Lost photos, caution

eelgrass · Jul 25, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Jul-25-18 AT 07:48AM (MST)[p]May not be suitable for all audiences. Trees were harmed. I was just a kid who got a job that paid $5.25/hr. That was big money back then. When in Rome do as the Romans.

I vaguely remember taking a few photos when I worked on a logging crew back in the late 60's, but I hadn't seen them since I took them. My daughter found them the other day and had a DVD made and then she put them on my computer. What a surprise. She wasn't even born yet when I took them.

I remember I wanted to "document" a tree being felled, but duty called before it actually hit the ground.

This wasn't a particularly big tree, just a tree he was falling that day.

The fallers name is Don Jackman. I didn't remember his name until I saw the photo and then it immediately came back to me. Fallers usually worked in pairs but for some reason Don always worked alone. I never saw him with a partner. Standing on spring boards making the undercut.

Using a gun stick as a line of sight to determine precisely where he wanted it to fall. He was a true master at it.

Putting in the backcut just minutes away from the big crash. Duty called so I never got a photo of it actually falling.

I have a few more photos and maybe I'll add to this as time permits. I'm pretty busy these days.

MT_55 · Jul 25, 2018

WOW! Thanks for sharing.. I'm from the Midwest and took the family out there this past spring to see these massive things. Around what year was the last one taken down before it got "shut down"?

feddoc · Jul 25, 2018

Post 'em up, young fella.

eelgrass · Jul 25, 2018

MT_55, around 1975 was the true end of the old growth. That was the year they called "Redwood Summer". The remaining old growth on private land was purchased by the Government and was turned into Redwood National Park, and also Headwaters Forest Reserve to the south.

MT_55 · Jul 25, 2018

>MT_55, around 1975 was the true
>end of the old growth.
>That was the year they
>called "Redwood Summer". The remaining
>old growth on private land
>was purchased by the Government
>and was turned into Redwood
>National Park, and also Headwaters
>Forest Reserve to the south.
>

Interesting.. So what if you have old grown on private land now? I assume pretty much all Redwoods are untouchable?

eelgrass · Jul 25, 2018

>>MT_55, around 1975 was the true
>>end of the old growth.
>>That was the year they
>>called "Redwood Summer". The remaining
>>old growth on private land
>>was purchased by the Government
>>and was turned into Redwood
>>National Park, and also Headwaters
>>Forest Reserve to the south.
>>
>
>Interesting.. So what if you have
>old grown on private land
>now? I assume pretty
>much all Redwoods are untouchable?
>

They are still logging Redwood, but it's all 2nd and 3rd growth. Occasionally there will be an old growth tree that was left from the old days for various reasons, but they usually just leave them be as there is no sawmill set up to handle logs that big anymore.

eelgrass · Jul 25, 2018

I do remember one setting that was logged before I got hired. We drove by it every day on the way to work. There was 1 big giant tree standing all alone. I asked why, and I was told that they held off falling it because Life Magazine wanted to film it being fell. They never showed up and eventually they pulled all the machines and crew out of there, so there it remained. I wonder if it's still there?

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

My job that summer started out as setting chokers behind the Timberjack, a rubber tired skidder. It was a new concept to the company to have a machine that was faster than a Cat, but was limited on what it could pull. Our job was to clean up all the smaller logs (pecker poles) so the fallers could fall the big trees. It had limited success.

Bill Dills. He was our blade man. He built all the roads and skid roads and opened up the ground so we could get to the logs. Heck of a nice guy. He died about 6 months ago and I went to his funeral and saw a lot of guys I haven't seen for many years.

Left to right is Bob Mullens, yours truly, and Bill Dills.

D-8 pulling an arch with a nice one log turn. Bob Mullens at the controls.

The log landing. We used this landing most of the summer and averaged 35 truck loads of logs a day and set a new record of 50 truck loads one day. The Company gave us all an award dinner later that winter for our production and no major injuries...by the grace of God.

I have a few more photos, in color next time.

DeerHunter53 · Jul 26, 2018

Hey Eel see any Sasquatch's up there when you guys were in the Redoods?

MT_55 · Jul 26, 2018

>Hey Eel see any Sasquatch's up
>there when you guys were
>in the Redoods?

And.. Find any deer or elk sheds as you tromped throughout the woods??

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

Amazingly no Sasquatch's or shed antlers of any kind but lots of mosquitoes. I don't think elk had expanded out that far at the time, but I'm sure there are now. This place was called Apah Creek about 7 miles up river from the mouth of the Klamath.

We were only about 1/4 mile above the river and I caught a lot of steelhead at the mouth of Apah Creek and Blue Creek that fall because the Company gave me a key to the gates. I wish I still had access, I'd like to revisit it.

feddoc · Jul 26, 2018

What is the reason for this cut?

