Kent/Agassiz (John Henry Oliver) – Kent Celebration 125: Podcast with Bunk Mackay on Logging, Part 3 of a 3 part interview.
This is the third of three podcasts with longtime Agassiz resident Bunk Mackay discussing his 50 years as a logger. Bunk grew up on Seabird Island, he wanted to be a logger since he was a boy. The Memories book Volume 1 features logging on pages 207 to 219.
In this series, Bunk uses numerous logging terms such as picaroon or pickaroon, crummy, springboard, yoke, and corduroy. Here’s a shortlist of those terms followed by a link to a website with more information. Picaroon: A wood-handled, metal-topped log handling tool. It is distinguished from a pike pole by having a shorter handle, no metal point, and an opposite curve to its hook. Crummy: A vehicle used for crew transportation to and from the woods. Springboard: A block of wood ready to be cut into shingles. Yoke: A wooden beam normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. Corduroy road: Or log road is a type of road or timber trackway made by placing logs, perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or swampy area.
For a complete list of logging terms, visit… http://www.soperwheeler.com/about-us Photos used courtesy of the Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society, the Agassiz-Harrison Museum, the Fraser Valley Historical Society and various archives.
This is a non-profit project. For more information on historical events in the District of Kent, see http://www.agassizharrisonmuseum.org Thank you for your support from the 125th-anniversary sub-committee for the District of Kent.
The anniversary was officially in 2020 but due to Covid-19 many events have been postponed. The plan is to continue these historical podcasts throughout 2021 and perhaps beyond.
