This steam-powered tractor engine contains a placard nearby that tells us its history and reads:
McGiffert's Marvelous Machine
The McGiffert Log Loader was an outstanding example of what men with ideas, ability and vision can accomplish in their desire to increase production and cut down costs.
Steam Loader on Rails
Invented by J.R. McGiffert in 1900, only a few of the thousand McGiffert Log Loaders manufactured exist today. This one was last used by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in 1961.
With the McGiffert, the railroad could deliver the loading equipment as well as haul out the logs. The self-propelled McGiffert rolled to the log-loading site, then settled massive legs onto the railroad ties. Once in place, the McGiffert titled its wheels off the tracks to permit empty flatcars to run under it for loading.
Operated by a crew of four, the 50-ton McGiffert model before you is a "swing-boom loader" that could turn its tail boom horizontally to more quickly load logs than its "still boom" predecessor. It could load 350,000 board feet of timber every day--enough for more than 30 two-bedroom houses!
This log loader is massive and takes up quite a bit of area within the outdoors museum. Please allow at least an hour to fully appreciate all there is to offer here.