Cantiere forestale

The website, created at the Ghiacciaia Lake, is dedicated to "Oreste Rey," a historical memory of the town and the Colombano Romean ecomuseum. It is the Reconstruction of a logging site from the early 1900s and is set up near the location where a large part of the felled timber in the Gran Bosco was once deposited.

Since the eighteenth century, the pine forests of Gran Bosco provided timber used in important civil and military engineering works of the Savoy capital, such as the Basilica of Superga, the Royal Palace of Venaria, the Regio Theater, and the military arsenal.
By the end of the nineteenth century, about 80% of the forest heritage in Salbertrand was owned by the municipality. Local or forestry companies would purchase parcels annually designated by the municipal administration based on yield and time since the last cut. In the municipality of Salbertrand, the best forests in terms of quality and quantity were located in the area of Gran Bosco between the bend of Rio Gorge, the Cumbarà d'tsusse, the Crōsä, and the Ruchà dla Sapiā.

Until 1950, tree felling and branch cutting were done exclusively with axe and sickle. Saws were used to segment the trunks into predefined lengths to best meet commercial demands and needs in logging and transportation on wagons. Often, the timber was debarked before being moved to limit parasitic attacks, facilitate rapid drying with a significant loss of weight, and improve its slideability in the channels.

Even during felling, to facilitate the logging phase, the loggers ensured that the tree's fall was oriented as much as possible with the treetop upwards and the butt downwards. Much attention was paid to avoiding damage to neighboring trees and to regeneration. Simultaneously with cutting, the rest of the team would begin transport, which could be done by mule tow or sliding in the channels to the beds of the Rio Gorge and Oretta streams or Cumba Curauda and Gran Cota, now dried up.
At the beginning of the 1900s, the advent of metal cables allowed for a new aerial transport system: cable cars.

The destination and temporary storage site for the logs from the Gran Bosco was the municipal alluvial area near Pinea, close to the current equipped area of the Park, where a platform (platea) was set up for loading onto wagons.

The lumberjack's job was demanding and dangerous. The working hours were never well-defined; starting at dawn and often returning at night after a one-and-a-half-hour walk, unless one chose to stay in specially built cottages in the woods.
Work would only stop when the snow reached waist height.

Text excerpted from the Cahier n.5 of the Ecomuseo Colombano Romean "Lu trovou du bo" by Oreste Rey