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

>What is the reason for this
>cut?
>
>

Best explained here. That guy is wishing they would hurry up and invent the chainsaw.

DW · Jul 26, 2018

Eel what is he looking at on his saw? I realize he's trying to determine where he's going to drop it but what is he looking at to determine that?

#livelikezac

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

DW, the handle bar. It's mounted 90 Degrees to the bar, which gives you a sight so to speak.

NVBighorn · Jul 26, 2018

"Farmer face" LOL!

I have to be honest... I never had a chainsaw that ran like that or cut like that. Maybe if I had I wouldn't hate them so bad.

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

Did you notice those two small Redwoods were growing out of an old stump from back in the day? There are only two ways you can kill a Redwood tree. Get a fire going hot enough for long enough or dig the stump out of the ground. Otherwise they live in perpetuity.

257Tony · Jul 26, 2018

>"Farmer face" LOL!
>
>I have to be honest... I
>never had a chainsaw that
>ran like that or cut
>like that. Maybe if I
>had I wouldn't hate them
>so bad.

The guy in the video does awesome porting work, send him your saw and watch it rip!

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Jul-26-18 AT 06:16PM (MST)[p]NVB, get your saw insane-o ported and cut all the trees in Nevada down in about 2 hours. All 6 of them.

eelgrass · Jul 26, 2018

I sprung for a roll of color film a few days later.

Note the silver thing on the stump in the lower right hand corner. Anyone know what it is and what its used for?

Johnny Walker on the saw.

This tree had one trunk and three tops. Kind of a bonus. Tommy Langford on the saw. I had an arrangement with him. I asked him if he would chainsaw a burl off that I found one day. He did and when I thanked him he said "I drink Coors". So the next day I brought him a case of Coors. From then on, every time he came across a nice burl he'd cut it off for me and I'd bring him Coors. By summer's end I ended up with a garage full of good redwood burl.

Caterpillar 988 was the loader. Not hard to average 35 truck loads a day with logs like that.

There were certain trucks and drivers who had special permits to haul over weight. This, no doubt was a permit truck.

The End. Thanks for looking.

DW · Jul 26, 2018

Johnny walkers lunch box is my best guess on the silver object.

What's the 2 wheeled cart lookin thing beyond Johnny's lunch box? What did some of those 1 log loads weigh?

#livelikezac

cjboz · Jul 26, 2018

Seen pics of my dad with a few one log loads from the 70s?, but that takes the cake. My dad always joked with me as a kid ?stumps and gutpiles put a smile on a guys face?

1911 · Jul 26, 2018

Eel, I would love to download your brain on a memory stick. You?ve forgot more cool stories of just ?life? than most guys could hope to collect in a lifetime.

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

The two wheeled cart thing is an "Arch". There is a winch attached to the back of the Cat and the cable goes from the winch up through the fairlead in the arch and then to the ground. The cable has a hook on the end. A choker is put around the log and the eye of the choker is hooked onto the hook of the main line. The Cat operator can then winch the end of the log up off the ground. The log pulls a lot easier and doesn't dig into the dirt.

I have no recollection as to how much the logs weighed. Sometimes the loader operator and the truck drivers would almost get into fist fights over weights is about all I remember.

The trucks have built in scales on the truck and the trailer both.

Soj51hopeful · Jul 27, 2018

Very cool pictures eel. Not sure what the deal on the stump is, but the two wheel cart on the back of the cat is to lift the front of the log as it's being skidded so it doesn't nose dive in the dirt.

Soj51hopeful · Jul 27, 2018

Ah you beat me to the skidder cart.

Is the silver thing just the corner of the rubber skidder blade?

NVBighorn · Jul 27, 2018

>Eel, I would love to download
>your brain on a memory
>stick. You?ve forgot more
>cool stories of just ?life?
>than most guys could hope
>to collect in a lifetime.
>
>

+1 hard work being done by hard working men usually makes for great stories. Thanks for sharing eel.

Jagerdad · Jul 27, 2018

Is the Silver Box for Coffee.. ?

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

The big silver thing on the stump is a steel wedge. If a tree had a diameter larger than about 9', the fallers bucked it into 20' lengths. Then the logs would be split into quarters so they could be legally hauled. They used a Cat blade to ram the wedge in. The Highway Patrol was pretty strict about load width going down the highway.

If we were logging on company land close to the sawmill none of the weight or width rules applied because it all happened on private land.

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

If you ever run into one of those steel wedges at a garage sale, you'll know what it is....

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

Jager, it was not a coffee pot. The unwritten rule back then was "don't drink more than you can sweat because you won't have time to take a pi$$."

DW · Jul 27, 2018

>Jager, it was not a coffee
>pot. The unwritten rule back
>then was "don't drink more
>than you can sweat because
>you won't have time to
>take a pi$$."

Lol!

#livelikezac

DW · Jul 27, 2018

How big were those wedges?

