In 1934, the Coweeta Experimental Forest was officially established on the Nantahala National Forest.  Occupying nearly 4,000 acres just north of the North Carolina-Georgia border and renamed the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in 1948, the site would prove to be the source of some of the most influential research on forested watersheds done in the world.  This week a symposium to mark the 75th anniversary of Coweeta will look at the development of watershed science and celebrate the important research which continues to be done there.

The story of Coweeta begins with Dr. Charles R. Hursh, who was hired in 1926 as a researcher at the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station (now the Southern Research Station) in Asheville, NC.  Much of Hursh’s work was in streamflow and erosion studies, which led him to formulate broader theories of forests and water supply.  Hursh identified the Coweeta Basin (in the Appalachian Mountains just south of Franklin, NC) as an ideal spot to locate a permanent research station to study the impacts of forest management practices on soil and water.  Hursh was given access to the site and began informal research there, during which time an order establishing the Coweeta Experimental Forest was signed on June 1933 and then officially approved by Chief Ferdinand Silcox on March 28, 1934.

Coweeta Experimental Forest entrance sign with administrative building at right, 1942.

Workers from the nearby Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Franklin, NC (CCC Camp NC-23) built roads, buildings, testing stations, and other installations on the site.  With limited resources and staffing, Hursh was still able to turn the site into an extensive hydrological laboratory and research station.  Early studies looked at the effects of logging, farming, and woodland grazing on forest watersheds.  Data gathered at the site was also used for important research in areas such as riparian vegetation and water supply; the properties of groundwater movement through soil; relationships between the atmosphere, environment, and forest watersheds; and the use of road banks for erosion control.

Image of rain gauge recording instrument at Coweeta, from a 1953 USFS publication (click to view full page).

The laboratory’s profile was further raised in 1955, when the Forest Service produced the film “The Waters of Coweeta” to increase nationwide awareness of the importance of watershed management and research.

The arrival of researcher Wayne T. Swank at the laboratory in the 1960s ensured the continuation of Coweeta’s influential work.  Swank spent more than 30 years at Coweeta, serving as project leader from 1984 to 1999, and helped to expand the successful research operations at the site.  Cooperative work with the University of Georgia’s Institute of Ecology began in 1968, and produced an ongoing valuable partnership.  Coweeta also became a National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research site in 1980.  More recent years have seen the work shift to new areas of study such as water quality research, acid rain, invasive pests, and prescribed fire.

Through the years, Coweeta has maintained its importance as one of the oldest continuous environmental research studies in the world.  The hydrologic research there has shown how forest ecosystems can be responsibly managed without ruining valuable water resources.  Significant research in new areas ensures that Coweeta will remain as a center of forest research long into the future.

For more information on the history of the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, see the following FHS resources:

• “Forest Watershed Research in the United States” by George G. Ice and John D. Stednick, from Forest History Today, Spring/Fall 2004
• Oral History Interview with Wayne T. Swank, conducted in 2005
• “Waters of Coweeta” USFS publication, 1953
• U.S. Forest Service History Collection watershed publication files
• USFS Collection Biographical File on Wayne Swank

Posted in From the Archives Tagged: Charles Hursh, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, forest research, North Carolina, U.S. Forest Service, Wayne Swank ]]> http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/coweeta-hydrological-lab-celebrates-75-years/feed/ 0 Eben Lehman Coweeta Experimental Forest Coweeta rain gauge http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/chicago-ski-jumping/ http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/chicago-ski-jumping/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:00:21 +0000 Eben Lehman http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/?p=2563 ]]>

With Chicago’s recent failure to become host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, we here at Peeling Back the Bark were reminded of a little-known chapter from Chicago’s sports history which can be found in the FHS Archives.  Should Chicago have also submitted a bid for the Winter Olympiad?  Possibly.  We submit for your consideration this image of preparations for a ski jump competition taking place in Chicago’s Soldier Field in the year 1937.

A ski jump is readied for competition at Soldier Field, Chicago, 1937 (from FHS Archives).

Of course, this begs the questions: Why was there ski jumping in Chicago? And what does this have to do with forest history?  To answer both questions it helps to dig into the TECO company files in our archives, where this image came from.

The Timber Engineering Company (TECO) was formed in 1933 as the timber research subsidiary of the National Lumber Manufacturing Association (later known as the National Forest Products Association, and today as the American Forest & Paper Association).  TECO immediately established a wood products research laboratory in Washington D.C., and began its pioneering work in wood engineering and forest products testing and development.  The most notable early innovation was a unique brand of timber connector called a “split-ring.”  TECO purchased the rights to the split-ring connector from a German manufacturer in 1934, and further developed the product for use in assembling large timber tresses for building construction.

TECO timber connectors  proved to be a revolutionary development in wood construction, and were used in thousands of building projects such as schools, churches, theaters, warehouses, airplane hangars, lookout towers, bridges, and much more.

World War II U.S. Navy blimp hangar (1,000' long, 153' high) built using TECO timber connectors (FHS Archives).

That list of TECO engineered timber structures also included ski jumps, the largest being a 180-foot tall wooden ski jump temporarily erected outside of Soldier Field on more than one occasion.  A little known fact about Chicago’s sports history is that the city has hosted several large-scale international ski jumping competitions.

