Michigan logging wheels

Michigan logging wheels, also known as big wheels, high wheels, logging wheels, logger wheels, lumbering wheels, bummer carts, katydids or nibs, are a type of skidder. It extended the season in which the logging industry could extract timber from the North Woods of Michigan, by removing the need for icy ground to travel over. The logging wheels were a specially designed large set of wooden wagon wheels that could carry logs that were up to 100 feet in length, several at a time.

Michigan logging wheels (big wheels) were first built by Silas C. Overpack in 1875, at the request of a farmer who had found they were useful for logging over softer terrain. At the time Michigan was the nation's leading producer of lumber. He painted his high wheels red.

Overpack's logging wheels could haul logs without the need for icy ground. They did not sink into mud in the wet terrain of the northern woods where ordinary wagon wheels would get mired in the spring thaw. The wheels also enabled a team of horses to pull several logs at a time. The logs were held by a chain that suspended the logs' weight from the wheel axle, creating a stabilizing, low center of gravity.

Overpack sold three sizes of big wheels: 9 feet (2.74 m) high, 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) high and 10 feet (3.05 m) high; they cost $100 per diameter foot, a quite considerable investment for the time. Unlike a wagon which carries a load above its axle, these huge wheels carried logs chained beneath the axle. The wheels could carry logs from 12 feet (3.66 m) to 100 feet (30 m) in length and enough logs to total 1,000 to 2,000 board feet of lumber in a single load. The axles were manufactured from hard maple, and the 16-foot tongues were made of ironwood. The wheels were clad with iron rims to protect them from stumps, fallen trees, and rocky terrain. Interior iron rings reinforced the wooden spokes of the wheels. They were pulled by horses, oxen, or tractors.

Overpack was a wheelwright in Manistee, Michigan around 1875, when he was approached by a farmer to build a set of 8 feet (2.44 m) wagon wheels. He built these unusually large wagon wheels and sold them to the local farmer. Time passed and later this same farmer returned asking Overpack for an even larger set of wagon wheels. Overpack was very curious by this time. He asked the farmer what he was doing with such large wagon wheels. The farmer replied he was using them to skid logs.

...
Wikipedia