard and paper.