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Northern California logging

Sidney43

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Jun 9, 2011
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175
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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Retired
Another photo of a D-8 with arch and a turn of Redwood logs. The standing trees gives some idea of what they were leaving for future growth, although other photos show what looks like clear cutting. Coastal Redwoods are among the fastest growing of any tree, reaching 80 feet in a relatively short time. I have four of them planted in a group at my home, which is hardly ideal habitat and they are about forty to fifty feet tall after fifteen years. It does take a long time for a tree to mature to the size of the big fourteen footer.

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Vigilant

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Eastern NC
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Attitude Adjuster at the Graybar Hotel
The snattlerakes would keep me away.

Ever know someone who was bitten? Unless you had some antivenin in the crummy, I doubt that one would stand much chance of survival.
 

Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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When I was working summers in the woods, it was always in rattlesnake country, but they were seldom seen. There were lots of theories about the sound of the chain saws driving them away, the machinery moving about, etc. I think it was more about whether there was a den in the vicinity that meant there were more of them in a particular area. I always thought more about it when I was lying next to a bigger log trying to poke a choker nubbin through a tangle of fir boughs. The question was always, will they rattle, or just grab onto my hand or arm. Yes I saw a few, but most of them were on one landing that had a creek just up the road a hundred feet past where the fuel truck was parked. Saw three of them one night, snakes need water also, so we both retreated, me with an elevated heart rate and they buzzing a warning that they didn't like being disturbed as they crawled into the fill rocks above the culvert.

Usually they were seen when it was early in the morning and colder, so they were not as active and could not crawl out of sight as fast. One story I remember is kind of typical and involved a tree that was marked for cutting but it stood about fifty feet above a creek and on a steep bank. Because of regulations it could not be fallen into the creek and had to go uphill, problem was it leaned downhill a bit. A cable was attached about thirty feet up the trunk and a Cat put tension on it to pull it uphill, but hopefully not on top of the Cat as they didn't have a hundred fifty feet of cable handy. The faller, who was not a real faller, but one of the crew who volunteered, created a path off the the side so he could make a quick escape when the tree started to fall. There were about four or five false starts where the saw was pulled out and the faller ran to the end of the escape trail some forty feet away. Of course when he reached the end of the escape route he stood there to watch the tree. When the tree finally did fall and he put the saw down, he realized there was a rattlesnake coiled up in the very cool morning about two or three feet from where he was standing and had been standing each time he ran down the escape route. It never rattled and never struck, but more elevated heart rate was the order of the day.

I guess the same thing occurred when out deer hunting. In twenty or so years of hunting, I never saw a rattlesnake, although I looked for a lot of them. I did see one camping one time and did see one when out fire fighting one summer in 1961. That is an interesting story in itself, so here it is. The Forest Service in those days would shut down all logging and ask for volunteers to report to the Unemployment office when they would get a big lightning storm, usually with no rain, so lots of little fires, burning snags, etc. That summer I was sent down to Oak Knoll Ranger Station on the Klamath River and the next morning accompanied an older (about 50) Forest Service employee to go out and look for a small fire. This was all before aircraft patrols, so they relied on look out reports.

We were walking across a grassy meadow, with some larger rocks and blackberry bushes, which meant there was a bit of water there. I was following this FS employee, who was a bit overweight, actually quite a bit overweight when he suddenly went straight up in the air and levitated forward about five feet before returning to the ground. My mouth must have been gaping open, because I had never see anyone make that kind of motion in my life, particularly someone in his shape. I stopped and he yelled "snake" as he turned around to look at me. Sure enough he had just about stepped on a large rattler that was sleeping as we walked up on him. We dispatched the snake and it had either eleven or twelve rattled and was about four and a half feet long. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I swear that I can see that impossible movement he made as clearly in my mind as if it happened yesterday.

Nope, we never had anti venom on site, guess we just would have had to make a quick run to the hospital, or called for a helicopter. Of course everyone wore high boots and that might have helped. I guess you never worry about something that didn't happen, yellow jacket bees were more of a worry, particularly for the Cat skinners.
 

Sidney43

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Jun 9, 2011
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175
Location
Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Retired
Just took a look at the last photo posted and the large bunk log is a Doug fir I believe and a pretty good sized one at that .

Just for a change of pace and since I am just about out of pictures unless some of the people I have been trying to get photos from come through, here is a picture of my brother Gary, sawing off a knot to make the loaders job easier. He is using a Homelite saw, not sure of the model, but it was more or less the standard for logging at that time. The partners had a lot of them and since I didn't know better I thought they were a pretty good saw. No compression release, so hard cranking, slow chain speed and fairly heavy, but they were what we had and they got the job done.