Brought to the U.S. by Norwegian immigrants, ski jumping was a very popular sport in the early 20th century, especially in the Northeast.  The sport of skiing was more directly tied to jumping at this time rather than downhill racing.  The 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, also helped to further spread the sport’s popularity in the U.S.  It was this popularity which facilitated the staging of ski jumping events in large American sports stadiums.

In February 1936, Soldier Field first hosted such a competition, which proved so successful that a larger ski jump was built again the following year.  In 1937, 140 jumpers competed in the event in front of nearly 60,000 spectators.  Soldier Field hosted another competition in 1938, but then not again until 1954 (Wrigley Field would also host a jumping competition in 1944).

Prefabricated, demountable 180' TECO timber connector-built wooden ski jump tower at Soldier Field, February 1937 (FHS Archives).

Chicago was not the only city hosting international ski jump events during this time period.  Surprisingly, California also hosted several similar events in equally unusual places.  TECO was not involved in their construction and wood was not always the main material used, but large temporary jumps were built in several California cities.  Using snow machines and crushed ice, ski jumping competitions were held in Berkeley in 1934, the Hollywood Bowl in 1935, at the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in 1939, and in Los Angeles Coliseum in both 1938 and 1939.

Construction of the temporary ski jump at Los Angeles Coliseum.

While the decades following this “golden age” of American ski jumping have seen a decline of interest in the sport, TECO has maintained its presence in the wood products industry.  Celebrating its 75th anniversary last year, TECO continues to provide important work for the industry today through the testing and certification of building products.

For more information on the history of TECO, see the following FHS resources:

• The National Forest Products Association Records, 1902-1986.
• The Wilson Martindale Compton Papers, 1918-1966.
• TECO Company Files in the FHS Library.
• TECO subject file in the FHS Photograph Collection.

We recently received an advanced copy of the new Ken Burns film, The National Parks – America’s Best Idea, which begins airing on PBS starting Sunday, September 27.  You can see images from the FHS Archives in the first three episodes and our name in the credits.  (By the way, if you can’t get to your TV when those air, the PBS website will be streaming the video of each episode after it airs.)

As we watched here at the Peeling Back the Bark World Headquarters for our images to appear in the film, we got to talking about other films in which our moving footage and still images have appeared.  Of course, tops on the list is The Greatest Good: A Forest Service Centennial Film.  (Normally, I’d say, Buy the book – don’t wait for the movie. But in this case, I say, Buy them both and now!)  Footage from the two films we’ve produced, Up in Flames and Timber on the Move, has appeared in a number of documentaries and television shows over the years.  Our images have appeared in films as varied as Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues to Fungi: Pennsylvania’s Hidden Treasures.  Below the photos that we think appear in The National Parks is a partial list of video projects with images or footage from our archive.

The other thing we discussed is how FHS expertise has been used in productions.  Sometimes it’s in a very hands-on manner, as with The Greatest Good.  That was fun because two of us were involved in reviewing the script and rough cuts of the film, and we were listed individually by name in the final credits.  Other times, we’ve been asked to do research that finds its way into scripts.  The latter is true for an upcoming History Channel show, America: the Story of US.  You can see the results of that in the spring.

Here are just a few of our images to look for in the Ken Burns film.

And here’s a list of some of the other productions in which our archival material has appeared:

- On PBS, from the American Masters series – Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues.  Hank briefly worked as a logger.

- Firestorm: The Fire Suppression Paradox, follows a firecrew from Ontario who joined with firefighters from the U.S. and other jurisdictions to fight a fire in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana, in the summer of 2000.

- Chief Mountain Hotshots: Firefighters of the Blackfeet Nation tells the history of one of the most respected Hotshot crews in the country.

- The Forest Where We Live – The Series (Louisiana Public Broadcasting)

- The Ultimate 10 Dangerous Jobs (“Ultimate 10″ series on TLC) – has footage of smokejumping from Up in Flames.

- Fungi: Pennsylvania’s Hidden Treasures is an award-winning full-length documentary produced by the State of Pennsylvania’s DCNR’s Wild Resource Conservation Program and Commonwealth Media.

- The Lord God Bird documentary film is about the ivory-billed woodpecker.

- The History Channel Toolbox Series – the episode on Mechanic’s Tools and Chainsaws.

- The History Channel series Modern Marvels – “Logging Technology” episode has footage from Timber on the Move.

- And for the upcoming 12-hour series on the History Channel, America: The Story of US, we conducted research and provided background material on 19th-century log drives in the upper Midwest.

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, we here at Peeling Back the Barrrrk bring you the dramatic tale “Log Pirates of Puget Sound.” Although “Log Pirates” is an article by Stewart H. Holbrook that appeared in the January 1937 issue of American Forests, it reads like a pulp thriller/film noir from the 1940s, complete with a put-upon hero more married to his job than to his first wife, criminals with names like “High Pockets” and “Dark Moon,” cops on the take, stakeouts and undercover disguises, and keen detective work with a lot of gumshoeing. The film version would have starred Humphrey Bogart as William E. Craw, the battle-hardened former police captain-turned-log patrolman who suffered neither love nor corrupt loggers lightly.

This is how we envision the film having been cast if it were produced by Warner Bros. back in the late 1930s. If written as a swashbuckler, Robin Hood-type film, Errol Flynn would have made a great log pirate, stealing logs from villainous lumbermen along with the heart of a mill owner's daughter played by Olivia de Havilland.

