Thought that I’d put some things in writing about my log trucking days and looking at the picture brings back many memories. 

The truck I bought in 1943 was a Ford 1941 1 1/2  ton  with a straight 6 cylinder motor. It was a 6 wheeler meaning it had two tires up front and four in back. Most Fords trucks had 7.15 x20 tires but this one had 10.00x18 tires so that I could haul more across the scales. The truck had hydraulic brakes with vacuum assistance and vacuum on the trailer. You can see the hoses going back on the reach to the trailer. On the bunks there are cheeks blocks. I had lots of trouble with motors and getting a good one was almost impossible during the WWII. They only lasted 5000 miles or so at best. I bought a new Chevrolet 6 cylinder motor with transmission and had it installed in 1944 way up in Forks WA. That did a good job but I wanted to haul more and not get ticketed.

I found that after I put the Cook chain drive on I could haul big loads but not very fast and I didn’t have good brakes either. I then got a new White motor and transmission and then had to put in a larger over and under transmission. So now I could go too fast and couldn’t stop if I wanted to some times. I’d put a v tree limb in the back wheel and watch it with the one little mirror we had, it was about 4 inches around. Well I put two on mine to watch the back wheel and the other to see what was going on behind me. 

The trailer reach was 30 feet long and was wood 8x10 inches that broke some times on steep hills with the brakes locking up.

The Cook chain drive was an axle cut down and two chain sprockets on each end. The brake drum was extra large so the chain fit on over it. The two axles were dead with out the chains and if you lost one you would go back and look for it.

I hauled this big log from the Randle Washington Area just up river on the south side. It was so large they couldn’t pick it up so they made a log ramp and filled in dirt on the back side and rolled it up on to the truck.

I hauled it to Olympia and dumped it in the bay. It sat out in the mud for several years because no one could handle such a big log. They finally did when the chain saws came out with out the stinger on the end, Someone went out and cut holes in it and blow it apart making it so they could handle it.

Some of my trucking stories are funny and some show how the Lord took care of me. The first job I got was out just east of PeEll, WA. There was one hill they said was one to watch. The driver said to stop and go into low gear and then on top shift up. I rode in to town with another driver once and then they loaded me and I took off. Man I knew how to drive a truck I thought and when I came to that hill I’d just even coast right over it. Well I came to it and should have stopped and put it in the lowest gear I had and pull to the top and then go on but I knew how to drive so I hit it and started to slow down fast and I was shifting but missed one gear and killed the motor and started to coast back down with no brakes. With the engine dead the vacuum was dead. My trailer went into the ditch. The other truck came along and past me and then hooked on to pull me up out of the ditch and he took out his clutch there in the middle of the county road. Well they went to get the cat and the batteries were too low to start it so they had to carry them out and charge them over night. The next morning I helped put in a new clutch and pulled the truck out of the way. They got the cat started and got me out. After that I stopped as I should have.

I hauled for this guy for maybe a year. One day they were putting on the top log and dropped it hard and the cheeze block chain broke letting the load slide off. The owner was standing on the top of the load and when that happened he through is hat down on the ground and jumped from up there all the way down and stood there stomping on that red hat with his cork shoes. Later I picked it up and pushed it out and walked back and handed it to him and he was still so mad he threw it on the ground and stooped it again. I learned my lesson that day. 

I was coming back from Portland with my new Cook chain drive truck, and highway 99 was all at that time. A truck was stalled on a hill and couldn’t get started with his load. They talked me into turning around and pulling him up the hill which I did and then was on my way home.

During the WW2 the truckers would pick up the service men and take them into town. So one day I picked up two fellows and they were going to Portland. Well I was going there that night but had to pull the transmission out. So they helped me and we loaded it in the trunk and I went home to clean up and get clean cloths and came out and my car was no where around. I ran back in the house and called the Police and waited. Soon I got a call that they had get my car, Seems the weight of the transmission made my head lights too high and a city police blinked his lights and they didn’t and he got suspicious. He stopped them and found that the car was stolen. They spent several months in jail. I went to see them once. 

Another time I was headed down to Portland and hit a cow crossing the highway 99. It lay there on the road for awhile and got up and ran over to the side. It knocked off a horn and I had saved it. The next day I stopped to see the farmer and get him to pay for the damage, He said, I don’t have a cow with one horn and you can go out and see. I think he butchered it that night.

I was hauling from up south west of Oakville, WA and we had a real steep hill about 30 degrees they said. That’s where I had to be so careful to not slide the back tires on the trailer. 

Tires too did not last long and if you got 6000 miles out of a pair you felt good. If you look closely you with see the  gas tank. There are two of them and they are converted water tanks. There was no room under the frame for one.

