And Lester Lycklama, a McCall smokejumper, was killed on July 4, 1946 when the top portion of a ponderosa pine he was falling fell on him. The accident was on a fire near Council, Idaho.

Elizabeth Wendelin
Paper Conservator

Rudolph Wendelin… what amazing work you did!

Denise
USDA, Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Asheville NC..

Reading this very interesting article, I was reminded that there is another “timber sport” that seems to be doing quite well in various parts of the U.S. That’s “tossing the caber.” It’s a feature of many “Scottish Highland Games” but it also was done in Ireland (see below for family connection.” The sport obviously involves a large piece of wood, but there is also a logging connection, however distant (see below)

“The caber toss draws upon the distant past to establish this test of strength and skill as the king of Highland Games Heavy Events. Caber is Gaelic for tree, and lumberjacks are believed to provide the origin by turning small trees end-over-end to cross small rivers. Soon, attacking warriors started landing 20′ tree trunks against castle walls during siege, using them as crude ladders. The Caber Toss is the only event that isn’t measured for height or distance. Instead, judges score the event in a subjective manner. A perfect score occurs when an athlete is able to turn the caber end-over-end, with the caber landing in line with the athlete’s direction of momentum, resulting in a 12:00 score on an imaginary clock face. If the caber turns, but does not land straight in front of the athlete, scores between 9:00 and 3:00 are assigned. If the caber does not turn, the side judge awards a degree score up to 90°. Due to its subjective nature, and the fact that almost every competition provides a different caber, there are no records, only bragging rights.” http://www.vascottishgames.org/VSG%202009%20Athletics%20Competition.html

I have a family connection with this, recently confirmed by my 94 year old uncle. It seems that my great-grandfather died of a hernia following a caber toss. This would have been in the 1880s. “Was this back in Ireland?” I asked. “No, it was in the Chicago Stockyards,” my uncle replied. I suspect that alcohol was involved in this particular incident!

It is true that Television has not been at the LWC for a few years now. But that’s not to say that it will not return in the future. The LWC is a wonderful event with a rich history and loads of honor.

Yes, it is true that several large money/purse contests have gone to the wayside. But that trend occurred primarily during the late 1980s and in the Pacific NorthWest – this came as direct result of a down turn in the timber industry. Many of those events have returned, but the prize purses are not as large and, perhaps, many of the top athletes don’t attend those events.

The only area of the US that a return of the events did not occur was the Midwestern area; that is primarily due to exhibition or demonstration companies performing exhibitions/demostrations instead of the fair festivals hosting lumberjack sporting events. Hosting a lumberjack sporting event is a lot of work and requires a lot of effort from a lot of people. Demonstrations are not competitions and require less effort from those that host the event.

Now, with that said, the East Coast and in the South, the number of lumberjack sporting events have increased dramatically. True, the events are not large in purses, but they are plentiful and have numerous events. These events offer we hobbiests an opportunity to “get out of the house” and show case our skills on a less than national or international scale. These events are well attended by crowd and competitor alike. They are fun, fast paced, and show case the old time logging heritiage that we competitors strive to celebrate.

Beyond that, Stihl has put a substantial amount of effort into promoting it’s Stihl Timbersporst Collegiate Challenge. This event has caused an increase in the number of athletes that compete in these events and has brought many young competent competitors into the profressional ranks.

I write the above, because I disagree with the sentiment of the article written in the New York Times. I truly believe the author went into the project with a idea of what he wanted to prepare or he happened upon one of “the professionals” who performs the sport for a job. For a peson who does the sport for a living, it’s very difficult not to be negative when the larger pursed events are gone when that is what you rely upon for your livlihood. We hobbiests are as excited as ever to continue on with our sport. We will work hard to continue it’s preservation. We are celebrating a hertiage in logging that built the infastructure of what is now the modern day United States.

All the best,
Arden Cogar Jr.

I wonder about the Social Media term. We aren’t really using these socially, but more as multiple ways of getting information out. Web 2.0 Media? Cutting edge media? Just a thought.

Congratulations on mastering these technologies so quickly and effectively. I think the overall result really gives a more modern image to FHS and an international reach.

Here is the url to the blog from the Archives of the Sandusky Library if you would like to take a look:

http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com