Post it!
Hi Len I think that picture take Febuary 1966 , I believe that was taken on Lens 6500 next to the"Slide Area" . The yarder is the #665 a brand new 110ft. Skagit . BCFP wanted an IJ-80 Inter-Lock winch on it , but Skagit didn't recommend it and wouldn't install it on that tower . So BCFP sent an old Highlead Winch to Skagit and had it mounted on the #665 Tower (no cab , just a Wing over the operator ) . BCFP bought the IJ-80 winch separate , Jim Weir ran the #665 until the IJ-80 winch arrived , then the #665 was taken into the shop to have new winch installed . That was when Jim W. was put on the #717 Burger Tower , when the #665 came out of the shop Bill Shoeburge was the operator .
That setting was relogged in about May 2006 , I hauled the new growth logs off it with a 2001 Western Star Tridrive Tridrum Highway Logging Truck .
I remember Stan Woods . Reg Beale Rigging Slinger , Stan Woods & Chuck Marrow setting Chokers on an ugly setting on top of Garbage Creek ( over looking the abandon Bear Creek Skidder ) Summer of 1970 on High Lead setting #762 Skagit 120 ft. telescoping Tower . Reg went on to be a Woods Foreman died of heart problems several years ago . Chuck was playing with drugs , got really messed up , Stan was a hard worker and very smart , bought a Gravel Truck and did very well in Nanaimo area . I ran into him a couple of years ago at a car parts swap meet at Parksville . He seemed to be in good health and enjoying life .
Crazy Carl comes to mind .
Your absolutely correct Len . Mt Demers in the background skyline and the slope of the hillside look much like the landing next to the "Slide Area" landing . I can recall Punking Whistles from the top square lead down across the road part way down the lower Quarter , when Bob Robertson came down the hill to tell me because of the deep snow up on Dent Creek they couldn't start logging a Slackline setting of Fall & Bucked Timber , so he had to lay me off for a couple of weeks . When I was hired back in about three weeks , the yarder had been moved down to the next setting . I don't recall Strict Austin or Stan ? being there , maybe they were on another side or weren't up to Fred Mc. standards . I wasn't there long before I was moved to the Burger Tower on Hemingsten Cr. 4000 . That was another eye opener . The Burger's Tower was stood up but the Lowbed Carrier with the Winch was gone . The Tower had been stood up then the Carrier had been taken to the shop for some repairs (I think Rollie Kennedy was the operator at the time ) and a Highlead yarder on a wooden sled (Buster Bradshaw was the operator ) was used to yard the setting . Sometime in late Spring or early Summer of 1966 the #665 was taken into the shop and had the IJ-80 Winch put on it . While it was in the shop Fred McMurry raised the Division's last "Wooden Tree" on the Lens Cr. flats above the Lens Cr Junction , I can't remember the Yarder's # but it was refferred to as "Yellow Canary " .
Hi John The IJ-80 Winch worked out very well . Fred McMurry was a very "production minded " seasoned logger and always had a trick or short cut in his back pocket , wether it was setting a choker or splicing a cable he could show you a trick . As the Trainer on the Training Side he would work with the various workers as they moved from Setting Chokers to Chasing or Rigging Slinger in the Division , Fred would give one some good Safety Practices and then some pointers on how to do the job in the most productive way . Bill Shoeburge was one of the best "Donkey Punchers" I have worked with . Both Fred & Bill were from the "Hiball era" , as a result the Training side was also the Blue Ribbon side most of the time !
