Kenny’s Loggin’ – Wilco Logging

Mar 17, 2022 - 4 years ago

In the early seventies my Dad was finished with Norie Bros. Logging I’m not sure why. But Nories’ plans were to buy Philips Arm from Hillis Logging. Pretty sure Mother didn’t want Dad being in camp for days on end.

He checked around and finally bought a small company from Keith Johnston. This company worked for Elk River Timber Co. doing pre-logging, salvage and thinning. Two machines Skajit SJ4 yarder and a John Deere 440 skidder.It wasn’t long before we sold the SJ4 to somebody in Washington State and and up-graded the skidder to a 330 Timberjack. We also purchased an International T.D. 15 Cat. A bit later we hired a contractor who had his own Timberjack 330 skidder, I was his faller.

My Uncle Ray owned the power-saw shop that fixed and supplied our saws.

Pre-logging was where we went into the settings before they were fell them and took out snags, salvage from road-right-away and any small trees under 14 inches in diameter, called “chip-in-saw.’ This wood was hauled by self-loading logging trucks to Raven Lumber. The oversize was hauled to ERT water dump in Campbell River.

We worked around Upper Campbell Lake, the Middle Quinsam, and towards Gold River in the Heber and Ucona valleys. In winter we did thinning in behind Ocean Grove Store, Airport Road and up by the Quinsam Reserve. The only times I worked between Xmas and New Years in my career.

We needed a shop to work on our machines. One winter Dad got us together and we built a shop at his place on Discovery Drive in C.R. One of our buddies was a carpenters apprentice and knew enough about lay-out to do this job. Built some forms, poured cement, bought a whole pile of lumber and ordered some trusses and sheet metal for the roof.

We painted our machines there. The TD15 had a winch on the back it wasn’t very good for skidding logs (couldn’t get the ends off the ground) so I suggested an “integral arch.” Dad found some rollers and bought some steel and proceeded to weld up his own arch, worked pretty good.

Another thing Workers Compensation Board had us up-grade the canopy on the TD15 for “roll over protection”(ROPS). We did lots off the work by ourselves but some had to be done by a “certified engineer”.

This job went well for a few years but after awhile ERT phased us out, they were going in a new direction with the pre-logging. Raven Lumber got some wood to log at Bacon Lake. Lots of controversy about this area, it was in Strathcona Park, might have been a land swap. This was a “gong show” every contractor in the area came to get some logs, your most important tool was a can of paint for putting your name on your logs. 90$ a highway load.

This didn’t last very long, I went to work for Sam and the others found work else where. Dad ended up going to camp. Foreman for W&S Roadbuilding for awhile then he partnered in Island Auto Salvage with the Haida Freight boys who owned the building. I started for M&B Menzies bay Division in 1978.

Ken Wilson worked in the logging industry in B.C. for over 50 years. Ken is a regular contributor to Supply Post newspaper with his column “Kenny’s Loggin’”, and resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.