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Alaskan Logging Equipment, Left to Rust

Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
I read an article about the tongues and Senator Lisa Murkowski. She was fighting for access into the king cove area.
I sent her office a link to this site in hopes she could use it. Her office replied with a thank you. Hope it is helpfull.
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
Here is what I dug up on Silverbay Logging
http://juneauempire.com/stories/020903/opi_edboard.shtml
Filed for Bankruptcy after a struggle to sustain a predictable timber supply.
http://www.bridgestonetrucktires.com/us_eng/real/magazines/98v3issue4/v3i4fleet.asp
Bridgestone Tires did an article on them

Clinton hurt us really bad. Couple of days ago the 9th circuit in Frisco reversed a lower court ruling and the Tongass is exempt from the roadless rule again! So now fish and game are trying to get the wolf on the endangered species list. Papac and Evergreen are still hanging in there, but I've already been through the axmen thing and it sucks...
 

Old tractor

Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2014
Messages
10
Location
Duluth MN
Occupation
Utility worker
Why

Well, they leave just about everything out to rust in Alaska. It's not just equipment. You should see what the "common folk" have sitting in their front yards. Tons of stuff, once good, now bucket of rust. And they leave it right in their front yards. Even Sarah Palin couldn't clean that up.

Why do they not take care of there machinery
 

Old tractor

Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2014
Messages
10
Location
Duluth MN
Occupation
Utility worker
That kind of stuff presses me off the owner is showing that he dosnt give a **** about his equipment .
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
I made a mistake on the order of ownership on this machine. After looking at this picture again I am positive that this machine is logging the first setting on the right past Last Chance campground, Control lake, Ketchikan. The original owners of Evergreen Timber were Rick Ludwigsen, Dave Davis, and Mike Meske. Meske went to Eugene, Oregon and had this one built. It's a 739 hoist on a 98 carrier with a 110 tube. This was the first setting this machine logged in Alaska. If you look in the upper right you can see the carriage and fall block as we were bending, hanging on a cat on the road to Harriot Hunt lake. We ended up the year at Long Island, and the company made 13 million that year!! Evergreen is now owned by Alcan...
 

johnson

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
138
Location
Pancevo Serbia
I was just about to say that i figured it out couse Seeley and Crown Alaska ran/run Linkbelt shovels and in the last few years Evergreen had a Komatsu loading under their 739 in every picture of it that I saw,not shoure on the time frame/location of the picture that your talking about this is a more recent picture I think from the Leask Lakes.When did the machine come to Alaska?I know Evergreen was on Long Island from at least 2009 but probably much earlier untill 2012,but the machine has bean in Alaska for much longer.
 
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AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
This picture was taken in 1996. I was there tending hook and we put the lines on the machine on March 22. This setting took about a week, and this was the 2nd company- 3rd yarder on this landing. We went to White river after this, and ended up at Long Island that year.
 

johnson

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
138
Location
Pancevo Serbia
Ok I see the setting now I was jus looking on the wrong side of the hill,I found some pictures of logging around Coon Cove and Im trying to figure out who was logging at Coon Cove at the time do you recognize any of the equipment?I see a Klukwan Fores Products/Long Island Development service truck in one of the pictures I know they logged around Ketchikan for several years in the late 80s early 90s,they had their float camp the Miller 205 there in 1991.
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_7425.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_214665.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_54394.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1310165868/gallery_26286_470_69921.jpg
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,870
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I went up to Ketchican a few times to work on Komatsu shovels owned by Klukwan. That Link-Belt crane looks like what they were using to drop packets into the water. I don't remember the name of the location but it was about a twenty minute float plane ride south of Ketchican and then east. There was a big red tide that year and the cove looked like someone dumped a million gallons of transmission oil in the bay.

The width of the roads and seeing a yarder being walked reminded me that they never hauled much of anything on a lowboy. One of the reasons I went one time was because they were complaining of the final drives on the shovels getting hot. When I got there all the paint was burned off of both finals on one machine. The operator told me they had walked the machine twelve miles without stopping to get to the next site. I don't recall them being around after 1992.
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
In 91 I was working for Alaska Pulp in Rowan Bay or APC, The Japanese owner of the Sitka mill. (war reparations) Klukwan was still operating at that time and this may have been them. I'll find out, the real Alaska Loggers are gone but I've been here for 40 years and can get info. After the axmen I've pretty much left logging, but I can still smell the spruce. We were on the Miller 205 in Long Island in 96, and I think Evergreen was in Coon in 98, but they had no 009's. Klukwan is my guess...
 

