Heading Home Via Dubois

Some of the beautiful fall colors heading towards Dubois...
Some of the many types of equipment being used for construction in the Shoshone National Forest...
Dubois has long been connected with the timber industry. Beginning in 1914, the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company ran tie-cutting operations near Dubois, supplying ties to support the
CB&Q railroad. With the combined efforts of the Wyoming Recreation Commission, the
Wyoming Highway Department and the US Forest Service erected a memorial dedicated to the perpetuation of the memory of the hardy woods and river men who made and delivered the cross ties for building and maintenance of the Chicago and North Western Railway in this western country.

Rough, tough, sinewy men, mostly of Scandinavian origin, whose physical strength was nearly a religion. The millions of cross ties they hacked out of the pine forests kept the railroad running through the West. The tie hack was a professional, hewing ties to the exact 7 inches on a side demanded by the tie inspector. For years he was paid 10 cents a tie up to $3.00 for his dawn to dusk day. Board and room cost about 1.50 a day. Mostly bachelors, they lived in scattered cabins or tie camps and ate hearty meals at a common boarding house. Entertainment was simple and spontaneous. A few notes on a “squeeze box’ ‘ might start an evening of dancing, with hob nailed boots scarring the rough wooden floors. The spring tie drive down the Wind River usually ended with one big party in town with enough boozing and brawling to last them another year back in the woods.

These hard-working, hard-drinking, hardfighting men created an image that remains today only in tie hack legend. By the end of World War II, modern tools and methods brought an end to an era that produced the proud breed of mighty men—the tie hack.

A cut, shaped and peeled tie weighs 120 pounds. Each tie hack was responsible for shouldering his own ties and carrying them to a decking area located by one of the narrow roads through the forest. The hacks marked one end of the tie with his own symbol—a letter or number, and was
paid by the number of ties marked with his symbol. When winter snows arrived, horse drawn
bobsleds moved the ties to a banking area next to a dammed up pond. A bobsled loaded with
120 ties weighed 7 tons and was pulled by two horses. When the spring thaws came, tie hacks
dumped their ties into the ponds on smaller creeks and fed them into flumes for the journey
to the Wind River.