The Raw Material Phase of the Wood Crosstie Story

This portion of the 2011 RTA Photo Contest is over and several photos have been received illustrating the Raw Material Phase of a wood crosstie - Seedling ⇒ Mature Tree ⇒ Harvesting ⇒ Transporting to a Sawmill.

The Winning Photos are:

First Place - Paul Lupo of Walker Lumber in Woodland, PA. This is a white oak acorn just sprouting. Paul took it with his Canon 8MP SLR Digital camera in Pennsylvania Furnace, PA.

Second Place - Lance Ramsay of Mechanicsburg Lumber Co., LLC of Yazoo City, MS. He took this photo of a maturing cherry bark red oak in the forests near the Saline River in Bradley County, AR with his Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS camera.

First Honorable Mention - Doug Greenwood of DIA Enterprises in New Bloomington, OH.

Other Honorable Mentions -
Anthony Brewer of Thompson Industries' Collinwood, TN plant

Mike Poor of Thompson Industries in Russellville, AR

A second photo by Doug Greenwood of DIA Enterprises

Although members of the RTA Executive Committee were not eligible for prizes, some of them submitted photographs that we loved.

Frank (Skipper) Beal of Beal Lumber in Little Mountain, SC sent in 2 pictures of crosstie history:

and Jeff Broadfoot of Thompson Industries in Indianapolis, IN shared this shot of the "Grand Canyon of the Ozarks."

Finally, we hope you enjoy traveling back to the early 1900s with Eddie Holley's photo of his grandfather on a horse in front of an old steam engine sawmill in Humphreys County, TN. Eddie is retired from Kerr-McGee Chemical.