TorkelH

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2010
Messages
674
Location
Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Ok I see the setting now I was jus looking on the wrong side of the hill,I found some pictures of logging around Coon Cove and Im trying to figure out who was logging at Coon Cove at the time do you recognize any of the equipment?I see a Klukwan Fores Products/Long Island Development service truck in one of the pictures I know they logged around Ketchikan for several years in the late 80s early 90s,they had their float camp the Miller 205 there in 1991.
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_7425.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_214665.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1316816429/gallery_26286_470_54394.jpg
http://dinarvets.com/forums/uploads/1310165868/gallery_26286_470_69921.jpg
Mr Johnson, you are really talented in finding pictures and tracking machines on the internet! Thank you so much for your interesting posts!
 

johnson

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
138
Location
Pancevo Serbia
Thanks TorkelH wish I had as much luck in real life I have bean seeing a lot of log truck trafic through my town this spring and last fall (took a few pictures but ther was always a lightpole or trafic sign in the way of a greart picture still took a few good ones tho) but every time I vent looking for equipment (there Is a guy running a CTL system probably the only one in the country in the little forests there are around my town spoted it a few times from a car but newer had a chance to take picture bean hunting it for 4 years) all I found was a logdeck waiting for the selfloader.

John C thats a interesting story you have you ver probably on the roadsystem on Cape Fox land on the West side of lower Caroll Inlet I herd it called Shelter Cove but Shelter Cove is much more north up the Inlet,In 1992 Klukwan was at Hydaburg logging the hills above the town with Northwest Logging

AKlogger I think you might be right Klukwan ran a lot of 009s with a few Skagits and Thunderbirds.When you were at Rowan Bay was Mud Bay Logging still there I kow they had a big operation there in the 1970s?
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
No Mud Bay was done by then. This was APC's main camp until the mill was shut down around 94-95. Alaska Pacific went back in there around 2000. I was in Shelter Cove in 95 for KPC so Klukwan was not there. Johnson is right, they logged all around Ketchikan early 90's. They had 6 towers in a row logging Whipple Creek, late 80's early 90's. While they may have been in Hydaburg in 92 that doesn't mean they weren't in Coon at the same time. Coon Cove is 5 minutes from the Cape Fox log dump in White river, which is an easy lowboy from Whipple. I think these pics are Coon Cove.
 
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johnson

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Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
138
Location
Pancevo Serbia
WOW 6 yarders in a row bet that was a sight to see they logged it in 91/92 so it could have bean posible they were at Coon too in 92, When I mentioned Shelter Cove this is the area I meant http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=55.402975&lon=-131.395172&z=14&r=0&src=msa I know thats not what it's called but I herd it refered to as Shelter Cove and I don't know the real name, I don't know who logged it it is possible it was Klukwan?
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
Lets start on the left. This is George Inlet, and is basically the back side of Ketchikan. In fact this is a recent picture, and Evergreen-Alcan is logging, and dumping at The Cape Fox log yard all the way up on the left. If you go over to that raft that's by itself, and then down 6 inches or so you'll see clear cuts to the water. This is Coon Cove. Lets go back to where we started and go up the other side, this is Carrol inlet. Where the road starts on the left is accessed by Shelter, and if you look at the beach on the right of Carrol this is Shoal Cove where the road goes to the water. Up a ways on the left there's 2 bigger lakes with a little one in the middle, follow the road to the beach and zoom- you can see the dock, Where the camp used to be, and the dump. The area you asked about can be accessed by Shelter, or Coon. This is an interesting map, and there is a 739, and a 255 swing yarder to find around the White River dump.
 

AKlogr

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
15
Location
SE Alaska
I made a mistake, those logs are actually in Leask Lakes LTF. That wasn't there the last time I was. Cape Fox is a little south.
 

johnson

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Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
138
Location
Pancevo Serbia
Yes it is you can also see them cutting a right of way down the George Inlet through the 2nd growth thats probably when they conected the roads to Coon Cove with the areea I asked about before it was only water acess I think if you look on the Carroll Inlet side you can see a sort yard grown over by alders, it is a good map if you go to Kina Cove you can see Phoenix Logging's 172 Madill riged up by Merry Lake and a shovel side near it you can also see Evergreen shovel logging on Long Island.Forgot to ask the last time when you were at Rowan Bay with APC did they still have the Pirce PTY400 yarder there were 2 made one for KPC one for APC they were real monsters, KPC's is still around last used for dredging gravel and APC's sank on a barge south from Sitka ad I'm trying to figure out when?
 
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