The old logging site exhibition takes the visitor to the old time logging sites and timber floating routes – to the golden age of buck saws, lumberjacks and the Finnhorses. The exhibition displays lots of articles, photographs and film materials related to the logging sites and timber floating operations. They all portray the long history of Finnish forest work and timber floating, as well as that way of life, work and people, in a fine and vivid way. Would you happen to know what a withe, log pontoon or capstan was used for? Or what in turn brush side piers or side piers were?

A horse-drawn sprinkler sled was used to freeze the main haul roads primarily at the old logging sites in Eastern and Northern Finland. They used a wooden piston pump to pump up the water from a hole in the ice on a lake or river. It took about 5 minutes to pump approximately 1.5 cubic metres of water. This amount would provide enough water to freeze over about 1-1.5 kilometres of a main haul road.

Large scale timber floating started at the end of the 19th century in Finland with the intense growth of the forestry industry. The golden age of timber floating lasted until the 1950s. The labour-intensive timber floating in smaller streams came to an end first, and gradually all floating in small waterways ceased, as well. The miniature depicts timber floating at Lake Saimaa in the 1930s.

A winch boat was used in timber floating for moving the timber raft. An anchor with a long cable was thrown in the lake or sometimes to the shore, and the boat was rowed towards the timber raft while uncoiling the cable. The boat was then attached to the boom of the raft, and the anchor cable was spooled back onto the winch drum by hand, thereby moving the boat and the raft in the desired direction.