Remember When?

"TIMBER-R-R-R OOP DA HILL..."

From interviews conducted by Mike Scott

"Timber-r-r-r oop da hill." With this traditional warning, a huge ponderosa began to sway and crack as the tree fell to the ground with a thunderous roar.

"Yesus! That vere a big vun." The remark came from Ole Vickner, who with his partner, Ben Monas, formed a falling crew for the Montana Logging Company in the Lynch Creek operation from 1929 until 1940.

An estimate of the amount of timber taken from western Sanders County during the last century would be difficult to assess. That the figure in board feet would be astronomical is certain.

When the timber harvest actually began in this area is unchronicled but certainly some activity along these lines began with the arrival of the white man.

The work of a good axeman was really artful and produced squared timbers with surfaces almost as smooth and precise as those run through a saw. Railroad ties hewed with a broadaxe were almost exclusively used by some lines for many years. Ben Cox, Sr. who resided at Thompson Falls was a master craftsman with this tool and it was he who shaped timbers for many Forest Service lookout towers, some still existent on the Lolo. The axe was swung with a full arc taking a large bite from the timber on which the wielder stood, the blade usually missing a toenail by mere millimeters.

Lumbering began in earnest in western Montana quite a few years before the territory gained statehood. In order to write some of the history of this industry which contributed so much to the economy of Sanders County, a number of knowledgeable people were interviewed. Those contributing to this article were W.B. Russell, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Ray Meadows, Lester Webber, Glenn Campbell, and Everett Warner.

W.B. Russell was Bunyan, Jr.

Paul Bunyan and his ox did not log this area, another timberman may have possessed sufficient stature and expertise to have pulled on Bunyan's calked boots and rearranged the landscape more than a little. This logger was W.B. Russell, a New Englander who hit Missoula in 1880 and soon became a friend of Marcus Daly who helped make Butte "the Richest Hill on Earth" and whose political influence is still evident in the state. W.B., with his wife and family that eventually numbered three sons, lost no time in becoming a factor to be reckoned with in western Montana. He saw the vast timber resources of this area as an economic factor that could enhance the development and settlement of these environs.

Consequently he set about acquiring sizable amounts of land which was for the most part covered with dense stands of pine, fir, western larch and cedar, until he controlled more than 15,000 acres. Much of this acquisition was obtained by outright purchase of the total package, others by buying only the stumpage. Location of this empire was generally on the south side of the Clark Fork River and usually close to that waterway, encompassing most of the Swamp Creek drainage as far west as Eddy Creek.

One of the finest stands W.B. obtained covered the area now farmed by the Stephens and Hermes families and was bought from a man named DuPont. It is reported that the tract which he later cleared and placed under cultivation near the confluence of the Clark Fork and Flathead Rivers produced a total of 12 million board feet of merchantable lumber. He also obtained considerable timberland along the Clark Fork before it joins the Flathead, specifically adjacent to Quinn's Springs. Further upstream the land and its trees were controlled by Ed and Tom Donlan who were engaged in contract logging for the Anaconda Mining Company.

Mr. Russell cut his teeth in the western logging game shortly after arriving in these parts when he took a contract to harvest a tract of timber in the Grant Creek area near Missoula. Upon completion of this endeavor he moved his operations to the area that was to become Sanders County. The choice of timber stands near the rivers of the area offered several advantages. First, the more fertile lands on the banks produced larger trees. Second, the relatively flat land was advantageous for logging. Third, the streams themselves offered cheap transportation for the annual or semi-annual log drives. Fourth, sawmills were best suited to such an environment and, finally, towns and eventually railroads were situated near the waterways.

One of the first of W.B.'s logging functions in this locale started on Swamp Creek where he established a camp toaccommodate as many as 120 men. This facility is located approximately three miles from the mouth of the creek and near the Tom McCrea home of today. It was here that the entrepreneur built a dam across Swamp Creek, backing the waters up into the present Fred Cavill ranch. The water was stored primarily for the purpose of controlled flow in order to float the logs downstream to the Clark Fork, a project that was not overly successful according to information sources. Instead it became necessary to skid or haul the logs to the bank of the big river where they were decked and released into the river when water levels were appropriate, usually in the spring. The logs were then floated to a point near Eddy where they were fished from the water and fed into a large sawmill at that location. This mill was owned by Russell who later sold it to the Donlan brothers.