Life in the Slow Lane, Lee the Horse Logger .

Even in farm and ranch country, horse drawn wagons are an unusual sight on the highway. As I passed them I wondered where they were headed. I first saw the wagons and 4 huge draft horses set up in a parking lot, next to a McDonalds restaurant, in a small town 20 miles north. A big crudely painted sign was on the back of one wagon, signifying a need for feed for the horses. The big Suffolk draft horses ( think Budweiser Clydesdales) all looked healthy and cared for, and they were each enjoying a leaf of hay behind the wagons.

The wagons were hooked one behind the other, like a one man wagon train. First was the covered wagon that was the driving wagon, followed by a smaller supply wagon, which was trailed by an even smaller wagon packed with a few items. The covered wagon had a stove pipe protruding from the canvas; indicating that this was not only the driving wagon, but home to the wagon master as well.

There were plenty of gapers as we passed by that parking lot the three days they were there. Sometimes a man would be out cleaning up behind the horses or feeding them. Sometimes he would be talking to a visitor who had stopped in to see what this was all about. Some folks showed up in their pickups with hay and/or straw. The town was all abuzz. Who was this fellow with the wagons?

Some complained of cruelty to the horses. How could some one just leave horses standing on concrete in this cold, snowy weather for days? Horses weren’t made to travel highways with big trucks and cars. Or…He must be a Gypsy! Why didn’t he get a job and stop sponging off folks? And on and on.

Once again, folks with the least information voicing the strongest opinions.

The horses were blanketed, well watered and fed, and, if properly shod, highway travel wasn’t a cruelty. As it turns out, the horses are equipped with rubber boots for highway travel.

Anyone who has never hitched a “four up” team of horses couldn’t possibly know the amount of work involved; or the amount of work it takes to properly care for and groom four huge horses daily. And besides, how did they know he wasn’t working his way across the country? Turns out he was.

But I also wondered to myself, who was this fellow who stuck his hand in the face of convention, and chose the road less traveled, by a means nobody travels anymore?

A few days later I came upon the horse drawn wagons traveling south on a state highway. On the last wagon was a sign that read “ Lee the Horse Logger” and it had a dot com address. When I got home I did some research. I would have loved to have stopped and interviewed the wagon master myself, but the weather was a snowy mess, and I didn’t have the time just then. And maybe he didn’t like to be bothered? But a Google search and Lee’s web page provided me with enough info to satisfy my curiosity. Turns out he’s famous...sorta. He has granted interviews all over the country... and all over the country he has been.

Lee Crafton was by most accounts a Montana rancher until a few years ago. He lost his ranch somehow, took what cash he had left, his horses and wagon, and set out on August 9^th 2006 to see the world from a different view. He’s been travelin this way ever since. From the east coast to the west coast, he’s seen America from behind his draft horses, at a speed of about three miles an hour. His horses aren’t made for the Derby; they’re bred for power. These animals don’t pull 60 second miles, they pull logs. That’s how he earns a living on the road, lumber jacking. Moving logs for folks, with horses, instead of tractors or heavy equipment. He accepts donations of hay and food and cash along the way, but earns his keep when and where he can.

Lee is a college educated man who says he learned more from poverty than from college. He sees the good side and bad side of life at the slow pace he travels. Any condemnation of his lifestyle has been dwarfed by the generosity that he has been shown through the years. People offer him anything from harnesses, to meals and a shower. He has battled cancer, and 36 below zero temperatures. He has faced adversity in the loss of beloved horses (which are all affectionately named) and dogs, but he obviously remains committed to the hard but simple life of wagon living, and logging. He speaks more of the benefits of his life, than of any hardship he may face. He would have made Thoreau proud.

Today he is working logs at a farm about ten miles north of the Chicken Ranch; tomorrow who knows? He may have a plan, or maybe not. Lee was quoted in a Kansas newspaper once about day to day life, “You just live it and see where it takes you”.

Wherever it takes him from Illinois, it won’t take him fast. At three miles an hour, life is lived in the slow lane. That seems to suit Lee the Horse Logger  just fine. And it makes some of us a little more than envious.


For more info on Lee and his travels:http://www.leehorselogger.com/