Loggers and Their Lore Transcript
- This program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by the subscribers of KCTS 9. ♪ Well I'm sick of setting chokers in this dog-on rain. ♪ ♪ I got everything to lose and nothing to gain. ♪ ♪ I'm plum sick of setting chokers on these steep hillsides. ♪ ♪ Well I just come up here to these great Northwoods ♪ ♪ to try to make a killing. ♪ ♪ They said a logger's life was really great, ♪ ♪ and a logger's life was thrilling. ♪ ♪ Well, I've been here quite a while, ♪ ♪ and I ain't been thrilled. ♪ ♪ A couple of times I was darn near killed. ♪ ♪ And I'm plum sick of setting chokers in this ♪ ♪ dog-on rain. ♪
- I think the hardest thing for me to get used to when Andy and I were first married was, getting up early in the morning. I mean, early. In the summertime it can be 2:30 or three o'clock in the morning. Many times, I've asked myself, what's so special about the job of logging that a guy would wanna go to every day and risk is life? After he had a second accident, he thought, "Well, I better get away from logging." So he went to another job for about a year, and he missed logging so much, that he just had to go back to it. This is a love poem that I wrote about a man that works in the timber. There's pride in her eyes, for she knows he's the best. As turn after turn, he's put to the test. A kiss means so much as he goes out the door, she knows one mistake, There won't be anymore. But her smile disguises all fears held within. She whispers, "I love you.", and hugs him again. Her love is made stronger as he goes his way. Just having the hope at the end of each day that he will return with the kiss that she gave and bring her the strength to face a new day. ♪ Well, every day in the woods is a picnic. ♪ ♪ It's a great, big, happy affair. ♪ ♪ And I sure feels good to work out in the woods ♪ ♪ and breath fresh mountain air. ♪ ♪ But sometimes a myth that I sure wanna quit. ♪ ♪ I'll have to say, it's a loggers dream ♪ ♪ And this here dream, ♪ ♪ it's a picnic every day. ♪ ♪ Now you can go to work for some big outfit ♪ ♪ and work there for a while. ♪ ♪ You can work a few days until your first pay day, ♪ ♪ then walk around with a big old smile. ♪ ♪ Cause you're feeling real fine. ♪ ♪ Getting close to the time ♪ ♪ when you can spend little time in town. ♪ ♪ You're a logger now and you're gonna show them how ♪ ♪ to spread a little dough around. ♪
- Course, we started out early, you know, to work in the woods. Like I was only 14 when I went. I quit school from the eighth grade, you know. My work was tree topper and a high rigger. I done that for 30 years, you know. I was up there. I knew what I was doing. I think I did anyway.
- When the top starts to fall, it shoves the top back of ways like this, back of quite a ways. You know, when it... And then it goes forward and then sometimes you wonder it is gonna bust over, or what it's gonna do. You're riding it ways down there. Then he sometimes even throws about a 16 foot spiral.
- Like to climb and sit on top there for, sometimes for, even on all you know, just looking over the scenery out there, and just taking a chew of Copenhagen and the job was done. It was a little bit different. And now there was... There was no safety rules or nothing. When you went to work, you know, ask for a job on a camp, you know, and the first thing they do, they'd ask for your closest relatives see. To notify. Casualties were quite frequent. You know, like heater badly maimed, or killed. Locomotive would haul us up in the woods. Sometimes 15, 20 miles up into the hills. But when you stepped into that car, you were not sure he was going to come out feet first or fired. All the loggers had the... Well, in fact, we were born almost with a pocket knife. But the loggers, you know, when they had any spare moment at all they pull out the pocket knife and take a piece of wood and start whittling on it, you know. I guess they carved in Finland like that. You know, they made all kinds of... A lot of spoons and utensils used in the kitchen. And come Christmas time, dad had gone out and got an nice Christmas tree. And then, but then to get some toys underneath it. And we'd wake up in the morning, a big ball of shaving in front of the kitchen stove. Come Christmas time, we found that they were underneath the Christmas tree. You know, there was little horses and little wagons. Everyone had a Christmas present. for the birds. Could whittle almost anything. You've got a sharp knife, and there's certain satisfaction. I made those wooden hinges. I thought it was kind of unique to make them out of wood. I made it outta wine maple. And I hadn't had 'em all along there. People come far and wide to see my... And take pictures of, of the hinges leading to my toilet. But when I got outside there, I made that for my wife. And we used to watch the birds in that. My wife, she used to write a lot of poetry. The memories are still pretty keen. And you feels like her spirit's with me all the time and well, anyhow. That's me on top of that tree. It was... That tree was 204 feet tall, and kind of set in the canyon there. That was in them old days, you know, and I enjoy the woods really.
