The museum of timber rafting

Forest is the wealth, the beauty and the pride of the Carpathian mountains. It covers almost a half of the territory of Zakarpatska region. Beeches and firs make up 90 per cent among the various sorts of trees. They are considered to be perfect building material. That is why it is not strange that industrial usage of wood started to develop long ago.

Earlier the main occupation of the local inhabitants was, except cattle breeding, forest-works. Forest not only fed people, but also warm and protect them from invaders. Dwellings, domestic buildings, transport facilities, tools, different things of family life – tureens, spoons, barrels, tables, benches, cupboards etc., were made of wood.

In the course of time people accumulated the experience of wood processing, the methods of building both structurally simple and difficult constructions, which were weatherproof, fit for life and industrial processes.

To our time there are a lot of remarkable and original examples of people's wooden buildings (dwelling, household, religious and industrial constructions) preserved. Among them one can admire the unique technical construction of XIX century – the wooden dam in the Chorna Rika (the Black River), which flows across Mizhgirsky district. This dam was used for timber rafting. The rafts were called the bokory. Complicated technical and architectural solution of this dam was based on the experience of practical usage of violent mountain rivers for domesticity and on the riches of people’s building traditions.

Since rich Carpathian forests supplied people with a fair amount of timber, manufacturers faced the problem of its transportation. The cheapest way was timber rafting. That was the reason of erecting dam in the Chorna Rika. By the way, timber-rafting dams were rather popular formerly, but they have not been preserved by present days.