What a great subject for a noir film this would be. Log theft was a major problem in the 1920s in the Tacoma, Washington, area. The high demand for lumber both in the U.S. and overseas had driven up prices, making piracy quite profitable and leading to the organization of gangs. The timber industry turned to the State of Washington for help. The legislature passed a law but did little else.  Desperate, seven timber companies came together to form the State Log Patrol in February 1928. They hired Craw, an ex-Marine with combat experience. He quickly assembled a crack squad of men and boats to start patrolling the waters and bust up the crime rings. Holbrook’s discussion of the use and abuse of log brands to identify ownership of logs is fascinating. The story of how Craw busted “High Pockets” Peterson because the ex-cop just happened to know about the properties of iron is straight out of Sherlock Holmes or, today, CSI. When the price of lumber dropped during the Great Depression, Craw had little crime solving to do and tried to start his own electronics shop to put food on the table for his second wife and children. Craw, his wife, and one of his two daughters were killed by a drunken reveler on July 4th, 1941, just a few months before lumber prices shot back up due to America’s entry into World War II and put the Log Patrol back in business.

Incidentally, Stewart Holbrook’s article was an excerpt from his book, “Holy Old Macinaw!”, which he brought up to date for the magazine. The article is a much better read. Once you’ve read “Log Pirates,” feel free to dig in a little deeper to the story over at the Washington State archives’ “History Link” website. Meanwhile, my piratical friend, hoist a tankard of grog to the memory of Cap’n Craw. Even a pirate must respect a lawman who can beat them at their own game.

Our thanks to American Forests for their permission to post this article!

Help us choose the brand new ad that will appear in an upcoming issue of Forest History Today magazine promoting the Forest History Society’s new social media tools.  Take a look at the ads below (click on any of the ads to enlarge them) and select your favorite in the poll at the bottom of the page.

The ad campaign features exclusive photos from the FHS Photo Collection.  Choose your favorite!

1. Hungry Man:

2. Saw Lady:

3. Flex Your Muscles:

4. Looking Up:

5. Makes No Sense:

6. Left Out in the Cold:

Posted in FHS News Tagged: advertising campaigns, historic photographs, social media ]]> http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/socialmedia_ads/feed/ 4 Jamie "Mad B-Logger" Lewis Hungry Man Social Media Ad Saw Lady Social Media Ad Muscles Social Media Ad Looking Up Social Media Ad Making Sense Social Media Ad Cold Social Media Ad http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/smokeys-sixty-five-years-of-vigilance/ http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/smokeys-sixty-five-years-of-vigilance/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:19:34 +0000 Amanda T. Ross http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/?p=2384 ]]>

This month marks the birthday of Smokey Bear, who has acted as conservation messenger and protector of America’s forests since August 1944.  As part of a fire prevention campaign, Smokey’s visage on posters, signs, buses, and television commercials has encouraged Americans to complete the phrase, “Only you…”

In honor of our anthropomorphic advocate, we’d like to share just an abbreviated timeline and just a few of the Smokey Bear-related items present in our archival and photographic collections.

1942 – The U.S. entry into World War II following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor made America keenly aware of the vulnerability of U.S. soil and left the homefront bereft of experienced firefighters, many of whom joined the armed forces. Protection of the country’s forests became a national security matter. With the help of the War Advertising Council, the Forest Service organized the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) Program with the National Association State Foresters and launched a fire prevention campaign.

1944 – The War Advertising Council produced a promotional poster featuring Walt Disney’s Bambi, proving success with animal messengers.

1944-1945 – The Forest Service and War Advertising Council introduced a bear as the campaign symbol.  Illustrator Albert Staehle rendered the forest fire prevention bear, who was given the moniker “Smokey Bear.”

Post-WWII – The War Advertising Council changed its name to the Advertising Council.  Smokey’s campaign was “broadened to appeal to children as well as adults.”

1946 – Forest Service artist Rudy Wendelin developed Smokey Bear artwork for special events, publications, and licensed products.  Under Wendelin’s direction, Smokey assumed the more humanesque form by which he is best known: wearing a solemn expression, ranger’s hat and jeans, and carrying a shovel.

1950 – A burned bear cub survived the Capitan Gap fire in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest and was cared for by New Mexico Game Warden Ray Bell.  The live cub, dubbed “Smokey Bear,” was donated to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he remained until his death in 1976.

This image is one of many promotional photos taken of Smokey in 1950.

1952 – With the popularity of the advertising symbol and Smokey Bear incarnate, Congress passed Public Law 359 to take Smokey out of the public domain and place him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture.  A licensing program began to control the use and distribution of the name and image of this national treasure.  Ironically, this year also marks the beginning of name confusion: While penning the theme song, Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins added a “the” between “Smokey” and “Bear” in order to maintain correct rhythm.  Although his official name is Smokey Bear, the effect of “Smokey the Bear” lingers on.

1964 – At one point, Smokey had four secretaries to answer his mail — nearly a thousand letters a day!  So popular was the bear that in 1964, the U.S. Postal Service issued him his own zip code (20252).

1979 – The Smokey Bear Historical Park in Capitan opened to the public.

1984 – Rudy Wendelin designed the commemorative Smokey Bear stamp, with its first day of issue on August 13, 1984.

