Our Movie with pictures of Mr. LePage Mr. Alcide LePage a Friendly Man in our Town by Ethan Salley and Scott Bailey Mr. Alcide LePage had many jobs during his life. One that was possibly his worst was the log drive. He was cold in the high water, uncomfortable, and sometimes was forced to sleep outside. In the spring Alcide had to go up to Flagstaff on a boat to cut wood. Then he would go on the Dead River, and travel down to Augusta. Meals were a big plus, though, because he was fed 4 times a day. He was paid $21 a week. He started at daybreak and worked all day. During the winter, Alcide would cut more wood. Mr. LePage would then drive the horses and tractors. Back then, skidders were not used; they only had horses. After cutting, they'd peel the bark with an ax-like tool. Pitch usually got in their hair and skin, so the only way to get rid of that was kerosene. Back in the 1940's and 50's there were lumber camps, but there aren't anymore like that now. Two sides of the camps would be bunks, and in the middle there were two wood stoves. There were over 150 men living in the camp, so there wasn't always room for everybody. Their food for each meal was the same thing for several days in a row. To cut trees, they didn't use chainsaws. They used two-man saws. Afterwards, the people using the saws were really sore. Alcide used those saws many times. "You didn't go chasing the girls, you'd go staight to bed," said Mr. LePage. The logs would usually go to the 2 mills in Madison, the papermills in Winslow, or to the Fraiser's Papermills in Augusta, and that would wrap up the season of log driving.