Early morning 451 passes the site of the long-gone Mallard Siding, where in the early days the railroad would park bulkhead flat cars for tanning bark loading over the winter and into the spring. Homesteaders clearing land would have all kinds of uses for the wood from the felled trees, and the tanneries in town would pay them for the bark. The homesteaders would bid for one or two cars normally, which the railroad would set out in the fall on small sidings throughout the developing areas to be collected in the spring. A welcome source of income for industrious pioneers, but when you think about it a heck of a lot of work to fell and strip the trees and load the 8' bark strips crosswise to fill the cars!
