Dougan Days

In part 1 of Kenny’s Loggin’ “Dougan Days”, Ken Wilson reminisces about working for Dougan Logging in Jackson Bay, B.C. Photos provided by Mike Dougan.

It had snowed enough in Phillips Arm for Nories’ that we were all laid off. My brother had just recently hired on at Dougan Logging in Jackson Bay. I gave them a phone call, asked if they needed any rigging men, yes come on in.

I got there just in time for supper. After supper in the bunkhouse getting to know the guys. It’s getting late and the light plant is shut down. It’s pretty dark in the bunkhouse, so we were using a can of boot grease for a candle, it started to get out of hand, someone opened the door, I grabbed it and threw it out just as Ken Uzzell (Kermitt) was walking in. Got him right in the tummy, burnt him pretty good, probably still has the scar!

The first day I was there I set chokers with Robert Uzzell. He was hooking on the older yarder that Kermit was running. They had two 90 ft. Madill yarders with Cat engines. Jack Norris was on the loader; my brother Rodney was in the landing.

After a couple of days doing this, I got moved into the landing. It was a very steep setting, with lots of full-length cedar (3 logs in some). The junior faller, Lyall, was elected to landing buck. I believe we both had 090 Stihl power saws; used a lot of gas. Running a scab block, the yarder could pull three or four of these logs at a time, which kept Jack, Lyall and me pretty busy. We got lots of loads of nice wood out. Jack was one of the best operators on the coast, but Lyall didn’t like it since he had to work eight hours (not fallers hours).

That’s where I meet Swartz; he was driving The Bounty Hunter. At the time, it was the hottest logging truck on the coast — an H.D. Hayes with V-12 Jimmy motor.

“So, you’re Smitts’ kid are you?” asked Swartz. Smitt was my Dad’s nickname.

“Kenny,” he said, “see that stick hanging on the guy line?” Out came his pistol, and the stick wasn’t hanging on the guy line anymore!

The last time I saw The Bounty Hunter, I was at Fra- ser Bay at the head of Loughborough Inlet grading some road for BenWest. The truck was parked at the bottom of a hill being used as a fire truck. Recently, someone said the saw it over near Gold River, but that could have been another truck named Bounty Hunter.

They worked a “nine and five” shift. It was getting close to Christmas, so they were going to work a few days extra and then shut it down for Christmas. One day after work most guys ended up in Ronnigan from Shawnigan’s bunkhouse. Nobody went for supper that night and we drank all the booze we could find. It snowed just a fraction, just enough that we convinced the truckers that they couldn’t haul. We all went to town until after Christmas.

Into the seat I went. He showed me how the levers worked and Arnold blew three whistles to go ahead on her. I pulled the mainline friction into gear and slowly started bring in the logs.

“Open her up,” said George. “Now, slow it down a bit and let the haul back go.”

Wham! A fair sized log drove the bottom of the pad. George had to re-spool the haul back for me. I ran it the whole day, George was chasing and helped me with the strawline.

A few years later, I was working with Sammy Telosky at Elk Bay. The operator (Gary Young) was sick, so I told Sam I could probably get the rigging back and forth. After that, he put Gary on a third logging truck and I ran the yarders for the rest of the year. When it came time to tower up or down, Sammy just switched operators.

Later working for M&B I put in lots of shifts on the yarders they had. Never did tower one up or down in my whole career.

The loader was called Old Black it was a gigantic machine designed by Madill as a grapple yarder/loader. It could really lift!

After Christmas, Ronnigan from Shawnigan didn’t come back, so I was put on the newer spar. George Uzzell hooking, Barry Bertrand operator, me in the landing, Arnold Berg rigging slinger and Billy Rogers choker man. We were working on the flats by Duck Lake, a really brushy setting with lots of big cedar.

We later learned that this was a place where the Haida made their dugout canoes. Mel Parker (faller) described a cedar he fell that had a sixty foot section cut out of a standing tree. On the road to Glendale Cove there was a canoe laying on the side of the road that had pretty big second growth trees growing in it.

At the start of one shift, Barry had some business in town and wasn’t in camp. I thought George was going to run yarder, and after a couple of turns he called me up into the cab.

“Sit here,” George said.

One day, Dave Dougan backed in with the fuel truck — an old Ford pickup with six 45 gallon drums in the back and a homelite pump. I hopped up in the back, stuck the hose in one of the barrels and pulled the cord. It started pumping and then it lugged down. After a couple of minutes Dave started waving his arms.

“Whoa hold it,” Dave yelled. “You know what I just did, as a matter of fact I did just do it.”

“Do what?” I said. “We pumped about a half a barrel of motor oil into the diesel tank.”

We drained all the stuff in the fuel tank out onto the ground, put the real diesel into the fuel tank and carried on.

It was pretty nice wood in this area mostly cedar. One shift we got 111 loads! I received a bottle of whiskey with a sticker with my name on it.

Watch for Part 2 in our next issue. SP

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