![]() McShane and Company bought out Starbird and Hall. 10, 1893, and emptying into the Tongue River, was four and one-third miles long. The Sheep Creek flume, completed on Sept. Then the water was shut off while the next section was built. When one section of the flume was finished, lumber for the next was floated down to the end. The flume, constructed of 2-inch, tongue-and-groove boards to minimize leaking, was built in stages. The first workers' camp, for both tie cutters and flume builders, was located at the head of Sheep Creek Canyon, which drains into the Tongue River approximately 13 miles southwest of Ranchester, Wyo. Both the flume and the ties were made of pine, an abundant resource in the Bighorn Mountains. They decided to build a flume-a wooden trough many miles long, on trestles when necessary, sometimes anchored to granite cliffs with iron bolts, which would carry a volume of water at a steady grade and with it, the ties. However, the best trees for tie cutting grew high in the mountains, far from the railroad, and Starbird and Hall needed an efficient means of transport down the mountain. Hall, had contracted with the B & M to supply 1.6 million ties. By March 1893, two Omaha men, Dan Starbird and Thomas B. The Rockwood camp was part of an operation begun in 1893 when the Burlington and Missouri Railroad was building its line from Sheridan, Wyo., north to Montana. McShane and Company, which had built the camp more than four years earlier, in spring 1895. Most of the buildings, plus thousands of ties at the Rockwood camp burned, leaving only two cabins and a schoolhouse to J.H. Miraculously, no one from the camp was hurt, though one man later died from pneumonia from standing in the pond to escape the fire. 1910, boasted a sawmill, cabins, bunkhouses, a cookhouse, barn and blacksmith's forge. The tie camp of Woodrock in the Bighorn Mountains, ca. It was a hazardous journey: In some places, the flume hung 300 feet above the bottom of the canyon, and burning debris had fallen on the footboard, destroying a short section of it. While the women and children fled, the men stayed behind to throw personal belongings into a nearby pond behind an earthen dam built as a holding place for the ties on the north fork of the Tongue.Ībout 25 women and children walked down the mountain on a footboard attached to a wooden flume, or waterway, built to float ties down the canyon to their final destination at Ranchester, Wyo., about 20 miles away. The fast-moving fire threatened the railroad tie-cutting camp at Rockwood at the head of the Tongue River Box Canyon. If you ever find yourself on this hike, just watch out for critters, especially during the summer months.High in the Bighorn Mountains of northern Wyoming, flames crackled through the forest in the dry August heat of 1899. The fact that it was dog-friendly was also a bonus. It was simple, convenient and easy to get to. About halfway down the flume, we weren’t paying attention and came within inches of a rattlesnake. I had never seen one before and thankfully we ran right over it before it had a chance to make a move. We decided to jog the trail on the way back. You can often hear dirt-bikes in the distance, as there are several dirt-bike and quad trails nearby.Īt the end of the hike is a small pond (I forgot to snap pictures of it, oops!) where the flume begins. Despite being twisty, the hike is on flat terrain the entire time. The hike is 2.5 miles to the beginning of the flume. When we went on the hike, there was no water in the flume and Bass Lake was practically dried up due to the severity of California’s drought during that time. ![]() The majority of this hike takes place on an old flume that is used to carry water down to Bass Lake. There’s a reason this trail is named the “Flume” Trail. We also put on loads of sunscreen and brought our sunglasses. ![]() We each packed a water bottle, a leash and doggie bags (it’s a dog-friendly trail, so we brought a Siberian husky named Maya). ![]() The Flume Trail is considered a very easy hike and does not require much preparation. The Flume Trail (also known as Brown’s Ditch Trail) is located in my favorite place in California Oakhurst – a quiet little town right outside the West entrance of Yosemite National Park. ![]()
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