- In the great Northwest, I logged with the best. And camped with the bad ones too. Why a logger stayed with a logging trade, I don't think anyone knew. Wear your corks with pride boy and stag your pants up high. You'll never log at all, boy, no matter how you try.
- When I was a little kid, I used to hear these talk about loggers and logging. And a logger was kind of a hero. I used to like this working in the woods, because it was more adventurous. Now this was in the earlier days when worked in these logging camps and, some of them you could only reach by railroad, you know? And then I just like those people that worked there you know, they were my kind of people. They commiserate in their own language. I don't know too many that have this poetic feeling although there's a lot of poetic loggers, but, I've never heard it expressed right out there in the woods. You know, it's just hard, hard work. And, if you don't look out, it'll kill you. So there ain't much romance than that. Nobody called them boots. They call 'em cork shoes. Now boots was, to them, was something that a farmer wore when they was cleaning manure out of the barnyard, you know, and that would be demeaning to a logger. And yeah, they mean a lot, them shoes. Of course your life depends on no shoes. Because you don't want that foot slipping.
- The old steam pot there on the hill, her boiler cold, her whistle still. The huge first sled that held her tight has softened from the weathers might. Back in her young and fruitful day, she'd throb and hiss, and pulse away. Her whistles on a morning clear, were music to the logger ear. The puncher opened the throttle wide, showering sparks across the countryside. But price and market made her die. A silhouette against the sky.
- Hey, where do you see that beach up here, and all along here? You know, when Mount St. Helen erupted, it swept this whole beach. You know, there was Cedar galore. There was even so nice Cedar, that I was a little bit reluctant to get it, you know. Cause Weyerhaeuser was flying up and down here with a helicopter.
- Yeah.
- They didn't seem to care. I got all my .
- I don't know if I'm self taught or not. Because I bought anatomy books. The more you know about the bone structure, the better you can carve, see.
- Once you can handle that chainsaw, the rest is form. You can't teach form.
- I had a strange feeling like I gave that wood life.
- Oh, to be back in the logging woods. To relive my working years. To be with the crew when the morning due sparkles, as the daylight clears. To feel the brush of the low hung bows, the good earth beneath my feet. And hear the faller's warning cry as he scurries to his safe retreat.
- Sometimes I get out here and have little problems or feeling like you got a belly ache or something. I just pick up my ax and throw it the block. And I don't get any sass back from it. The early days in the woods where you hand bucked and did a lot of chopping was a contest to throw and stick the axe in a tree. And one of the jokes that a lot of loggers played on others, was to come by the fallers and take his ax and throw it and stick in the tree, where he couldn't reach it. My old daddy, he said, "Save your timber, if you can, we're gonna run out someday." Got my first scar when I was five years old working with him. Bumped it on the saw. I like the feel of the wood in my hands. Each piece of wood is a different texture. And the smell, each wood smells different. And it takes back to the days you were out there with the big ones.
- I worked in the woods for years and I'd traveled this road several times. And I spotted those big old growth trees out along the side there. So I decided to come in here one day by myself, and look it over. And it was just like a little cathedral. And so, when I feel low or I'm hurting, I just come up here and sit. I get a lot of inspiration and I write some poetry. Have you ever walked toward nature is in command? Walked with a feeling you are a part of all about you? Walked where the passing of your footsteps were the only sounds to be heard? Walked where you felt you could converse and relate with a life about you? If not, come walk with me, and listen to the voices about you.
- I suppose my interest from horses came because you can't take a piece of equipment in the woods without making some sort of disturbance. And that rates real high on a lot of people's lists. They don't like to look at a disturbance and the horses will leave a real minimum amount of disturbance and still get the job done. My father and my three uncles logged together with horses. I must have sawdust in my veins, I guess. Whoa. Another reason I like to use the horses, is it is a low cost. Boom. All right, boys, easy now. Well, horses are very competitive and, that's why they like to pull. And they really enjoy it. And when they know they're going to pull, they get keyed up. You need to give the horses a break once in a while. So they catch their breaths. When they pull these heavy logs they kind of run out of steam after a while. All right, buddy. One of the things that you watched for most is to make sure that they're not gonna hang the log up. It's not gonna hit an object like a stump or a root that will stop them dead. If he stops dead still real quick, it's gonna hurt him even with all the padding. So he's smart enough to know that that hurts him. So he's gonna quit pulling after a while. It'll take the spirit out of him, in other words. Just being out in the fresh air, being able to work and work hard, which I do enjoy, and it is hard work, especially being with the animals, it's just a whole combination of things that makes me love it. I do enjoy the woods. And I think that we always will need areas that are unroaded. I like to see wilderness areas myself, even though I am a logger. And I do enjoy the park that we have. But I think that it can also be overdone. People have to realize that this is the most prime timber growing country in the world. And that... I don't feel that we should be locking it all up into wilderness areas.
