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HISTORYATA
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020 Shelton-Mason County - Page A—15
Early-daylogging memoriesof Bill Grisdale
hen Bill Grisdale,
arrived in Mason
County from Canada
in the summer of 1898 to work
for his uncle Sol Simpson, he
was sent to the Simpson camp
near Matlock where his broth—
er George was in charge of a
60-man crew. Bill stayed with
the company for 49 years, re-
tiring in 1947 at the age of 73.
This story is from an article in
the November 1950 Simpson
Lookout, 'where he reminisced about
the early years.
‘ Bill’s first job was firing on the Toll-
ie, a locomotive named in honor of Sol
Simpson’s wife. “Tollie was a yarding
engine, used to drag logs bodily along
the tracks from the woods. Sometimes
we dragged one log, sometimes several
in a row, bumping along over the ties
for a half mile or more. We used lots
of grease and our barkers put a ‘ride’
on the log by chopping off the bark on
the surface that passed over the ties.”
Sol Simpson’s brother Joe was fore-
man at a company camp near Lake
N ahwatzel, and in August, 1899, $01
sent Bill to Joe’s camp to “spell him
oft” as camp foreman. 'At Camp One,
Bill found a typical crew of 50 men.
“We rarely had more than 100,000
feet of logs down ahead of our rigging
crews. This was an early form of fire
protection, because, the fewer logs we
' had down the less our worries about
fire. There were always fires in the
summer. Sometimes camps logged
along one side of a hill while fires ‘
raced up the other. Fighting fire "was I
By JAN
PARKER
Meet Atlas! He 'is a 2—year—old
09/30/2017), 60#, male Blue Heeler-PitBu/l
mix. He is available 08/27/2020..
Atlas loves adventures, riding in the car,
and being with his people. He is shy, sweet,
boy who likes to be cuddled. He is a strong
fellow who needs some work on his leash
manners. Atlas learns quickly and already
knows the basic commands such as "Sit",
"Stay", and "Down". It helps that is he
treat-motivated once you figure his favorite
snack.
Atlas is a true-blue boy who would make a
greatfamily companion. His family members
should~offer firm and consistent direction,
and Bully Breed experience is required.
(Please note, Atlas requires multiple visits
with some intensive training to determine if
‘ a home visit is possible). Due to his strength
a home with sturdy, dog-sawy teens would
be an ideal fit, but he has been around
unheard of, except when it
got into camp. We did some
back-firing as protection and
that was all that saved our
first camp on Bingman Creek
in the autumn of 1902, when
much of southwest Washing-
ton burned over.” V ‘
Thirty tb 50 menlived in a
bunkhouse, sleeping in bunks
built one over the other.
There was a wood. stove in
the center, and “the steam off
those old loggers was thick as smoke
from a burning tire. Old Jim Calde-
rwood was one of the toughest. Even
after we got fixed up in camp to dry
clothes, Jim would sit in his shack in
his wet old duds, turning one side then
the other to his stove.”
For their occasional baths, loggers
filled an empty lard bucket with water
and heated it over the stove. “Before it
boiled they’d slosh around their hides
with a cloth. Then their underwear
would be put in the bucket to boil. Af-
ter a half-dozen such boilings the wa-
ter was the color of the stove grates.”
Bill remembered meals in the early
camps as being dull. “Every breakfast
was the same. Bacon and hot cakes.
We had only brown sugar. No fresh
vegetables or canned foods. Beef was
served almost every supper meal. The
cooks baked a flat cake for dessert.
Sometimes we got cookies. When they
first began serving eggs in our camp,
the cooks put two on each plate to keep
the heavy eaters from hogging.”
Bill always lived in his camps with
his men, sharing their work and their
younger children. He has lived successfully
with medium dogs his size and prefers big
dogs. While he has lived with cats it would
take time and careful introduction to_ get
used to new non skittish, dog-savvy feline
friends. He does love to run and requires a
securely fenced yard.
Further questions? Currently, emails are
the only method of communication. We
all care about the health of our 2-Iegged
caregivers and the community at large,
so as a precaution we are’suspending our
public open hours. We are still taking email
inquiries, on—line applications and will be in
touch with you as soon as we are able. We
appreciate everyone’s understanding during
this time! Stay Well!
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Bill Grisdale, lowerright in wite shirt and hat, stands with a oomlve at
Simpson’s Camp One. Courtesy photo
couldn’t turn back. Mrs. Jim Frisken
helped us. She had a big jar of musk
perfume and she rubbed this musk
over our clothes. People didn’t seem to .
notice too much.” '
The 1950 article concluded: “From
his beach home at Arcadia, Bill can
see rafts of logs and scows of lumber
passing from Shelton to the out-world
markets. Here goes by the forest har-_
vest which has come since those five
decades when Bill Grisdale sent three
billion feet of logs to the bay.”
fun. One night, Bill and John Sells, a
donkey engineer, pedaled a two-seated
“Speeder” along the train tracks to a
dance at ’Matlock, with Bill’s wife Es-
ther perched in a basket up front. On
the way, their dog flushed a skunk,
which ran across the tracks and was
crushed by the Speeder. “It was one
of the worst spray jobs I recall. My
wife got the most of it, and the. bike
turned white where the skunk shot it,
and it stayed white for years. Jim Was
Supposed to play for the dance, so we
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