Albuquerque Citizen

BIG DRIVE OF
TIES ARRIVES
Santa Barbara Tie and Pole Company Has No Fear of High Water—Interesting scenes at Domingo.

For miles above Domingo, the waters of the Rio Grande are alive with ties, representing a winter's work in the woods and the big spring time drive of the Santa Barbara Tie and Pole company. A. B. McGaffey of the company reached Albuquerque today after an absence of nearly a week during which he has been actively superintending logging operations.

"The most important thing about the drive from our standpoint," said Mr. McGaffey today, "is that we have demonstrated that we can drive logs down the Rio Grande in either low or high water and do it successfully. Last spring, we waited for low water and used every precaution. We expected to do the same this season but after our ties were afloat, the river rose to the highest mark of the season and our drive came down like the California limited on a level track. But to our satisfaction, we made the drive with every element of success and over a hundred men are now at work pulling the ties from the river at the big boom near Domingo. We find that not only can we drive the ties down the river at high water, but we can actually do it cheaper and more expeditiously. Next year when we get ready, we will start, without regard to whether the river is high or low. If anything, we will give preference to high water."

The scene at Domingo is a strange one to this part of the country although a familiar sight anywhere in the great lumber regions of the north.

The river is alive with ties and as far as the eye can see, they are still coming downward with the tide. The great boom catches them and the lumber jacks, many of whom are from the northern lumber camps, hastily haul them ashore. By special machinery, they are lifted from the river, swung inland and dropped aboard flat cars on the company's siding, ready for shipment to the tie treating plant south of this city. The first shipment will come through next week and from that on there will be a train load or two daily until the quarter of a million railroad ties are delivered to the plant.
The work of taking out the ties goes on day and night. The night crew sleeps in tents and hastily built bunk houses and works by the light of huge bonfires which crimson up the sky for miles in the vicinity. The scene is an active and interesting one. Many of the men fall into the water but they are so accustomed to it, that they do not think of changing clothing and scramble onto the treacherous boom to work as hard as ever.
Charles Connors, a foreman in charge of logging operations, had a narrow escape from death, a few days ago. He fell from the boom into the swift current and became entangled in a big cable and a rope. He was submerged for several minutes but succeeded in freeing his head and getting it above water. The force of the current drove him against the cable, painfully bruising him. For almost an hour he remained in the water when a native laborer made his way to the spot and after an exciting period, finally cut the ropes and set the foreman free.
Despite his harrowing experience, Mr. Connors merely crawled out, sat down for a few minutes and then went to work near the same spot where he so nearly lost his life.
A lumber jack, who was smoking a pipe, caused much amusement today. He slipped from one of the logs on the boom and went head first into the water, which was very swift and deep at that point. He dived like a duck, came up and scrambled out, without losing the pipe from his mouth. The only remark he made was: "Now, damn it, my pipe's out".