2008-2009 – The Forest Service, National Association of State Foresters, and Advertising Council launched a new round of Public Service Announcements featuring Smokey Bear along with a redesigned web site and new tagline (“Get Your Smokey On”).

We salute the longest running PSA campaign in U.S. history.  Happy trails, Smokey Bear!

• Inventory of the Rudy Wendelin Papers, 1930-2005
• FHS YouTube Channel

The first World Congress of Environmental History concluded two weeks ago in Copenhagen, Denmark. There were more than 500 attendees from all over the world. In addition to sending two people to the conference, the Forest History Society was also a sponsor.

I’m happy to report that forest history is alive and well and thriving in all four corners of the globe. In nearly every one of the ten sessions there was at least one forest history panel—not just a paper but an entire panel. In addition, other panels had forest history papers sprinkled among them.

Many areas, regions, and eras were examined and discussed, from ancient Mediterranean forests to German forests in the 1980s and 90s.  While the breadth of topics was impressive, it was also enlightening to learn how historians are making use of research from fields like archeology, geography in its many forms (cultural, agricultural, etc.), and ecology, in addition to traditional document and image research. Given the new tools and information about forests coming out of these other disciplines, it is important to share the observation of Richard Tucker from the University of Michigan: More and new research needs to be done on logging companies and their role in the forest. I agree—it’s time to revisit this topic and move beyond the traditional institutional accounts and look at what, where, and how they operated in the forests. The intersections of forest history with other fields like military history were also great to encounter and point to new, exciting areas for forest historians to explore and consider.

It was also energizing to see how well attended the sessions were. A couple of panels in larger rooms had standing-room-only crowds. Lively discussions took place in the sessions and afterward. And, in fact, in two countries! (Okay, so Saturday’s sessions were held across the Baltic Sea in Sweden. But it still counts!)

I encourage you to look at the abstracts of the papers presented at the conference and you’ll see what I mean when I say forest history is alive and thriving around the world.

On this date 60 years ago, the Mann Gulch fire in Montana’s Helena National Forest was first spotted.  This devastating wildfire would eventually claim the lives of 12 U.S. Forest Service smokejumpers and one fire guard, as well as burn close to 5,000 acres of timber and grasslands.  The tragic events surrounding this fire ensure that August 5, 1949, will forever be remembered within U.S. Forest Service and wildland firefighting history.

Hot weather and lightning storms the previous evening put Forest Service rangers in the area on notice that day, and around noon, the Mann Gulch fire was first officially reported.  Shortly thereafter, a plane carrying 15 smokejumpers was dispatched to the fire from Missoula, Montana.

At the time of Mann Gulch, smokejumping was a relatively new practice.  The Forest Service’s Aerial Fire Control Experimental Project had moved to the North Pacific Region (Region 6) in 1939 and switched its focus from aerial water drops to experiments with parachute jumping.  The first operational use of smokejumpers by the Forest Service occurred in 1940, but prior to Mann Gulch, no smokejumper had ever died fighting a wildfire.

Forest Service smokejumpers dropped over Sherman Gulch, Lolo National Forest, Montana, June 17, 1954.

After landing on the ground a half-mile from the fire, the 15 smokejumpers were met by James O. Harrison, a fire guard from the nearby Meriwether Canyon Campground, and the group headed down the gulch towards the nearby Missouri River to stake a safer position.  The dry conditions and high winds, along with a change in wind direction, caused the fire to suddenly expand.   The men’s route was cut off, forcing them back uphill while trying to outrun the swiftly advancing fire.   It was later estimated that during this blow-up stage, the fire covered 3,000 acres in 10 minutes.

Realizing the imminent danger, the smokejumper crew’s foreman R. Wagner “Wag” Dodge told his men to drop their heavy tools and run, with the fire at this point less than 100 yards behind them and closing fast.  Moving up the hillside, Dodge stopped to set a small escape fire, attempting to create a burned-over area that the fire would bypass.  He directed the men towards this safe area, but the rest of the group continued to flee uphill.  Two of the smokejumpers, Walter B. Rumsey and Robert W. Sallee, found a crevice in the rock wall at the top of the canyon and climbed inside.  The ferocious fire overtook the group.  Dodge, Rumsey, and Sallee would be the only survivors.

The events of Mann Gulch forever changed wildland firefighting.  The Forest Service would institute new training techniques and improved safety measures for its firefighters and smokejumpers.  The agency would also place more emphasis on fire research and the science of fire behavior, resulting in improved firefighting techniques and equipment.  These developments, though, will never overshadow the immense tragedy of this day for this group of brave firefighters.

A Forest Service smokejumper descends over Lolo National Forest, Montana, July 1956.

