........Comment by Bill Moore ...The forest around us |
Fifty
years of contract logging |
....In 1928 my father, Albert Moore,
began contract logging in Quatsino Sound on the northern end of Vancouver
Island. The company he contracted to log for was the B.C. Pulp and Paper
Co. The contract was a handshake. The times were poor and the price
of logs was low. There were no bonuses unemployment insurance, frills
or paid holidays. The only security was a person’s ability to
hold things together and make them work. |
....Winter Harbour was known as a remote
area in those days. Four days by Maquinna from Port Alberni on the West
Coast. And if you came from Vancouver via Port Hardy it took at least
two full days of transfer and travel. Needless to say, loggers didn’t
move around too much in those days. |
wicks. His
rule of authority was the small hand pump he carried on the evening round
when he lit the lamps. ....There have been a lot of ways thought up to get logs to the water or mill, but of all the systems devised, I am sure the most spectacular was the log chute. Three of the Germyn boys were working for my father about 1933 when our chute was built. As I remember, it was about 500 feet long, coming from a high flat area above the beach to the salt water. It was built on two large bottom logs and two side logs – lashed and cradled on the steep slope. A steam donkey reached out from the top end of the chute and skylined logs in from coldeck piles. By a simple maneuver, the logs were “kicked” into the chute opening and went on their merry way down the slide. ....It was spectacular to see the logs hit the water. I remember big cedars splitting when they hit and long skinny logs going underwatwer for hundreds of feet like a submarine. A steam whistle was always blown when the men were about to “kick” logs into the chute opening, to warn the boommen down below. ....A-frame logging on the big tide flats would not be tolerated today, because of the environmental impact. Then, we didn’t know how to spell the words, let alone know what they meant. It is interesting to note that in visiting the same tide flats we logged in the early ‘30s and ‘40s, one cannot see any harm done to the beaches. I guess nature can look after these things quite well if they are not done on too large a scale. ....I look out from my house now and I see the big hill, where in 1945 we moved the steam coldeck donkey up to yard logs. For those who never saw a big Willamette Steam Donkey on a sled being moved about in the felled |
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page 44 | British Columbia
Lumberman, August, 1978 |
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and bucked timber, it is
difficult to describe. Pulling itself by its mainline, through a well
“chunked out” path, the big machine was like a fiery dragon
of hisses, and puffs and bellows of white steam. The Big Hill rose from
the beach to a height of 1,200 feet in a distance of just less than 3,000
feet. Some of the finest trees we have ever logged came from the top of
the Big Hill. ....Two men, Ernie Johnson, the hook-tender, and Hal Gerrish, the donkey engineer – along with a crew spent six days moving that steam pot up the hill. There were times when it was nearly on end. Wood had to be bucked and |
split ahead for the firebox,
and a water line had to be always ready – as the square wooden water
tank would spill most of its water. What I describe are the kinds of jobs
we do not see anymore in the woods – thank goodness! The nerve and
skill needed by men like Ernie and Hall is indeed hard to find today. ....The cookhouse was an interesting and memorable place in the float camp days. A good many cooks kept a little brew behind the stove. This was made from left-over juices and fruit, and properly seasoned – it packed a real whallop. Liquor was not easy to get in the remote places, so anything was |
welcome to the thirsty
ones. ....Today there is tv and recreation halls and any number of nice things – and deserved – in camps for the men. My earliest recollections of loggers at recreation was watching men play cribbage or sew their clothes or knit socks. And there were no jokes about it either! ....I’d like to talk about some of the hills and valleys next month. A couple of tidal waves – mountain slides – and a few jolly things like that. .........................Keep out of the bight, ..........................................Bill Moore |