........Comment by Bill Moore

...The forest around us

Christmas gift
suggestions
for loggers




....So I said to the editor – by long distance phone – “Ed, what this mag-azine needs is a little culture. You know, high class stuff and things like the New York times prints.” I gathered by the click at the other end that he was highly impressed and so dear readers, in accor-dance with the time of year, here’s your shopping list for your friend – the logger.
....Apart from the obvious things he may need like a new logging truck, log loader or Gilcrest Jack – those being commercial mundane things – why not send him a book. Not only will you be adding to his culture, but you will help to keep the pulp and paper business alive, which I understand is a bit flaky these days. Imagine then the condition it would be in if we used old Eatons cata-logues and orange wrappers in our bath-rooms. Disaster for Zee! (Environmentalists take note – that was true recycling before you knew how to spell the word.)
....Well anyway, back to culture and our shopping list. There has never been a time when the history and the heritage of the forest industry have been so well documented. As I grew up in this industry it seems to me the only books I could buy about logging or forests were the poems of Robert Swanson depicting the loggers’ life in the bush.
....I can remember going on board the Union Steamship Catalla or Cardena
 
to their newsstands and buying Swanson’s “Rhymes Of A West Coast Logger.” I believe there were four different little books published and for those that have them they should be considered collectors’ items.
....So little was written about the camps and the woods in those days. There were “Tugboat Annie” stories in the old Saturday Evening Post that occasionally touched on a bit of logging – or the odd adventure story on the great “north west loggers” in Argosy or Colliers – but the stories were far from true and presented a poor picture of the times.
....Bob Swanson should be thanked by the industry for putting down in words, at the time, the feelings and times of those days. In the fifties Ralph W. Andrews published several books about the forest industry that have become classics. “This was Logging,” “Glory Days of Logging,” “This was Sawmilling,” to name a few. Andrews used the photographs of the noted Darius Kinsey to depict the times and places and people of the industry on the west coast of North America. These fine books are sometimes still available and no book collection on forestry can really be without them.
....“Timber Country” by Earl Roberge is a large, truly beautiful book of modern photographs taken by the author, of scenes of our forests, log-ging and its people. It covers the entire
 
Pacific Coast from California to Alas-ka and would have to rank as one of the finest volumes of forest photo-graphy ever printed.

....A different type of forest industry book, but one that is a real dandy is “First Growth” – the story of British Columbia Forest Products Limited. This is also a large so-called coffee table book” filled with interesting interviews with the people who have participated in the birth and growth of this large B.C. firm. I was impressed by the style of interview taken from camp cooks such as Paul Lemon, from union organizer Percy Clements and from company president Ian Barclay. The historic pictures add to the really interesting text. A must.

....In somewhat the same line, but of older vintage – “A Hundred Years A Felling” is an excellent historical book on the logging and milling scenes of the Ottawa Valley from 1842 – 1942. It is a history of the Gillies family, founder of Gillies Brothers Limited, compiled by Charlotte Whitton. To read of the exploits of such famed personages as J.R. Booth, of the great river drives on the Ottawa River and how Eastern Canada became a world leader in forest products, you should not miss this fine book.
....Last year another excellent book was published entitled “Timber” by G.

page 14  
British Columbia Lumberman, December, 1976

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W. Taylor..Taylor writes of the history of the industry in B.C. and traces most interestingly how this western province developed her forest stands. He tells how the large forest companies were formed and how the Forest Service Law came into being.
....One bit I enjoyed in “Timber” was Taylor’s mention of the “first pulp produced in commercial quantities in B.C.” It was from the Canadian Pacific Sulphite Pulp Co. at Swanson Bay in 1909. Down through a long line of bankruptcies, litigations and mort-gages this old company is now repre-sented by Rayonier of Canada – a part of the giant I.T.T. organization. A fine historical book on our heritage.
....Two other books I have enjoyed and that bring out so much of the story of our coastal forests in B.C. are “The Raincoast Chronicles First Five” and “Whistle Up The Inlet.” While neither of these books deals entirely with the forest aspect, they do contain information on our industry that is hard to duplicate anywhere else.
....“Whistle Up the Inlet” is the story of the Union Steamship Co. and it is full of fact, history and interesting stories of the trials and tribulations of this shipping company that called in at every broomstick and floathouse on the coastline of B.C. Written by Gerald Rushton, who worked for the Union Steamships for 38 years, it is filled with pictures of the old ships that carried loggers to and from the camps up and down the Pacific Coast. For those loggers wishing to recapture some of the unforgettable memories of the “glory-hole” of the Venture I would highly recommend “Whistle Up The Inlet.”

....“The Raincoast Chronicles First Five” is a different type of book. It contains stories and history of the B.C. coast as compiled by Howard White. There are poems of loggers and a good earthy history of logging. The book has been put together in a most interesting style and any west coaster would love to have it.

....I could not close this article without commenting on what I consider is the classic of forestry books. “Woodsmen Of The West” was written in 1908 by M.A. Granger. It is the story of an Englishman’s observations of our Pacific Coast at those times and in particular of what was then the logging industry. His accounts of Carter – the logger, of camp life in Knight Inlet, of

 

Cordova Street in Vancouver and his grasp of the early loggers’ times are a must for those who live in our somewhat more comfortable industry now.

....“Woodsmen Of The West” is a pocket book – no pictures – but it is alive with the flavor of the men who were in on the beginning of our indus-try in B.C.

....I believe all the books I have mentioned above can be obtained from the Duthie Book Stores in Vancouver. Possibly others will have them too, but I notice that Duthie keeps a great

 
stock of Canadiana.
....So there, dear readers, are a few suggestions for your “lucky logger” at Christmas. Just so my editor does not fear I shall go on too many culture kicks – “I promise you Ed – I won’t write a word about the antique Ming vases that were found in a hollow cedar stump at Potts Logging Co. last spring.”
....Have a safe ’77 and –
 

...............Keep out of the bight,

British Columbia Lumberman, December, 1976  
page 15