The Men who Perished in the Mann Gulch Fire:

Robert J. Bennett
Eldon E. Diettert
James O. Harrison
William J. Heilman
Phillip R. McVey
David R. Navon
Leonard L. Piper
Stanley J. Reba
Marvin L. Sherman
Joseph B. Sylvia
Henry J. Thol, Jr.
Newton R. Thompson
Silas R. Thompson

Survivors of the Fire:

R. Wagner Dodge, foreman
Walter B. Rumsey
Robert W. Sallee

For more information on the Mann Gulch Fire, take a look at some of the following sources:

• The blog entry by FHS Historian Jamie Lewis, “Visiting Mann Gulch 60 Years Later,” recounting his recent visit to the site.
• Two articles from Forest History Today:
  • “The Thirteenth Fire” by Dave Turner, 1999.
  • “Green Skies of Montana” by Stephen J. Pyne, Spring 2000.
• The Forest Service History Collection at FHS includes several folders of materials on Mann Gulch, including copies of the testimonies presented before the Mann Gulch Fire Review Board, which convened in Helena, Montana, September 26-28, 1949.
• Other sources of information include the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean, as well as the 1993 Forest Service research report generated as a result of Maclean’s pressing the agency for help in reconstructing the events.  For a more personal take, see Mark Matthew’s new book, A Great Day to Fight Fire: Mann Gulch, 1949, which draws on interviews with survivors and the victims’ families.
• To see a visual record of Forest Service smokejumping history, take a look at the online Smokejumpers gallery from the FHS Photo Collection, as well as a clip of historic smokejumper film footage from the FHS YouTube Channel.

A group of smokejumpers about to take off in Ford Trimotor plane at Missoula Airport, Missoula, Montana for a practice jump, June 30, 1941.

Posted in This Day in History Tagged: forest fire, Mann Gulch, smokejumpers, U.S. Forest Service, wildfire ]]> http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/august-5-1949-mann-gulch-tragedy/feed/ 1 Eben Lehman Smokejumpers Smokejumper descends Smokejumpers http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/the-fall-of-timber-sports/ http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/the-fall-of-timber-sports/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:09:16 +0000 Eben Lehman http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/?p=2302 ]]>

This past weekend saw the Lumberjack World Championships take place in Hayward, Wisconsin.  The annual event of sawing, chopping, climbing, and log rolling contests celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.  While the golden anniversary is cause for celebration, signs of the sport’s decline in popularity seemed to be more evident than ever.  A New York Times article covering the championships addressed this issue, noting the lack of television coverage and the drop in participation levels.  The number of big-time contests held in the U.S. has also dwindled. It’s now virtually impossible to make a living from winnings on the American lumberjack contest circuit.

For decades the Lumberjack World Championships were a featured television event — from ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” in the early years, to ESPN and the Outdoor Life Network more recently.  That all ended this year, when the event was given no national TV coverage.  Some former champions are questioning whether the lumberjack sports themselves are dying.  “The best years are gone,” seemed to be a common refrain.  While the glory years of the sport may in fact be behind us, there are still many talented young lumberjack athletes — such as J.R. Salzman, an Iraq war veteran who lost part of his arm to a roadside bomb in 2006, and returned this year to win his seventh log rolling championship.

With others looking towards the past, though, this is the perfect time to highlight some of the visual documentations of lumberjack competitions from yesteryear found in the FHS Archives.  Below is a small sampling of images documenting the sport’s past, as well as some of the larger-than-life figures.

Lumberjack legend Paul Seals (left) with his son Max competing in a tree felling contest.

Paul Searls competing in his specialty event, log bucking. Searls was a world champion log bucker from 1932 to 1952, as well as a former Guinness World Record holder in the event. On May 28, 1937, Searls also helped dedicate the Golden Gate Bridge by sawing through a 34" redwood log in record time at the bridge's opening.

A three-time International Log Rolling Association Champion and leading competitor from the 1930s through the 1950s, Jim Herron prepares to perform his infamous log rolling striptease as his alter-ego "grandma" character.

The axe throw event at the Albany (Oregon) Timber Carnival in July 1958.

Clive McIntosh (left), with partner D. Mann, examining their saw after winning the World Championship Doubles Sawing Contest at Sydney, Australia. McIntosh was an Australian lumberjack legend, as well as an influential axe and saw designer.

The selected photos here come from both the FHS Photograph Collection and the American Forest Institute Records.  If interested, also take a look at this 1920-era log rolling film footage from the FHS YouTube Channel, as well as the previously posted Loggers–Rodeos photo subject gallery.

Special thanks to Jeffrey Stine for telling us about the NY Times article that inspired this entry.

On this date in 1822, Franklin B. Hough was born on the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains in Lewis County, New York.  Hough would become the first forestry agent of the U.S. government, the first chief of the Division of Forestry, and one of the most influential figures in early American forestry.  Gifford Pinchot himself would refer to Hough as “perhaps the chief pioneer in forestry in the United States.”

Portrait of Franklin B. Hough by Rudy Wendelin (from FHS Archives)

Franklin Hough began his professional career as a practicing physician, but retired from medicine in 1852 in order to pursue his research and writing interests.  Hough wrote several histories of the Adirondack region and also oversaw the New York State census in 1855 and 1865.  While compiling census data for the latter, Hough was alarmed by the declining trend in available timber in the state.  This discovery led to the cause of forest preservation becoming his life’s work.

In the 1870s, when his calls for allowing active forest management in the proposed Adirondack forest preserve went unheeded, he turned his focus to the federal government.  In 1873 Hough presented a greatly influential paper, “On the Duty of Governments in the Preservation of Forests,” to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Hough’s paper revealed the depletion of America’s eastern forests and declared the need for forest preservation and forestry education.  The paper was especially notable because it called on governments to aid in forest preservation efforts, a radical departure from American free market ideals.  Hough recommended that laws be passed to protect forest growth, and urged the scientists in attendance to bring to the attention of Congress and their state governments “the subject of protection to the forests, and their cultivation, regulation, and encouragement.”  The following day a committee was appointed, with Hough as chair, to petition Congress about the critical national need for forest preservation.