It was Jacki White that I went with for about a year and her father pulled me out of the ditch. Look under the trailer bunk and there is a round tank for water that was to cool the brakes coming down a hill. One of the hoses on the wood reach was a vacuum line to open and shut the value on the water tank. You used the trailer brakes for all down hill braking. There were no brakes on the front wheels because they would lock up and you could not stir.

I once had a flat tire on my way in to Olympia on a back road and I called the tire company and they came out and helped me get it off. When we got back with the new tire the jack was pushed into the black up and the axle was sitting on the brake drum. What a mess we had fixing that. This picture is at the end of Russell Road across the road from Crumley’s house on HWY 99. I was taking the International cat back to Renton to Carco Manuf. To reinstall the inner transmission. They were experimenting with a 15 speed hydralic trans.. and the ‘O’ between gears would blow and we down as much as we were working. That was the beginning of hydraulics’ and now every thing is using it.

I traded this truck in on a new 1948 White 10 wheeler with air brakes so I had to convert the trailer to air. My, I thought I had brakes before but found I just thought I had brakes. The air was so nice and could always depend on it stopping me. I had a big air horn on the roof that would blow a car right off the road, Ha! And I had a fun time using it too.

One day I was going into Morton, WA. And two ladies past me and then on the hills I slowed way down and they would go around. Well just before we got to Morton it’s a down grade and I saw them ahead of me so I braked till I was right on their tail and blew the horn. They took off down the hill and I never saw them again. I’ll bet all they saw was the front end of that truck. 

An other time I was hauling into Goshen and right out of Creswell I came up on a farmer on a tractor in the road. I blew the horn but he wouldn’t budge so I blew the horn and pasted him until my back wheels were along side of him and I ran him into the ditch. The next day he was out there again and I blew the horn and he saw me coming and he headed for the first driveway. 

Once I was stopped to see a girl friend and left my motor running with the brakes on. The motor ran out of gas on that tank and died and it started coasting ending in a ditch. Her Dad came along and pulled me out. I hauled several years around Aberdeen, South Bend, Chehalis, Oakville, Shelton and Centralia, then started coming down to Oregon in the Summer time. I could make more money there.

I sold out to Don Crumley and Diamond C logging company and continued working for him for several years. It was during that time when we were logging west of Drain, or about 10 miles, and had to ford the creek and that year we logged until 2 days before Thanks Giving. I ran the loader or the yarder and it was during this time that I sold to Don. He wanted to get bigger and I wanted to stay just as we were. We could make a good living. He got big and lost everything. So sad because it needn’t have been.

I started to work in a cabinet shop there in Springfield on Mill Street. I worked there about 2 years and Roy Parmenter offered me much better pay and I loved working out side building houses. We built on Chambers Street behind Bi Mart. Next I went to work for my self and built on Cherokee Dr area and 59 th and G Street. After that I went to work for Mc Kenzie Builders owned by Bob Black. That was a good job but Bob had a problem that finally got him, He just could not leave the bottle alone.  I went back to working for my self. Built 4 houses out at Dexter on Lost Ck. I built one for Lou Bruington’s daughter before they had the road  even in. 

The first one I was on Lost Creek Lane. I finished and we moved into it for one year, putting it up for sale it sold to the first folks that saw it. We bought a 12x 56 two bedroom mobile home and lived in it for a year while I constructed the next one on the end of the road. Bought  the two five acre parcels from Lou too. I built a nice shop 24x40 with an office.

Then a barn 16x24 with lean to’s on 3 sides. Got two cows, and planted an orchard and about two hundred Christmas trees. It kept Tracy going cultivating and me too. Just got to be too much and every thing we did was in town and Tracy was working at the Springfield Swim park. We did move him in town first in an apartment but he wasn’t happy there. Afraid I guess but he would never admit it.

We moved back in town on Lilac Ln. in a New Mobil home and moved in just before Christmas in a muddy mess, but I was very unhappy with it so bought two lots on the corner of 51 Pl. and Forsythia Dr. where we live at this time and stay Ila says. My logging days are just a memory and so are all the other things I’ve done. I might have done some things different but I look back and I am happy with what I have now. I could say I should have married someone else and not gone through a divorce and I would have never met and married Josephine and had the great family that I have. I’m proud of each of them and their families are coming now.

So now we are here to stay but go south to the Fountain of Youth each winter. I have a wonderful loving wife by the name of Ila Mae and she takes so good care of me. I’m blessed to have her and God has been good to me too, for which I praise His Name. 

Love you all DAD and Ardis to many of you.