Loggin' Bloggin'

Forks High School Gradjeeate (Class of '74) Kent T. sent me these pics with the following description:

"Dale and Deryl Huling hauling logs through downtown Forks. Two cuts from the same tree. One was 10,000 bf; the other 14,000 bf. There was a third log from the same tree bringing the total from the one tree to 35,000 bf. Likely logged by Brager Bros. Logging since they did all the logging for the Forks Shingle Co."

I was so intrigued by these specimens that I wrote Kent back immediately and asked for more details, whereupon I received the following:

"The pictures were taken about 1937-1940. The 'Associated' building in the background was located where the Rain Drop Cafe is now. The single family home behind the truck in the picture under the 'associated' picture in Oscar Walgren's home that was located where the library is now. Dale and Deryl Huling are my mother's brothers. After the war, they moved to Seattle and opened Huling Bros Chrysler Plymouth and later Huling Bros Buick in West Seattle. The two brothers married the two Hunley sisters from Forks (Ruth and Mae) in a dual ceremony in Forks around that same time.

"The Forks Shingle Co was owned by the Old Huling Brothers (Roy, Hot Water Harry, Les. Everett, and Francis). The mill was located between the Bogachiel Bridge and the Rain Forest Road where Grahams later set up shop in the 70's. The original mill burned down twice, once around 1941 and the last time in the late 60's or early 70's. The original mill was all run off steam including the generation of electricity for the family homes (thus the nick name 'Hot Water Harry' for the oldest of the brothers who did all the design work) They got in the shingle business in Raymond in the 1920's through the marriage of one of their sisters to Elmer Case who opened one of the first shingle mills in the state (or so I'm told) in the Raymond area (The Case Shingle Co).   Anything else?"

No, Kent, that'll about do it.  The mill he mentions belonging to the Huling boys is where we were dropped off by the school bus and picked up by my mother, who rode us the rest of the 23 miles or so home to the ranger station.

Good times!

The Huling brothers are the type of human Kent and I grew up around -- ingenious, resourceful, proud, and tough.  That was our America.

I liked -- and trusted -- that one better than this one.

Thanks, Kent.

 

 

Comments

[Terry Fuchs]

I fell a sound Idaho White Pine that scaled a little over 12,000bf for the whole tree. This happened on Smith Ridge, along the North Fork of the Clearwater River. I cut the logs into 16ft lengths because we did not have a loader big enough to pick up a long long that size.

[Hoh River Boy]

Well now!

I set chokers on the south fork of the Hoh in '76. We had some punkins up there.

That one you cut was a monster. When was that, Mister?

[Terry Fuchs]

This was in 1986 or 1987. It was not the largest white pine I sawed on that strip. The bigger trees were so rotten on the stump that I would get about 1/2 of a bars width for an undercut,or they would pinch the bar, and then I would scratch the bark enough to touch the cambium layer as fast as I could. The big trees start to fall over as soon as I started scratching the bark. You have to stick with the cut until you are completely around and matched up to try to prevent a barber chair. Once that was done I could run like hell in the opposite direction. Wherever that might be.

[Hoh River Boy]

Yes, well. I guess no one knows Hell like a Bushler. I never had the guts.

How did you find my blog, by the way? Hanging out at Huffington Post?

[Terry Fuchs]

Theo Sparks of course. I hooked enough logs to know it was not always roses on my end. I also have family in Forks, they could be loggin' if they are not doing drugs.

[Irish Cicero]

Yeah. Lots of old working folks are going to hell. The kids I see in jail come from Timber Genes. It's really frightening to see what Meth does to 'em.

Glad to see you here, Fuchs.