Salvaged Lumber from Snowfences

Where I grew up in New Jersey, the road department would come around every fall and erect snow fences in the open farm fields bordering our rural back roads. (The snowfences pictured above are not N.J. snowfences!) The fences in N.J. were made out of very thin pieces of wood held together by wire and were about four feet tall. When the big snows and wind came, the fences would do their jobs by trapping snow and preventing it from piling up on the roads. When winter was over, the snow fences would be rolled up by hand and stored until next winter.

So, when I heard about a company (http://www.centennialwoods.com/) making a variety of reclaimed wood products, including floors, from old snow fences, I was somewhat surprised, given that the snow fences I was familiar with were too flimsy to use for anything but kindling once their useful life was over. What I didn't realize was that the company was in Wyoming, and using reclaimed wood from Wyoming snowfences.

As you can see from this photo from Centennial Woods, Wyoming's snows and snowfences are MUCH larger than what I'm used to.

This is another unique example of all the various, surprising sources that exist for reclaimed and/or antique lumber. You can read more about antique lumber at http://www.architecuralsalvagenews.com/