A Tale Of Three Lumberjacks

June 18, 2015

Lumberjacks are an integral part of Wolverine area history. They are a lifelong career for many and a cause for celebration in Wolverine.

This year’s Lumberjack Festival, held June 26-28, will offer plenty of fun things to do. In addition to food, drink and the annual Lumberjack Parade at 10am on Saturday, the weekend will include live music, canoe and kayak races, basketball contests, a chicken dinner and nighttime fireworks on Friday, as well as lumberjack-specific activities.

"We are having pony pulls, which is the way lumberjacks used to remove the logs from the woods," added festival chairman Dave Bird. "And we’ll also have a chainsaw wood carver on site doing demonstrations."

The majority of the festival takes place in Lumberman’s Park on Cedar Street near the Sturgeon River, another important component of the lumberjack life.

"The river was a real asset to the logging industry," Bird said. "This is how they moved the logs down the water and to the sawmills."

Logger Dan Sloan, Bird added, was one of the last lumberjacks to use horses in the area. We spoke with Sloan and two other Wolverine loggers to learn more about this fascinating career.

MARK McMANEMY

How did you become a lumberjack?

I started when I was 18 years old. I’m 52 now. So, I’ve been at it a long time. I grew up in Onaway and that’s really all there was to do back then.

Where do you work?

I travel all over the state. I do some logging locally, some downstate, some up in the U.P.

What type of logging do you do?

I work on both cutting down the trees themselves and transporting the logs out, both with a crew. I went independent about 25 years ago, so I do all private jobs these days: landowners clearing the land to build and people who want the trees for timber.

What’s the biggest challenge of your job? Biggest danger?

The biggest challenge used to be trying to make enough money! But, I’m doing okay with that these days. As for the danger, well, just cutting down the trees is pretty unsafe. Wind causes problems and the tops can break off and fall on you.

What do you like best about being a lumberjack?

Nothin’ any more – I’m getting too old for it! But I do like being outdoors.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about your job?

Everybody thinks you walk into the forest and just start chopping down all the trees in sight. It doesn’t work like that.

MARK SCOTT

How did you become a lumberjack?

My dad’s done it all his life. I started when I was 16. My dad taught me and it became a way of life for me too.

Where do you work?

I’ve logged in southern Michigan, Ohio, Indiana – been doing this for 30 years. Now, I just mostly work around here.

What type of logging do you do?

I do a lot of work for sawmills. They buy stumpage – that’s what it’s called when someone pays for the right to harvest trees from a piece of land – then they have me cut the trees down and bring "˜em out. The sawmill takes the timber to market, where it gets made into boards, planks and pulp wood for chipboard.

What’s the biggest challenge of your job? Biggest danger?

Staying alive. When you’re cutting everything by hand with a chainsaw"¦I mean, I’m used to it now, but it’s still dangerous, so I still have a lot of respect for it. You also have to be careful of the other guys because someone else can knock a tree down on you.

What do you like best about being a lumberjack?

Honestly, it’s peaceful. You wouldn’t think so, with all the chainsaws and machinery, but you’re outside, you’re not stuck in an office. I tried a couple of other kinds of jobs, but I always came back to this. Once it gets in your blood, it’s tough to get it out.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about your job?

A lot of people don’t have a clue what it takes to get a tree cut down and that it’s not an easy job, especially city people. They go to the lumberyard and that’s where they think wood comes from.

DAN SLOAN

How did you become a lumberjack?

In a place where you don’t want to drive 30 miles every day to a factory job, you find something you can do on your own. So, logging was it.

Where did you work?

I’m 62 and retired now, but I worked as a logger from the mid-80s to around 2006, all around here.

What type of logging did you do?

I was one of the last guys to use horses for logging around here. You’d start in the morning by feeding and grooming the horses, harness them and load "˜em into the trailer. After you cut down a tree, you’d cut it into log lengths and the horses would pull the logs out. It was a lot cleaner with horses; you couldn’t really tell where they’d been. They really wreck the forests up now with all that machinery. I can’t stand it.

What was the biggest challenge of your job? Biggest danger?

Challenge: making enough money to live. Danger: always falling timber. This isn’t firewood we were dealing with. This timber is 2 feet in diameter. They make a big commotion when they hit the ground. The branches and even other trees nearby can recoil and hit you. That’s how I broke my leg in two places once, a tree kicked sideways and hit me.

What did you like best about being a lumberjack?

The independence. As long as you buy, produce and sell your own timber, you don’t have to answer to anybody but the landowner.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about your job?

Sometimes people would run over and start telling me I was subjecting my horses to inhumane punishment, but my horses were Percherons. Work is what they’re bred to do. The last two horses I had weighed 2,500 pounds each and I didn’t even have to drive them or rein "˜em up. I’d just whistle and they knew what to do.

To find out more about the 2015 fest and see a full schedule of events, visit wolverinelumberjackfestival.org.

FOUR FAMOUS LUMBERJACKS

PAUL BUNYAN

Perhaps the most widely known lumberjack of them all is the folklore character Paul Bunyan, who traveled with Babe the blue ox and was said to have superhuman logging skills. Statues of Bunyan can be seen in both St. Ignace and Oscoda, Michigan, as well as in Minnesota, Maine and California.

BIG JOE

Joseph "Jos" Montferrand was a more traditional (and actual) hero among fellow lumberjacks. The French-Canadian logger was known for his strength and protecting his comrades by defending his fellow workers against gangs of "shiners" (frustrated, unemployed Irish immigrants).

THE LUMBERJACK (Monty Python)

While not necessarily safe for work, this version (played by Michael Palin/Eric Idle) comes from a comedy angle, as an average man tries to glamorize the life of a lumberjack. He ends up insulting some Mounties with his joking around and gets pelted with rotten eggs for his trouble.

CLINT EASTWOOD

Yes, it’s true. Before Eastwood became one of the movies’ favorite tough guys, he had just as many random jobs as everyone else, among them was being a fireman, a steel worker and a lumberjack. We wonder if lumberjack work paid him more than the $75 per week he got from his first movie contract.