- There's new growth out there on the hillside, and across the canyon floor. What was once fire black and stump land is desolate no more. There are those that assail the logger, and say he rapes the land, but for him, they'd be caught in the outhouse, with no paper close at hand. They ask for primeval forest, set aside across this land. And they will blame again the logger, when things get out of hand. We all have a jobs before us. And none of us need to shirk. Leave the treetop job to the loggers, and the rest of you tend to your work.
- So many times I've read articles and talked to people about logging and, they're real critical. They think the loggers are going up and just chewing up all the timber and destroying everything that's there and not putting anything back. And I've always been really angry about that kind of an attitude. So it's really a neat thing for loggers to be able to gather like this, and just kind of help people to understand that we're all families earning a living and, Hey, we go out camping too. The guys that own their own log trucks, there's a pride there that, their spirit's about as big as their truck. And what they do is very important to the logging industry. And they know it, and they're proud that they're a part of it too. ♪ Wake up before the dawn ♪ ♪ lace my cork boots on. ♪ ♪ It's spring again, the best time of the year. ♪ ♪ The sun comes peeping through, ♪ ♪ to kiss away the morning dew. ♪ ♪ And birds a singing is all your go to hear. ♪ ♪ All through the canyons and hillside, ♪ ♪ the male birds are singing to their new brides. ♪ ♪ And it makes you feel good inside. ♪ ♪ To a lonely logger, brings a little cheer. ♪
- Hey, be careful. You're about 93 feet up in the air. You dropped your rigging, you dropped your rope. Sonny , our show manager's got one of your balls in his net. Did I say that right?
- I brought an extra in case I dropped one!
- The log shows that we're a part of now, for the most part, our events and the type of equipment they use a lot of it was from the old days. The old crosscut saw, which is called misery whip. And if you ever were on the end of one, you'd know, it really is pretty tough, sawing a tree with one of those. So a lot of what they do now is representative of how it was done back in the old days. ♪ If you like to dance on water, ♪ ♪ be out with the dogs and the fish, ♪ ♪ then get a job on a booming ground, ♪ ♪ and live a life of risk. ♪ ♪ Hauling logs with the old pike pole. ♪ ♪ Hauling logs with the old pike pole. ♪ ♪ Floating around on logs all day, ♪ ♪ hauling logs with the old pike pole. ♪
- Told you, never get that get in front of you like that. You gotta have it off to the side like this
- You're on camera!
- We did good. One thing about logging that I really love. It's kind of a little bit of the past. The man is the provider. He's the strength of the family. And the woman is the lady. You don't find very many women out logging. That's definitely a man's world. ♪ He puts on his big belt and straps on his spurs. ♪ ♪ To climb up that high takes a man with real nerves. ♪ ♪ Throws his rope around . ♪ ♪ Kicks his spurs in the bark. ♪ ♪ And he starts his big climb. ♪ ♪ Up the tree with his rope, ♪ ♪ lifts it up and then turns back. ♪ ♪ Pulls his spurs from the bark, ♪ ♪ takes another step up. ♪ ♪ When a limb's in his way, ♪ ♪ it's gone with a chop. ♪ ♪ And he keeps on a climbing til he reaches the top. ♪
- My grandfather and also my great grandfather were loggers. And I feel like it's kind of in the blood. When you ask me if Carl's gonna be a logger, I think, if there's any trees left to cut, I think you probably will. ♪ Cause every day in the woods is a picnic. ♪ ♪ It's a great big, happy affair. ♪ ♪ And a sure feels good to work out in the woods ♪ ♪ and breath fresh mountain air. ♪ ♪ But I sometimes admit that a sure want to quit. ♪ ♪ Still I'll have to say, ♪ ♪ it's a logger's dream, ♪ ♪ and it's pure cream. ♪ ♪ It's a picnic everyday. ♪
- This program was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by the subscribers of KCTS 9.
