THE FOREST AROUND US
Premier W. A. C. Bennett recently declared logger sports the official industry sport of British Columbia. The Premier pointed to the rapid growth and popularity of logger sports, and presented Festival of Forestry Chairman, Bill Moore with a proclamation. In his regular monthly column, Bill tells of the impact of the Premier’s declaration.
 
ants, champions such as Owen Carney, Brian Herlihey and Ron Hartell and they told me that the Mission organization ran a top notch show.
....Frank Grey is an old timer in the Sooke area and it was Frank and a group of his friends who, back in the early thirties organized the now famed All Sooke Day celebrations. Loggers Sports owes a lot to men like Frank Grey and Hugh McKenzie of the Victoria.
....These fellows were always around when a show needed setting up and their leisure came last when it meant pleasure for the crowds. The Wickheim men, Jube and Andy, are household words to the followers of logger sports. The thrills these men of the birling logs have given to thousands of people will never be forgotten. And like so many others of our champion loggers, these fellows are like true athletes, always in shape, and always ready to pitch in and help some new community set up their logger sports.
....It’s been interesting to watch the growth of the sports events over the past 6 years – and I’ve met some pretty fine men along the way. There’s a family of Herlings in Sooke, Dick is the father and he and his wife have four of the Berlingest Herlings you’d ever want to watch on a pond. These young labs can wet most adult opponents now and as the years go on you are going the hear a lot about them – Dick, like the other men I have mentioned here, takes great
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Loggers’ sports now official

.............................................. ....There area lot of pretty happy people in our number one industry just now. .I refer to the various groups of people who will organize and direct loggers’ sports day in their communities. For while the axes have been flying at targets and the birlers have been dumping each other all over B.C. this summer, the government of this province has seen fit to proclaim loggers sports as the “Provincial Industrial Sport of B.C.”
....This was done by the Premier in his Order In Council Number 712 recently in Victoria. Well, Mr. Premier, and gentlemen of the Orderly Council, we thank you. To have this type of recognition gives a great boost to loggers committees and contestants all over the province.
....This summer 10 Canlog (Can-adian Loggers Sports Federation) sponsored shows will be handled in communities from Port Hardy to Prince George.
....Local committee’s work throu-ghout the winter in Vancouver to set up dates, revise the rule book, and compare notes with each other.
....The big shows such as the PNE Festival of Forestry and the Squamish and Sooke Loggers Sports groups discussed with the newer shows of Prince George, Woss Lake, Gold River, Hope, Mission, Terrace and Port Hardy the problems most often encoun-tered and overcome by those who are responsible for putting the shows together.
....And no mean task it is. Take Gold River for instance. Here’s a new community that is determined

 

......................................................... to show off its feelings for the logger and under the guiding hand of Jim Messer and his committee have built find grounds, raised two excellent 100 foot spars, organized their contestants and will for the first time this year have an official Loggers Sports Day on July 17. The Canadian Horizontal Chopping trophy goes on the block there and the best of choppers from BC and the U.S. will compete for the honor.
....Or take Mission – now here is a wonderful example of a beautifully packaged show, neat and tidy, well org-anized and under the capable hands off Perry Cleven – a lady logger sports enthusiast. I visited the show on July 1 it is held at the Mission Park in

BILL MOORE PLACES gold “Boss of the Woods” hardhat on Premier Bennett, following the proclamation.
conjunction with the Soap Box Derby. Two thousand people were seated in the well constructed stands and the show ran has snappy as a Dean Martin spectacular. I talked with the contest-
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British Columbia Lumberman, July, 1971

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THE FOREST

AROUND US

ustry, the IWA, the suppliers of our machines and goods, and especially the Hugh McKenzies, the Wickheim brothers, the Owen Carneys, the Perry Clevens, and to the future, those Birling Herling boys of Sooke. In the forest around us there’s some exciting loggers sports to watch and be proud of this summer.
pride in being a logger, and when one sees four young lads of a logging family such as this, doing their stuff, we can all be pretty sure that the loggers yet to come, like the Birling Herlings, will keep this industry in the spotlight.
....I could not write on without mentioning the fine show put on by the PNE – the Festival of forestry Show. This show is sponsored jointly by the PNE and the Festival of Forestry. It is managed by Harold Locke and supervised by Jube Wickheim. The directors of the PNE saw fit 6 years ago to feature B.C.s number one industry by the man himself: the logger. Crowds of a quarter of a million people now view this show and come away marveling at the skills and the trades of our men in the woods. It’s sheer delight to watch the faces of the crowd as
 
they watch the tree climbers, men like 1968’s Chris Arnet of Squamish or Dwight Carpenter from the United States, last year break the 30-second mark in climbing up and descending those beautiful Woss Lake donated spars at the Loggers Bowl. That, ladies and gentlemen, is class, and these men have lots of it.
....I think about the old timers of our industry, now passed on, who would be happy to see the young loggers of today being recognized in such a manner. It’s a form of recognition that few outside our industry might care about – but to the many in our industry who remember the days of the thick-footed lunk of a logger as pictured by the newspapers, it gives quite a lift to the old morale.
....So here’s to the people in this industry who have supported the resurgence of our number one industrial sport – the companies of the forest ind-
 

....Grab the kids, Dad, executives get out of that stuffy office, and loggers, take off your caulks and head for the nearest loggers sports show – you’ll never forget it.

........Keep out of the bight,