River Recovered® is a trademarked phrase by Goodwin Heart Pine.
During the early history of the United States up until the development of the steam engine the waterways of the United States were used to transport logged timber to the sawmill on rafts. Many logs fell to the bottom of the river during this transportation, these water-preserved logs are now being recovered by divers, the word River Recovered® describes the modern origin of these old logs.
Because storms and other natural events also cause wood to sink to the bottom of rivers, divers have determined particular characteristics to distinguish the trees worth salvaging, these include what can be called end feel such as ax cuts and flat cut ends, and “cat faces”.
An ax cut end indicates the tree was likely cut sometime prior to the mid-1880s, before the steam engine came into use in the South. Flat cut ends show that the tree was logged by two-man crosscut saws, used after the mid-1880s. This allowed them to cut trees much faster for rail transport.
"Cat faces" are whisker-like scars, signifying the log is a long leaf pine tree that was once tapped for turpentine.