Audio Tour:
This tie hack cabin came from the Wyoming Timber Company’s Big Creek Camp near Blackhall Peak, south of Encampment.
A tie hack was a person who cut logs and shaped them into railroad ties. Tie hacks lived in camps much like a small town. Camps had small stores and sold necessities. Meals were served in communal cookhouses where women often worked, although some women were also tie hacks.
Tie hacks preferred to work in winter months when trees and ties were easier to maneuver across the snow. An average tie hack could cut about 25 ties per day, with some overachievers producing as many as 50 ties per day. The average tree could yield around 6 to 7 ties.
In the spring, ties were floated 40 miles downstream to Fort Steele and loaded onto rail cars.