Backfire: a fire set deliberately in the path of a forest fire to rob it of fuel and thus halt its progress
Board foot: a unit of measure for wood equal to a board one foot square and one inch thick
Boom: a loose raft of logs constructed for transportation or storage of logs on water
Bucker: a logger who removes limbs from felled trees and cuts the trees into lengths
Bull cook: a logging camp employee who sweeps and cleans bunkhouses and does general clean-up chores
Cant hook: a pole with a moveable hooked arm at or near one end for retrieving logs and turning them over
Caulk boots (calk, cork): logging boots with short hard steel pegs in the soles to prevent slipping; a caulk was originally a spur on a horse’s shoe
Chokerman: the logger who loops and locks chokers (lengths of wire rope) around logs so they can be hauled out of the woods
Cold deck: logs piled for transport at some future time
Crummy: a bus or enclosed truck used to take the logging crew to and from work
Donkey or donkey engine: an engine mounted on a log sled with drums of cable to haul logs to a landing; see Yarder
Faller: a logger who falls and sometimes bucks timber
Flunkey: a cook’s helper, waiter or waitress in the logging camp cookhouse
Gaff: a large strong hook on a pole or a barbed spear used in landing large fish
Grapple yarder: a machine that yards logs with mechanical tongs; see Yarder
Green chain: a roller conveyor in a sawmill that carries newly sawn lumber past a row of workers who sort it by length and grade
Gunshot feed carnage: a long steam cylinder that moves the carriage carrying a log to the head saw; as it moves back and forth, it sounds like a cannon firing
Guy line: wire rope cable that supports a spar tree; there are usually six top guys and three or four buckle guys
Gyppo logger: owner of a very small logging company that works on a contract basis, usually with minimal workers and equipment
Head saw: the saw that makes the first cuts in a log as it comes into the sawmill
High ball: a logging operation where speed and high production are stressed
High lead logging: a system of yarding associated with the Northwest Coast that lifts one or both ends of a log off the ground using rigging lines and a spar tree
High rigger: a logger who tops the spar tree and attaches the rigging to it
Horse logger: a logger who uses horses to skid logs out of the woods
Landing: the clearing to which logs are yarded to be loaded or cold decked
Locie: locomotive used in logging; Shay and Climax were the two kinds most commonly seen at the lake
McGregor saw: the “Rolls Royce” of drag saws; a fixture in every camp and many homes until chain saws were introduced, drag saws were used to buck logs for firewood
Overhead yarding: a method of moving logs from the cut that involves lifting them off the ground in some way; see High lead logging
Powder monkey: a person trained in using dynamite who blasts stumps and rocks to prepare railroad grades
Rigging: the lines, blocks, hooks, chokers, etc., used in yarding operations
Rigging crew: see Yarding crew
Rigging siinger: the supervisor of the chokermen in charge of getting logs to the landing
Sealer: a logger who measures wood
Section gang: the crew that keeps the railroad in repair
Setting: the area that is logged around one spar tree
Show: a logging operation
Shutdown: the period when logging stops, due usually to deep snow in winter or a high forest fire hazard in summer
Side: the crew and gear of one part of a logging show, such as the yarding side or the booming side
Skeleton car: a railroad car used for transporting logs that has no deck but only bunks to hold the logs in place, built by the CPR in Victoria as a means of unemployment relief in the early 1930s; the cars were lower and lighter than conventional flat cars
Skidder: see Yarder
Skid road: the route over which logs were yarded from the cut to the landing or to the water
Sky line: a heavy cable between two spar trees
Slash: logs and debris left behind after cutting and yarding
Snag: a dead or dying tree that is a hazard if knocked down by another tree being felled
Spar tree: a standing tree, 100-150 feet tall, that is topped and limbed, to which rigging is attached to provide height in a yarding operation
Speeder: a self-propelled railroad car that transports passengers on railway tracks
Speeder-man: driver of a speeder
Speed-up: a company policy that encourages employees to work faster; this can be accomplished in the woods with incentives such as beer for reaching a certain production goal or, in the mill, by increasing the speed at which machinery runs
Turn: the logs yarded in on one trip of the rigging, or the round trip made by the choker from the landing to the cut and back
Whistle punk: the logger who relays signals for the yarding crew; usually a boy’s first job on a show
Widow maker: a broken or loose limb that can be knocked loose by a falling tree
Yarder: any machine that is used to haul logs from the cut to the landing; the most familiar ones at the lake were Willa-mettes, Lidgerwoods and Washingtons
Yarding: hauling logs by oxen, horses, donkey engine, tractor or helicopter to the landing
Yarding crew: consists of chokerman, rigging stinger, chaser, hooker and landing