The actions of this committee, as well as Hough’s own work, would lead Congress on August 15, 1876, to create the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the state of the forests and lumber in the U.S.  Commissioner of Agriculture Frederick Watts appointed Hough to this position on August 30th.

Over the next year, Hough traveled the country and began preparing his detailed report on the nation’s forests. This immense report covered a huge number of topics such as forest ecology, tree planting, forest inventories from different states, tree diseases, connections between forests and climate, wood usage, information on timber industries, and much more.  The first volume of Report Upon Forestry was published in 1878, with a second, mainly statistical, volume following in 1880.  A third volume was published in 1882, and a fourth in 1884.  (The Forest History Society library holds original copies of all 4 volumes of this report.)  The detailed analysis contained in these reports was remarkable.  Bernhard E. Fernow called Hough’s first report “by far the best and most useful publication of its kind on forestry in this country.”

In 1881, Hough also wrote Elements of Forestry, the first book on practical forestry written in the United States.  That same year the Department of Agriculture converted the office of federal forestry agent into the Division of Forestry, making Hough the first chief of the Division of Forestry, the direct precursor to chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

At the influential inaugural American Forestry Congress in Cincinnati in April 1882, Hough delivered an address titled “Forestry of the Future,” in which he presented a detailed economic justification for a national policy of reforestation.  Eventually, reforestation became an important part of American forest management policy.

Despite his many successes, personal differences with Commissioner of Agriculture George B. Loring led to Hough being replaced as chief of the Division of Forestry by Nathaniel J. Egleston in 1883.  Although demoted back to forestry agent, Hough nonetheless continued to do stellar work for both the Division of Forestry and the state of New York until shortly before his death on June 11, 1885. He drafted the Adirondack Forest Preserve law and saw it passed one month before he died.  Six more years would elapse before the federal government passed the Forest Reserve Act, its own comprehensive measure for forest preservation.

Although sometimes overlooked as a historical figure, Hough’s contributions to forestry and forest preservation in the United States cannot be overstated.  Often referred to as “the father of American forestry,” Hough helped establish forestry work in this country, and brought about government action in the area of forest management and preservation on the state and national level. In 1963, his home in Lowville, NY, was declared a National Historic Landmark.

• The information in this post was taken largely from various materials in Franklin B. Hough’s biographical file in the U.S. Forest Service History Collection at the Forest History Society.

I just returned from a trip to Montana, where I conducted an oral history interview with the 15^th chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Dale Bosworth. While there, I took the opportunity to visit Mann Gulch, site of the first smokejumper tragedy. There, sixty years ago next month, 13 smokejumpers were killed when a fire they were dispatched to fight trapped and then overwhelmed them. Three men survived—one by doing the then-unthinkable and setting an escape fire and two others by miraculously outrunning the fire in what has to be one of the most difficult runs in recorded history. What happened at Mann Gulch forever changed wildland firefighting—new training techniques were developed based on what was learned and the Forest Service began studying fire behavior as part of an effort to improve safety. It also changed those 13 families and the lives of the three survivors.

Getting to Mann Gulch requires going over rough terrain, both physically and emotionally. Years ago, I had read Norman Maclean’s flawed take on the incident, Young Men and Fire, and then refamiliarized myself with the incident in 2004 while doing research for The Forest Service and The Greatest Good. The night before going, I read the U.S. Forest Service fire research report generated as a result of Maclean’s pressing the agency for help in reconstructing the events of August 5, 1949. His book and the report both focused on the fire more than the men. I thought I understood what they faced that day, but even some of the best writing and best research describing what happened does not do the setting justice.

Before the trip I had also finished Mark Matthew’s new book, A Great Day to Fight Fire, which drew on personal interviews conducted in 1999 with the survivors and the victims’ families. To learn about each of the men and then read of their deaths, how each died—and then to see where each man died—made the visit more difficult than I had anticipated. To stand where they fell is overwhelming, sobering, and mystifying. To see the distance and steep incline Bob Sallee and Walt Rumsey scrambled up to survive struck me dumb and humbled. To look upon where Wag Dodge set his escape fire and see just how close so many of the others were to him surprised me. To gaze at their names etched in stone twice—each site has two markers, with a second one having been placed there at the 50^th anniversary—is a stark reminder of what was lost that day. To see some of the markers in desperate need of repair saddened me.

Leonard Piper's cross lies in ruins. All that remains in place is the rebar that once held the cross. Click any photo to enlarge it. (All photos are property of the author.)

While standing at the bottom of the deep gulch, looking up at the steep sides I had just hiked down with some difficulty, I tried to envision running full tilt up a nearly vertical wall of loose rocks and slick grass with a wild fire coming at me. I could think of only two things: “Those poor guys didn’t stand a chance” and “How the hell did Sallee and Rumsey make it out of here alive?”

The view from where Stanley Reba died, looking up toward where Sallee and Rumsey went through the rocks to safety.

Located in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness area in the Helena National Forest, Mann Gulch is reachable only by boat from the Missouri River. A tour boat will drop you at Meriwether Canyon, the same place from where Forest Service fire guard James Harrison started his hike to meet the smokejumpers sixty years ago. At the top, you’ll find this interpretive sign and can look across Mann Gulch.

