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Babe Mun
e NovembersDecember
I 1976 issue ofthe Simp-
son Magazine included
a story titled “Babe Munson:
Boom Boss of the Water. Log-
gers.” This story is based on
information in that story.
In 1889, Albert J. Manson
and his wife, Esther, moved
from Steilacoom to Shelton,
where Albert opened a furni-
ture and stationery store and
served in several public offices,
including deputy sheriff, county
clerk, city treasurer, justice
of the peace, police judge and
postmaster. Albert and Esther’s
middle son, born in Shelton
in 1892, was called “Babe” for
the first few weeks of his life.
Although his parents eventu-
ally settled on the more formal
name of Harold Eugene, he was
known as Babe for the rest of
his life.
During the summers of his
high school years, Babe fol-
lowed on the heels of George
Grisdale, Simpson’s logging
superintendent. He blazed
trees, cut paths and performed
other woods jobs while Grisdale
cruised the timber (estimating
the volume of a stand of trees to
determine if it could be profit-
ably harvested and transported
to the mill).
Straight out of high school,
Babe joined a crew of “water
loggers” who jockeyed logs
HISTORY
AT A GLANCE
I out on the Simpson boom. In
those days, no Simpson mills
were on the waterfront —— the
company was simply a “log-
ging outfit.” Loggers cut trees
in the surrounding foothills
and loaded them onto the com—
pany’s steam—powered railroad
to be hauled through downtown
Shelton and splashed into the
bay. There, water loggers such
as Babe sorted and moved the
logs into rafts, which were
towed up the waterways of
Puget Sound to be processed
into lumber, plywood and other
products.
The novice “pond monkey” or
“boom cat” learned to sink the
spikes ofhis caulk boots
into the slippery bark to keep
his footing on a rolling log while
picking out a log suited to the
particular raft he was making,
snagging it with the spike and
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book of his long pike pole, and
guiding it to the raft.
When the United States
became involved in World
War I, Babe took a break fi‘om
Simpson and joined the US.
Navy, where he was a wireless
operator on the second biggest
oil tanker then afloat in the
Atlantic. When he enlisted, he
stated his occupation as “tim-
ber cruiser,” but the enlistment
officer found that difficult to
accept. The Navy man was fa-
miliar with all the cruisers in
the fleet, and none of them was
named “Timber.”
When Mark Reed built the
first Simpson sawmill along
the Shelton waterfront in 1926,
Babe was there with his pike
pole and peavey to help corral,
seit and feed logs into the “hun-
giy teeth of Simpson’s pioneer
Sawmill One.” He earned the
respect of that special breed
of water loggers, and was pro— ‘
meted to succeed boom boss
Frank Fredson, his esteemed
“professor” on the pond. It’s
estimated Munson “boomed”
over 51/.) billion feet of logs dur—,
ing his 37 years on the Shelton
waterfront.
For recreation, Babe took
to the woods. Hunting was his
hobby, and together with Mark
Reed’s son Frank, he worked to
establish a duck—hunting project
at Cranberry Lake near Shelton,
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024 — Shelton-Mason County Journal — Page 7
i
,Q,
It
3 Left, Early log boom, Shelton, date
and names unknown
Below, Babe Munson on a Simpson l
dock, Shelton, 1976.
Photos courtesy Mason County Histori—
cal Museum
which included helping the US.
Fish and Wildlife Service plant
wild rice for water fowl. He was
also among the Simpson em-
ployees who, in the early 1940s,
furnished local sixth—graders
with red hats and sweatshirts
and commissioned them as J u—
nior Foresters to join in protect-
ing the forest resource on which
their community depended.
Babe Munson died in Shelton
in April 1977 at age 84.
I Jan Parker is a I'esearclwr
for the Mason. County Historical
Museum. She can, be reached at
)nchspai‘kerffiLWWil.com. Mem-
bership in the Mason County
Historical Society is $25 per
year. Fora limited time, new
members will receive a fro ’ copy
of the book “Shelton, the First
Ccntmy Plus Ton.” -
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