Charles "Chic" Burgess
November 22, 1994As told to Loretta Slepikas
Traveling was no novelty to loggers and their families living in logging camps.
Houses, stores, school, post office and repair shops were constructed so they could be loaded on railroad cars and moved. It was necessary to change location every few years to remain within commuting distance of the company logging operations. Even Fido's doghouse went on flatcars for the trip.
While the women prepared their houses for the move and then nervously watched the moving process, bulldozers cleared and graded the new site in a stand of Pine timber. Streets were laid out and a spot picked for each house.
Built on skids, the houses were easy to move. The porch floors were hinged to fold against the front door. The buildings were skidded to the railroad track where a crane picked them up and set them gently on waiting flatcars. The workers were always careful handling the houses and very few buildings were damaged. It has been said "they could pick up a house and load it on a flatcar without breaking an egg."
There are a lot of fond memories associated with life in a logging camp. And we would be amiss if we were not to include accounts from folks who have lived the experience.
Chic Burgess of Prineville grew up in Shevlin-Hixon's logging camp south of Bend. He has many fond memories of a boyhood in the logging camp.
"I was born in Tumalo, Oregon April 7, 1925. I was four when my family moved to a Shevlin-Hixon logging camp south of Bend about 13 miles from LaPine. Dad worked at various jobs in the camp. He worked on the railroad; he set chokers and cut logs for the jammer. After an accident in which he broke a leg, he couldn't get around very well so he was given the job of feeding the pigs.
It was real neat growing up in a logging camp. We were out there in the timber all by ourselves. It was just like one big family in the logging camp. We kids played and roamed out in the hills all day coming in only at supper time; no one worried about us.
Every kid had a squirrel in his pocket. We'd catch them, tame them, and carry them around in our shirt pockets. They'd occasionally poke their heads out and look around. We even took them to school; the teacher frowned on this but we did it anyway. There were about 300 people living in the camp. The houses were finished inside. I don't think they had insulation in the walls, but they were double sided. I remember the blankets froze to the walls in the winter time. There was one big pot-bellied stove close to Mom and Dad's bed. They kept putting wood in it all night long. No indoor plumbing and no modern conveniences but we were comfortable and happy.
There were four grades in the school I went to, but later the camp moved closer to LaPine and everyone went to school in LaPine. In 1942 Shevlin-Hixon's operations shut down and we moved to Prineville. I finished my senior year at Crook County High School.
There was a big cookhouse for the single guys and the company raised hogs for meat. Dad skidded logs with horses. On three day week-ends we kids got to ride those big horses, Percherons and Belgians. I was four years old when Dad was driving a skid team. He was working only a quarter mile or a half mile from camp. I'd walk out there at night and Dad would reach down as far as he could and grab my hand and throw me up behind him on his horse. Those horses were so big I could walk right under their belly and never touch a hair.
We were like one big family. We didn't take dates. Everyone went places together--to the dances, sleigh riding, and so forth. If someone's house caught fire it wasn't long before the family had all new bedding, furniture and other necessities.
I had my first Model-T when I was 13. Later on I had an old truck I used for hauling limb wood. A dollar a load. Two loads got me $2.00, enough for the dance and dinner in LaPine that night. You had to be enterprising to get by. I mean, the folks didn't have any money so you had to earn your own if you wanted a social life.
There was a store at the camp. It was set permanently on a railroad car and it was moved right along with everything else when the camp moved. The store had plenty of groceries, but once a month, on the Saturday after payday, we'd come in to Bend and buy enough supplies to last a month. It was an all day event.
The houses were set on 12" x 12" timbers, or skids. At moving time a rod and cable was slipped underneath the house and hooked to the skids. The house was skidded to the railroad siding where a steam crane lifted it on to a flatcar. Everything was moved that way. It might be that you didn't know where your house would be at the end of the school day, whether it was at the old site or the new site. Once I took the bus to the wrong camp--my house was moved. The word got around, and I stayed the night with another family."
Chic followed in his father's footsteps and became a logger. After graduating from Crook County High School and a three year stint in the Marine Corps during World War II, he came home to Prineville. His story continues:
"I went to work at Pine Products pitching edgings. Then a sawyer who was going to work at Gilchrist Timber Company asked me to come with him and learn how to set ratchets. I did and it was a great job! I rode the carriage and set ratchets. I was on the night shift and when the night shift shut down for a while for some unknown reason I came back to Prineville and went to Alexander-Yawkey's setting ratchets again.
Mike Gerke and I decided to take a job falling timber. It was better pay. Timber fallers always had more money than the rest of us. In 1948 I quit Alexander Yawkeys, got married on Saturday. Bonnie and I went on our honeymoon and within a week my partner had a falling job for us at Ochoco Lumber. In those days, you could get a job anywhere if you wanted to work.
We used two-man power saws. They had about a four foot blade and were about five or six inches wide. The saw was four feet long. If you had a tree bigger than that you had to notch out on the side so you could get the little end in. If you had a six foot tree you would have a pretty good notch.
In 197l Ochoco decided to contract out their logging. I formed my own company, Chic Burgess Logging, Inc. and took over their logging. That is, the falling and skidding. I just worked more hours from daylight until dark every day. In 1986 I retired from a lifetime of logging. It was hard and dangerous work, but at the same time rewarding work.