When my dad retired in about 1985, he gave me three of them, two ran OK and one was good for parts, so he told me I could use them for wood cutting. Along the way, my brother had upgraded to a Pioneer he bought from a professional faller, but I struggled with them for about fifteen years. One day I had an epiphany, why not see if I could get some money on a trade for a nice, modern Husqvarna. I took them to a local small engine, mower shop and he gave me fifty dollars credit toward a Husky model 55 with a 24" bar. Best decision I ever made when it came to chain saws and I still have that saw and a smaller model 036. Could have bought a Stihl, as they were the hot item for a while, but because I was a Swede by ancestry the Husky won out.

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Sidney43

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175
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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Retired
I little ways back I mentioned a Forest Service sale out of McCloud where A&N Logging was using a D8 (14A) to pull a tracked arch. It has dawned on me that while I posted a photo of those arches it was in another thread, so here is the same picture of a row of retired arches sitting near the McCloud River mill.

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Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Retired
Time to move on from my Dad's logging company, which was the original focus of the thread. Since I knew the photo's of that company were limited, the title was kept rather general so other loggers and logging companies could be posted as long as they operated in Northern California in some time period. I am in contact with a growing group of people who may provide some additional pictures, so will see what happens.

That said, I will be posting some pictures taken a month or so ago in Yreka, CA. A few years ago the yard around the shop was crowded with logging equipment sitting idle because of the economy. Unfortunately, I waited too long to get pictures and most of it has been sold off, but a few interesting old pieces remain as well as some current trucks that were once part of a larger fleet of log haulers. This equipment belongs to Ed Fredericks and as you will see later he operates Kenworth's as did his father.

These photos are of an old Prentice 690B hydraulic loader that probably dates from the 1970's.

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Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Time for a another photo or two of some old machinery and a little history. This old forklift sits near the Prentice loader in Yreka and has the name of a long vanished lumber company on it. Usually there is no way to find out about old companies unless they were pretty large. The Dolly Varden Lumber Company was not large and if it were not for a law suit that reached the appellate level in California's civil legal system there would not be a mention. However from an online analysis of a lawsuit, I know that the Dolly Varden Lumber Co was a sawmill located in Arcata, CA and may in fact be a distant piece of what is now the Sierra Pacific sawmills and timber holdings.

In any case here is a relatively ancient Hyster forklift, one of those with dual front wheels and a single dual wheel at the rear. The lumber mill it once worked at was operating in 1950 and this forklift is from about that vintage. It was used around the shops as a shop mule and may even still run, but it looks like it has sat in the same place for quite a while.

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Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Another photo of the old Hyster fork lift and along side it a logging trailer sits minus a few tires, quietly rusting away. There were a number of short log trailers also parked in this yard and I thought that I recorded them, but appears it didn't happen.

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An older Kenworth converted to dump truck duties. Probably used to haul rock for road maintenance.

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Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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A few more pieces of iron sitting in the yard. Another log trailer and some bunks/stakes from when the logging was a going well enough to keep more trucks hauling logs.

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An old Cat 966, probably a "C" model as they were very popular and a good all around machine. This one obviously still runs as the tracks in the dirt are fresh.

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Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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Retired
Skadill recently posted a few photos of some engines sitting in a yard, removed from the vehicles they once powered. Maybe they were worn out, maybe broken, or perhaps the engine had just outlived the vehicle it once powered. Here are a few photos of truck engines sitting along side a shop, partially covered as though they might be used again, but then again they might just be scrap value to the owner.

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Sidney43

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Did not realize it had been so long since I posted, so here is an image of an older truck cab sitting among some worn out parts. Probably off of a wrecked truck, but that is just a guess on my part.

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And here is a photo of one of the current trucks, still using the same color scheme more or less.

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Vigilant

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Eastern NC
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Is that three sleepers we see sitting on the ground in the background with the same paint scheme? Does he run trucks on the road also?
 

Sidney43

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Nampa, Idaho (recent)
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I don't know the whole story, but suspect the owner has tried to use his trucks for other kinds of hauling when logging slowed drastically. As I mentioned earlier this shop yard was filled with equipment a few years ago and I didn't get pictures. The truck fleet was larger, but not sure how big, so need to ask my brother. As I recall these three trucks had 8,9 and 10 on them, although the numbers do not show up in the photos.
 

SemperFi1986

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Jun 1, 2015
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Sallisaw Oklahoma
Sidney43 I am looking for a possible relative of my wife who you have mentioned in this post tread his name is Toke Bagley if you know how i might be able to contact him please get ahold of me.

Thank you
 

Former Wrench

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Montesano, WA
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Looks like a heck of a load for a highway truck. I'll bet that if the truck could talk, it would be saying ouch. (see frame # 96)
 
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