WINTER LOGGING IN THE KOOTENAYS IN EARLIER TIMES
Winter logging on the BC coast is relatively straight forward- when it snows shut er down. Yes, there are frequent small falls of wet snow that are not strong enough for a shut down but sometimes arctic air roars out to the coast and sticks around causing some real good snowfalls that shut things tight. These events are much less serious and frequent than they used to be but still happen.
However, in the interior snow and cold are constant companions and you either log through it or go home. Sometimes logging in these conditions is hard and dangerous. George Doi knows this because he and his family had to move from Royston in the Comox Valley to Bay Farm in the Slocan Valley where George worked as a logger and forester in the 40,s and 50’s then wrote about his experiences for the Nelson Star. Here he is “ truthfully, I don’t think about logging anymore because it has been so long since I left the job but , from time to time I do think about those days when we were logging in the winter. I don’t know how cold it gets or how much snow you get nowadays up in the mountains of the West Kootenay but over a half century ago sometimes it got so cold that trucks were kept running and skirts like blankets were wrapped around the jammers (a yarding method that featured a truck mounted A frame and winch. According to Fritz Farenholtz—-The jammer was Inventedd by loggers at Burns) with kerosene lamps lit and placed under the oil pan. As a faller I would put on my snowshoes to move from tree to tree. We used shovels to dig down to the ground to keep the stumps low and made steps to get out of the tree wells safely. The exhaust from the power saws would be so over whelming that you had to climb out for fresh air from time to time. Any disturbance to a snow and ice laden tree could send it crashing down in a huge pile – a bomb. Engelmann spruce was probably the worst for accumulating now and ice. You could not out run the bombs. What I did was cling tightly to the trunk, hold my hardhat, cringe and as I heard the roar of snow and ice falling. I took a deep breath of oxygen and prayed that nothing lethal would hit me. As the tree shed its load, you could hear a large whoosh. That pushed the oxygen out of the well and left you gasping for air. If all you endured was snow inside your shirt and melting down your back, you were lucky.
Out in the open, snowpack would be seven feet or more and sometimes smaller trees would not fall propped up by the wall of hard snow. I am sure Fallers Nick Evdokimoff and Jim Varney would have some interesting stories to tell as well. In the 1940’s, I wore bone dry pants and jackets that were made from very coarse canvas by Jones Tent and Awning of Vancouver. They were common loggers wear on the coast just as was Stanfield’s two-piece underwear that was made in Nova Scotia. My IEL (Industrial Engineering Limited) power saw was manufactured in Vancouver and also my Pierre Paris caulked boots that were popular with loggers. Old Billy Clarke of Howser made my bear paw snowshoes. The trees were all native to BC. Everything was made in Canada. A great country then and still is – Indeed” George never complained about conditions even though he could be working in deep snow and minus 20-degree temperatures. He seemed to have a good relationship with everyone and mentioned quite a few of the people he worked with. Since there is extraordinarily little written about Burns Lumber, I will also add names of people who worked there. My Dad was one of them along with Gordon and Bob Burns, the owners. They were friendly and talked with everyone. Every few weeks Gordon and Bob would grab some of the more adventurous men and head off to Calgary for a few days with a designated driver to wheel Gordon’s large black Lincoln or Packard over the Rockies
Other men were Reg Goldsbury , Pete Dunne, Doug Gallagher, and Ernie Trozzo. Mike Panko, Johnny Murray, John kinakin, Ray Kosiensic, John Chernoff,, Pete Rilkoff, johnny Lucas and Kenny Lipsack, . Sam Mackie. Bill Majelski, Pete Sherstobiotoff, Jimmy Jardine, Bud Browell, Fred Kazakoff Court Tarr and Fred Fominoff and Jack Monroe. I think Louie Del Puppo and Buddy Mayer may also have worked at Passmore and went on a few Calgary Runs. According to the internet George Doi Is very much alive and lives in Langley. The net also revealed that he recently walked around the world in virtual terms. Another fact for us oldsters is that his family once owned Mae’s snack bar beside the Civic Centre in Nelson , a favorite hangout after a movie or a hockey game.
George may be one of the last Passmore Loggers still standing. Although my brother Tom met a man out in the Slocan Valley who was a designated driver on some of Gordon’s Calgary runs. No doubt he had some great stories but Tom couldn’t pry much out of him. Gordon probably had a gag order on him.
Slocan Lake in today’s shirtsleeve winters. The last really tough winter in the Kootenay’s was 1968-69.
George Doi at 88. Still going strong
Bob Burns died many years ago in qn auto accident at Christina Lake. Gordon sold Passmore in 1959 and tied to setup an operation in Chile. He just got started when the new socialist government nationalized forest land. Senor Salvador Allende only survived for a few years. Gordon claimed he had something to do with Allende’s demise because he had the ears of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. No one knows if the Americans killed Allende but they probably did not make it easy for him.
A right-wing dictator (Senor Augusto Pinochet) was installed in 1973 and lasted until 1976 after piling up human rights violations and misery for Chile.
I don’t know if Gordon retrieved any of his investment but he returned to Nelson and died in the 1970’s.
Other companies tried to operate TFL 3 but large-scale logging is no more in the Slocan. There is still one Burns in the business however. Bob’s son Gary has a woodlot near Slocan City and gets a few loads every so often. Like Gordon he also logged in South America helping Guyana set up its Forestry Program.