Legend has it that Humboldt was once home to a bustling logging industry.

They say whole settlements, like the mythical town of Scotia, were built under powerful timber barons who made their fortunes clearing Northern California’s untamed backcountry.

They say burly, blue-collar workers called “lumberjacks” chopped down giant redwood trees as big as 747s. And if you walk through the woods on a quiet day, you might still hear the swinging axes and the grinding of saws … They say.

Actually, people still cut down trees around here from time to time. And modern woodsmen have taken to the internet to share their adventures.

The two tree-falling videos embedded above and below were posted to YouTube earlier this month. The one above reportedly shows the downing of a massive fir tree somewhere in Humboldt County.

The one below, which already has more than 10,000 views, was posted by the popular YouTube page hotsaws101, and reportedly shows workers cutting down a “dangerous” redwood leaning along a busy Humboldt County roadway.

Could these modern videos be evidence of the ancient logging societies that came before us? Scientists can’t say for sure, but some lumberjack enthusiasts still explore Humboldt’s backcountry, searching for the lost logging towns and listening for their ghostly call …