November 19, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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HISTOBYATA
Life in a Simpson Logging Co. Camp — Part 2
part of Grace memo-
ries of at Logging Co.
camps.
t Camp 1 there was no electric-
Aity, and we had gasoline lan-
terns for lighting. And no re-
frigeration, because we couldn’t even
get ice out there. When we’d been at
Camp 3 for about three or four years,
'we got electricity. We were really
high when
we got a refrigera-
tor! We changed
the motor on the
washing machine
to electric, and we
had electric irons,
and radios you
could walk up and
down the track and
never miss a word
of Ma Perkins or
Amos and Andy.
For entertainment, the ladies or-
ganized a Ladies’ Club. We had card
parties and picnics, and we joined the
Women’s Federation of the Ladies’
Club. For‘church, there. was a minis-
ter that would come up and hold ser-
vices once awhile, what we called
the Club House. But people didn’t
travel to church much, because it was
quite a trip. There was‘no church
even in the valley, so you had to go
clear to Shelton. ’
The single men in the camps lived
in bunkhouses, and there was a cook
house with a cook, a second cook and
a waitress. And it had to be a good
By JAN-
PARKER
cook — the men wouldn’t stand for
poor food, and there had to be plenty
of it. The cook’s day would start about
3:00 a.m. and end'up at 9 or 10 at
night, because he had to set his tables
and get things ready for the next day.
There was also a bath house, and
laundry facilities, which consisted of
big tubs and wash boards.
The men wore what we called tin
pants when they worked the woods
in the rain. They were made from
canvas and were soaked in what I
think was a deep-penetrating oil that
made them very stiff. They had a coat
and hat made from the same material.
My husband had them, and he would
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Journal Page A;9
Simpson Logging Co. camp No. 3 is shown in 1932. Courtesy photo
hang them on a hook behind the cook
stove so they would be nice and dry
and more or less pliable when he put
them on in the morning. They didn’t
have a real good odor.
The people living in the camp never
had much, but they were proud of
what they had, and they took care of
it. The husbands would go out in the
woods and cut cedar and build a fence
around their place and have a nice
place for their children to play.
As a rule, people stayed healthy,
didn’t get too sick. The one thing
that was always very sad was when
someone would be hurt in the woods.
We would hear the donkey’s engines .
blowing those whistles for a looooong
time: they were calling for the train or
V the Speeder. Of course every wife and
mother was out on the porch waiting
to see if it was one of theirs. Several
men were killed outright. My sister’s
husband was working on a loading
donkey when a line broke and a big
block hit him in the leg. He was in
and out of the hospital, and he died
about five or six years later.
My husband had two accidents, but
he was never hurt really badly. I’d see
him run up and down the train on the
walkway on those logging cars that
was about a foot, foot and a half wide
— he would be going one direction,
the train would be going the other.
How he kept his footing, I don’t know.
But when they would disconnect a
car from the train there were these
air hoses, and if he didn’t hang on to
them for dear life, they would flop out
twice they hit him in the face and
broke his jaw.
Our boys went to Shelton for high
school, and they wanted to turn out
for sports. Driving back and forth was
really rough, especially on the road
from Camp 3 to Skokomish Valley,
which was very crooked and narrow,
so we moved into Shelton. But I re-
ally loved camp. I never got tired of
living there.
I Jan Parker is a researcher for the
Mason County Historical Museum.
She can be reached at parkerj@hctc.
com. Membership in the Mason County
Historical Society is per year.
360:898—2481 l www.hcc.net
Monday, Nov 30
Why let Friday have all the fun?
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Mark your calendar. More info coming soon at hcc.net
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