Click on the photo to read the interpretive sign showing the timeline of events and their locations at Mann Gulch.

The hike along the ridge and around and down to the markers takes another hour or so. In all, it’s a six or seven mile hike roundtrip that took nearly six hours. A most difficult but rewarding six hours that will be with me for a long time to come.

As I looked back over the sight before heading down for the boat, I had one final thought: I hope the interpretive sign overlooking Mann Gulch is right—that those 13 men did not die in vain.

The Mann Gulch memorial, installed in 1999 and located at the mouth of Meriwether Canyon. You can see this before starting the hike up and over to Mann Gulch.

The news is not too surprising, but the timing is—and a bit fortuitous for us.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on June 17 that U.S. Forest Service chief Gail Kimbell has been replaced by Tom Tidwell.  It’s not unusual for a new presidential administration to select someone they believe will carry out their vision for natural resource management.  The timing is unusual because the Obama Administration has yet to appoint an undersecretary of agriculture to the position that oversees the Forest Service.  It’s fortuitous for us because FHS staff historian Jamie Lewis is flying to Missoula to conduct an oral history interview with former chief Dale Bosworth next week as part of our Oral History program and will ask Dale about what a transition from one chief to the next can be like.

Tom Tidwell, the 17th Chief of the U.S. Forest Service

Chief Tidwell is the third consecutive chief promoted from Regional Forester in Region 1, headquartered in Missoula, Montana, to the position.  Coincidentally, Tidwell had succeeded Kimbell as Regional Forester when she succeeded Bosworth upon his appointment as chief in 2001.  An article in Missoula’s newspaper speculates as to why the last three chiefs have come from that region:

I think the public was growing weary of the fighting, and Tom’s been there to support that collaboration and help lead it,” Bosworth said. This administration is interested in people who can collaborate, and that makes Tom a natural.

“You have to have your act together to have success as a regional forester,” said Bosworth, who returned to Missoula after retirement. “This is the last of the wildlands in the lower 48 states. It’s an excellent place to get a wide variety of experiences.”

In particular, Bosworth said it’s a training ground for bringing together the independent and conflicting interests of the Northern Rockies. This area has led the nation in getting those groups to work together.

The Missoulian notes, “The Forest Service’s Northern Region commands 25 million acres in Montana, Idaho and North Dakota.  That includes 12 national forests and four national grasslands.

“Before coming to Missoula, Tidwell worked in eight other national forests in three regions.  His positions included district ranger, forest supervisor and legislative affairs specialist in Washington, D.C.  He was forest supervisor in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.  And he has 19 years of firefighting experience, from ground crew to agency administrator.”  In all, he’s been with the Forest Service for 32 years.

We wish Tom well as he takes over, and we also wish Gail well on the next phase of her career.

Prior to the expansion of railroads and later use of trucks, the logging industry relied on river currents to move large amounts of cut timber to sawmills. In October, we highlighted six photo galleries related to various aspects of river log drives. Since this posting, searches for “log drives,” “log drivers,” “moving logs on rivers,” and “logger photos” have frequently led readers to Peeling Back the Bark and the FHS Photo Collection.

To further satisfy reader interests, I would like to share our top-viewed YouTube video, an excerpt from Timber on the Move: A History of Log Moving Technology, a documentary film from the Forest History Society. This clip illuminates the river driving process as only action footage can. This segment also includes informative narration describing the effect of the log drives, such as flooding of farmland adjacent to the river banks.

As I mentioned in a previous comment, the original “Driving the River” post sent me on a quest to find log driving folk songs and videos. I was rewarded with a charming little film that incorporates clips of actual log drives, whimsical animation, and an infectious melody: Canada Vignettes: Log Driver’s Waltz, 1979.* This film has been suggested to us several times and is well-worth mentioning once more.

“For he goes birling down a-down the white water
That’s where the log driver learns to step lightly
It’s birling down, a-down white water
A log driver’s waltz pleases girls completely.”

So goes the chorus of “The Log Driver’s Waltz,” a Canadian folk song penned by Wade Hemsworth. Through the song, Hemsworth emphasized the agility and strength required of log drivers, who had to walk or run on logs as they floated down the river.

May the log driver’s waltz please you completely!

The William Laughead Papers, introduced in a previous post, continue to delight.  Among the Bunyan-related materials, we found an advertising booklet heralding “Paul Bunyan’s Prosperity Special.”

Click to view advertising booklet in its entirety.

This pamphlet documents the Red River Lumber Company’s strategy to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the completion of the Western Pacific and Great Northern rail connection. On November 10, 1931, Arthur Curtis James drove the Golden Spike at Bieber, California, opening the “Inside Gateway” to California — Great Northern Railway’s effort to compete with the Southern Pacific Company’s route between Oregon and California.

On this same date, the Red River Lumber Company shipped a special train of lumber products from their plant at Westwood, California. Laughead’s mustachioed Paul Bunyan adorned the train cars and locomotive tanks, and the 171 cars, six locomotives, and caboose cut an impressive figure, if the ad men can be believed.  According to the pamphlet, the train, at 8,325 feet long (that’s nearly 1.6 miles!), was, at the time,  “one of the longest, if not the longest string of loaded cars ever handled in one train movement.  It [was] the largest single shipment of lumber products ever made, with the added distinction that it was manufactured and shipped by one producer at one plant.”