#livelikezac

Towelie · Jul 27, 2018

Wow looks like dangerous work. Surprised you made it to retirement eel.

A high school friend lost her son in a logging accident in No Cal a year or two ago. Left behind a new born and young wife.

257Tony · Jul 27, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-18 AT 03:30PM (MST)[p]So when you said 35 truckloads a day, you're talking about one GIANT tree cut into 35 pieces?

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

Towelie, I'm sorry to hear about your friend's son. That can happen no matter how careful you are. It just happens. So many things can get you out there. I was only in the woods for 5 years and saw several career ending injuries but no deaths, fortunately. I could have died several times but luck was on my side. That's all it was too, just luck.

DW, those wedges were about 4' long and 2' wide. They were hollow, just welded steel and not solid.

elkassassin · Jul 27, 2018

Was In Washington around 1990!

Hoping to see some Big Trees!

A Couple Locals up there said:I'll Show you some Big trees!

So We go out & He Points out one of the Biggest Trees around!

A F'N PISSCUTTER & I Told Him I'd FELL Bigger than that back Home!

He got an Attitude real Quick!

No Doubt,I seen some Big Stumps & Some Real Old pieces of Trees that were Big!

Another Local told me most of the Big Boys had been Poached and some Poached during the night!

"""HOW MUCH IS THAT TIMBER WORTH"""?

I know so many people in so many places
They make allot of money but they got sad faces

It Ain't Easy being Me!

1911 · Jul 27, 2018

A few years ago I went on a trip out of Bako to the northeast. I don't know if it was still in kern county or not but only an hour or so out of bako. There is a place up there called the trail of giants or something. Mind you these are smaller redwoods than up north. I was astonished at the size of these redwoods. I was also astonished at the number of Japanese tourists waddling around.

eelgrass · Jul 27, 2018

There are two species of Redwood trees. Actually 3, but the one in China doesn't count.

The coast redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) are the ones we have in northwest Kali. The other one is inland (Sequoia Giganteum). Those are the ones you saw 1911. They are bigger diameter than the ones we have but the ones on the coast are taller.

And an old growth Redwood forest is very cool to look at, but that's about it. I would never camp in one. It's dark and damp and mosquitoes would eat you alive. Plus many of them are dying and they drop limbs all the time. If it gets windy get out. The best thing to do is walk over and take a photo then move on.

eelgrass · Jul 28, 2018

Back then the Company had a little tour bus and about once a week they would give a tour of the sawmill and then bring people out into the woods and show them their tree farms and then bring them up and show them an actual logging operation. Public Relations I guess.

Anytime we got a new guy on the crew, at some point the big boss would show up at lunch time (we always ate lunch on the landing). He would make the announcement that the tour bus would be here tomorrow with a bunch of people from Hollywood and Raquel Welsh would be one of them. He would tell everybody to be on their best behavior and at least wear some decent clean clothes. We might even be able to get autographs!

Without fail the new guy would show up in fancy duds all nice and clean. Of course the bus and Rachel Welsh never arrived. It was just a practical joke on the new guy. Yep, they got me too...LOL!

elkassassin · Jul 28, 2018

>Back then the Company had a
>little tour bus and about
>once a week they would
>give a tour of the
>sawmill and then bring people
>out into the woods and
>show them their tree farms
>and then bring them up
>and show them an actual
>logging operation. Public Relations I
>guess.
>
>Anytime we got a new guy
>on the crew, at some
>point the big boss would
>show up at lunch time
>(we always ate lunch on
>the landing). He would make
>the announcement that the tour
>bus would be here tomorrow
>with a bunch of people
>from Hollywood and Raquel Welsh
>would be one of them.
>He would tell everybody to
>be on their best behavior
>and at least wear some
>decent clean clothes. We might
>even be able to get
>autographs!
>
>Without fail the new guy would
>show up in fancy duds
>all nice and clean. Of
>course the bus and Rachel
>Welsh never arrived. It was
>just a practical joke on
>the new guy. Yep, they
>got me too...LOL!

Hey Eel?

You Got a Pic of You in Your Church Clothes & All the other Guys in their Loggin Gear?

And Did you get a Kiss from Rachel,LMAO!

That's Perty Funny!

I know so many people in so many places
They make allot of money but they got sad faces

It Ain't Easy being Me!

justr_86 · Jul 28, 2018

I retract calling you a sissy the other day eel lol.

eelgrass · Jul 28, 2018

>I retract calling you a sissy
>the other day eel lol.
>
>
>

>

It's okay Justr,...lol

elkassassin, I never got a kiss but I carried that new white cotton glove and a felt pen around for a couple weeks just in case she showed up...

ICMDEER · Aug 1, 2018

Those are some super cool pics, Eel. You are a man among us boys. I have a few logging stories from Wyoming, but nothing that can compare to the things you have in those pics. This is a great thread and THANKS for sharing.