Maine logging to be focus of History show

By their own admission, the host and crew of The History Channel series “Guts & Bolts” are not afraid to get their hands dirty.

So when host Tim Beggy, producer Chris Gidez and the “Guts & Bolts” crew visited Maine last spring to shoot a segment on logging innovations, having to negotiate unpaved logging roads in the thick of mud season and stay in Spartan cabins wasn’t a problem.

For “Guts & Bolts,” a program that explores the history and inner workings of technological advances, the crew spent two days in northern Somerset County shooting footage at Comstock Woodlands Corp.’s remote logging camp in Comstock near the Canadian border.

“They wanted to do a segment on the way logging was done in olden days as opposed to today,” Brian Bouchard, president of Comstock Woodlands, said Monday. “I guess you could say we were chosen by reputation.”

The segment on Comstock Woodlands’ operation and mighty timber harvester the Timberjack 1270D will air at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, on The History Channel.

Comstock Woodlands Corp. is a Hampden-headquartered logging company and heavy equipment distributor affiliated with H.O. Bouchard Inc. While the Maine company’s rich logging history is woven into the program, John Deere’s technological beast, the Timberjack 1270D, is expected to steal the show.

Gidez said the mammoth machine – perfect for what lumberjacks call late thinning and regeneration harvesting – is not your run-of-the-mill harvester. The Timberjack 1270D’s swivel suspension system and high-powered diesel engine enable it to go anywhere.

“It’s a pretty amazing piece of equipment,” Gidez said Monday by phone from his Connecticut office. “We’ve done a lot of stories about a lot of equipment, but this is not something you see every day.”

Before heading to Comstock, Gidez, Beggy and the film crew met at Chadwick-Baross Inc. in Bangor, a retailer of the Timberjack 1270D, to look at the machine, which Comstock Woodlands has had for about two years.

Bouchard’s father, Harold Bouchard, a longtime lumberjack and chairman of Comstock Woodlands, gave the “Guts & Bolts” team a history of timber harvesting in northern Maine and the impact of technological advances such as the Timberjack 1270D.

Gidez says the Timberjack 1270D makes the whole operation more cost-efficient and reduces the number of lumberjacks.

“This technology really showcases the way companies that are involved in forestry have evolved,” he said. “The operations are much safer.”

But “Guts & Bolts,” in its third season, is not a passive program. Just seeing the harvester wasn’t enough.

“We employ a blood-sweat-and-tears way of showing what’s going on,” Gidez said.

The crew ventured into the woods where they could see the Timberjack 1270D at work. And, in keeping with the show’s theme, Beggy got down and dirty by operating the heavy machinery himself.

Gidez called the Maine woods experience, “definitely one of a kind,” but said what he’ll remember most is the food.

“They’ve got all the modern amenities out there,” Gidez said, “but it’s an interesting way of life.”

Eric Russell can be reached at 990-8175 and erussell@bangordailynews.net.