Bear in mind that these events occurred in 1931, with the Great Depression underway. Granting advertising materials license for hyperbole, I find the language used to celebrate the railway connection and the log shipment fascinating and not unlike today’s promotion of recovery efforts. Indeed, the very choice of “Prosperity Special” packs a more pungent punch when viewed through the lens of economic hardship.

A demonstration to stimulate public confidence by offering a concrete example of the faith of the lumber industry in the basic soundness of American business. …

… When 171 carload orders could be assembled in one train it became a mighty symbol of returning prosperity and as such was given publicity as a stimulus to public confidence. …

… The 171-car demonstration of optimism by the lumber industry was timely in its connection with the dedication of this great railroad project.

Here was a fifteen million dollar program carried thru during a time of general pessimism. …

[Customer orders were] particularly noteworthy coming at a time when all buying was on an ultra-conservative basis and at a season of the year when buying is normally held at the minimum.

Perhaps someone should enlighten Detroit on Paul Bunyan’s apparent recovery prowess!

On this date in 1940, Washington Governor Clarence D. Martin issued an influential proclamation appealing for the positive action by all of Washington’s citizens in the prevention of wildfires.  This public proclamation would directly lead to the creation of the Keep Washington Green Association, an organization whose model was eventually copied by states throughout the country.

Martin’s address came at a crucial time in the history of Washington and Oregon’s forests.  An increase in destructive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century had culminated in the Tillamook Burns of the 1930s, a series of fires which destroyed massive amounts of the region’s timber.  These catastrophic fires led to great concern among foresters and forest industry leaders, including former U.S. Forest Service chief William B. Greeley, who at the time served as head of the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association.  Greeley publicly called for improved logging practices and more organized fire suppression.  His continued championing of these issues eventually led directly to Washington Governor Martin’s public proclamation of May 31, 1940.

Along with his address urging the public to embrace forest fire prevention, Governor Martin also called for a public meeting in Olympia five days later to further address the issues at hand.  At this meeting an organization was formed to create publicity campaigns promoting forest fire prevention.  Roderick Olzendam, public relations director for Weyerhaeuser Timber Company and originator of such slogans as “Timber is a Crop” and “Tree Farm,” proposed the new organization be named Keep Washington Green.  As the new organization began implementing forest fire prevention advertising campaigns and radio programs in Washington, the idea quickly began to spread.  In May 1941 Oregon Governor Charles Sprague called together 250 state leaders in Portland to replicate the program, forming a Keep Oregon Green Association.

An early Keep Oregon Green promotional item.

Both state organizations undertook increasingly larger projects and campaigns to spread the word about forest fire prevention to the public.  Grassroots community-focused plans were established, as well as the production of dramatic radio presentations, newspaper features, and various promotional items.

In addition to targeting adults, Richard Kuehner, the first director of Keep Oregon Green, sought to also target the state’s youth.  One of the top 4-H leaders in the nation, Kuehner drew on his experiences with youth to develop the Oregon Green Guards in 1942.  The Green Guard was aimed at youths aged 8-18 and was designed to supplement organizations such as 4-H clubs, Boy Scouts, and other youth groups.  Applicants were sent a Green Guard kit that included a membership card, manual, arm emblem, posters, and other items.  The response was extraordinary, as a single initial news release about the Guard yielded thousands of applications.  With the massive amount of incoming applications threatening to overwhelm the operations and finances of Keep Oregon Green, the program proved to be almost too successful.  Over 30,000 Green Guards ended up being registered within the program’s first few years, even with primarily just word-of-mouth publicity.

Oregon Green Guard poster for school display.

Two members of the Green Guard admire a sign.

Junior Forest Wardens was a similar program for Washington’s youth run during this time by the American Legion.  The Junior Forest Wardens and the Green Guard were two of the most successful aspects of the early Keep Green programs.  Their success was noticed by the U.S. Forest Service, who also sought to aim fire prevention efforts at children.  After the Ad Council and the USFS began the Smokey Bear ad campaign in the late 1940s, a Junior Forest Ranger program was developed using Smokey Bear’s image as well as a membership kit similar to the Green Guard program.

The great success of the Keep Green programs in publicly addressing fire prevention issues did not stop with Washington and Oregon.  Idaho, California, and Minnesota soon started their own movements, with many other states also gradually adopting the program.  By the beginning of 1949, twenty-four states had their own Keep Green programs.  The American Forest Institute formed a national Keep America Green program in 1944.

Celebrities like Bing Crosby, an avid outdoorsman and hunter, lent their names and images to the "Keep Green" effort.

Throughout the 1940s, these various Keep Green programs proved to be incredibly successful in educating the public about the importance of forest fire prevention.  They also provided an excellent foundation for the later success of the Forest Service’s Smokey Bear campaign.  While the popularity of Smokey Bear as the dominant symbol of fire suppression caused the Keep Green campaigns to eventually fade to the background, these early campaigns are still noteworthy for their incredible success.  Whether due to the Keep Green program or not, forest fires in the Pacific Northwest did begin to decrease in the years following the program’s introduction.  In Oregon, after totaling more than 1,300 wildfires for each year during the 1930s, the yearly numbers were dramatically reduced during the 1940s, eventually dropping to just 352 fires in the state for the year 1948.

*The various items featured in this post all come from the Forest History Society Archives and Photograph Collection.