Tramp Logger

Tramp Logger

It was a time of full employment for loggers during the Korean War. It was the last days of the wooden spar tree, railroad logging, and the camps that fed so well. The author worked in many of the last of those logging camps in Oregon, Washington, California (and one in British Columbia). He was too young to register for the draft, but he had no problem with jobs in the rigging -- setting chokers, pulling rigging, chasing second loading. Just look the part when you asked for a job and you were on. Those were days of freedom never to be repeated. In Coos County, Oregon, where the author grew up, there were five fully operating logging camps and five fully operating brothels. There were always at least five foreign ships in port at any given time, and five very large sawmills (and at least 50 smaller ones). There was a lot going, and the author saw as much of it as he could during his 44 months in the woods. This is his memoir of those times.