Historic Theme Pages
History of Logging in the Bella Coola Valley
Pre contact to 2000
A Logger’s Dictionary
A-Frame...................... A tower build in the form of the letter “A”, 150 feet high, rigged up on a float.
Boom........................... Logs rafted in water ready to tow
Bucker......................... A man who cuts logs when felled in the woods
Cat................................ A caterpillar tractor
Cat-skinner................. A caterpillar tractor operator
Caulked boots........... Spike boots for walking on logs
Chaser........................ The unhook man at the spar-tree
Choker......................... Steel cable with hook end to put on logs
Chokerman................ Man who puts on chokers (setting chokers)
Cold-deck................... A pile of logs to be yarded to home tree
Cross Cuts................. Cross cut saws for cutting logs
David raft..................... Invented by Davis at Port Renfrew, BC.; a boom of logs capable of being towed in heavy seas, found up with cables
Dozer........................... Bulldozer
Haulback..................... Line which pulls rigging back in yarding
Hay Burner.................. A horse
Head-tree.................... Spar-tree next to the railway
High-lead.................... System of logging using spar-tree
Hogger........................ Locomotive engineer (hog = locomotive)
Hooker......................... Hooktender; boss of yarding crew
Jill poke....................... A prop, which when motion is started will cause an object to move in another direction; also a log unloading device
Kettle............................ A boiler
Line.............................. Line is said when enough slack has been pulled out by hand, also the name for any type of rope
Mainline....................... The main hauling line in yarding
North Bend System... A system of skyline logging.
Pot................................ Stem logging donkey
Powder-monkey........ Man who uses powder in the woods
Punk (whistle punk).. Signal man on yarding crew
Rigger (High rigger).. Man who tops trees and rigs same
Scaler.......................... Man who measures and calculates logs
Skid road..................... Road on which logs are dragged
Skidder........................ A skyline system for rough ground; a donkey engine special for this system
Slack-line-yarder....... A ponderous, complicated skyline donkey engine
Snipe........................... To cut end of a lot so it won’t dig
Spar-Tree.................... Tree topped and rigged in high lead system
Undercut..................... The notch cut determining which way a tree will fall
Widow-maker............. A loose limb hanging high in a tree
Yarding........................ Hauling logs from the stump into a pile at the collection site.