Smyth Logwork and Construction

03/08/2025

So many steps to get this completed. Thank you Patty Burchell for the great photos!

03/08/2025

That is absolutely perfect!! Very fitting that the two people who spent the most time working on the Arch get to celebration by standing under it first!! Well done Ramey Smyth and Bryan Mills and the many many hands that helped make it happen! 🎉

03/07/2025

The Burled Arch is Nome! Ramey Smyth and Bryan Mills are in Nome to assemble the Arch along with the City of Nome's Public Works crew! Thanks to Patty Burchell for all the behind the scenes help!
Video by Bryan Mills

03/07/2025

Amazing!

03/04/2025

02/26/2025

The Burled Arch is looking beautiful!! All the letter have been routered in and painted. The posts have been cleaned and sanded and moved to the logyard. Bryan added some special touches and Coral got to help with wood burning and painting. Greg Heister stopped by to see the progress. It's all coming along nicely and will soon be on a plane to Nome.

02/17/2025

The burled spruce getting lots of care and attention at Northern Spirit Rustics shop. Each burl is carefully cleaned and the entire log is sanded and buffed. Clay is doing a great job getting it ready for the letters to be chiseled in. Photos by Bryan Mills.

02/07/2025

The burled Sitka spruce getting some nice drying time at Bryan Mills Northern Spirit Rustics shop.

02/02/2025

I am honored to help create the burled arch that symbolizes the end of the Iditarod Trail for all the racers and travelers.
I want to thank the people involved so far; the City of Nome and John Handeland, Mark Nordman, Travis Beals, Matt Cole, Smyth Logwork crew, Becca Moore, Chugach National Forester Dan Mico, Bryan Mills Northern Spirit Rustics, Southcentral Equipment, Forester Kate Thoden, and Seward resident Ben Ringler.
The City of Nome requested that I build a new burled arch so Travis, Ben, and I spent a few months searching for the appropriate tree. We found the tree in Seward near mile 1 of the National Historic Iditarod Trail. It was an old tree, near the end of its life, not far off from being felled by nature. After an extensive permitting process with the Seward Area Forester the permits were in place to take one specific tree for a historic purpose.
Months later, in January, after many details resolved, Matt, Ben, and I worked together to get the tree out of the forest with Southcentral Equipments help. I climbed about 40 feet high in the tree and secured boat anchor line around the tree to assure it fell directly in the clear. It was raining hard, as only Seward can, with the wind blowing the tree around in most concerning directions. Matt, my expert tree feller, directed the tree to fall in a perfect clear fashion despite it leaning opposite and the wind blowing against the direction. We blessed the tree, loaded it on the trailer, and hauled it through snowy Summit Pass to the ice stricken Matanuska Susitna valley. We brought it to my logyard in Willow where it could get peeled and sanded. My four-wheel drive went out and I ended up having to leave my truck 1 mile from home due to the ice and rain. It was a glorious journey. My wife kindly pick us up and gave us a ride back to the dog kennel. The tree is now peeled and preparing for its next phase, at Bryan Mills Northern Spirit Rustics log furniture shop, to be dried by a blazing woodstove. To be continued.....

01/31/2025

Loading the burled tree for transport to Willow.

01/31/2025

This is one amazing tree!