Simpson Timber Company and Camp Grisdale
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- Scenes and clips from Simpson Timber Company and its Camp Grisdale operations in the days before the camp's closing in 1985. The camp, located in the rugged Olympic Mountains of Washington, produced timber for the Simpson mills at Shelton, some 50 miles away by railroad.
Amazing how times and lives change.
I arrived at Camp Grisdale in a Simpson crummy 50 years ago to learn to set chokers and work in the woods.
What a great experience and better memory.
Thank you.
The 1980's was the last of the privately owned old growth. And humans being humans the easy stuff was the first to be cut so by the second half of the 20th the old growth that was left was on the steepest, rockiest, hardest to get to ground. Did my share of working around cliffs and steep ground, so much so it scares me today to hike around drop offs and cliffs. Can't believe I did that for a living! It was wild! Just when you were getting bored some shit would tear loose! Somedays you rather be doing anything else but logging, other days there was not anything else you rather be doing . Great video!
Simpson Timber was a great company to work for and I sure miss them days that will never be seen again, very sad
I worked at Camp Grisdale and Camp Govey in the 70's.
I worked at another camp for Scott Paper in Lester, WA and several camps in SouthEastern Alaska.
I'm retired now and living in the sunny, warm Philippines.
@@jammyb90 did you know the Jones family in Lester? Steve and Wes are very good family friends raised there.
The smell of grease, diesel, steam, pine and fir, redwood ... coffee , bacon and eggs, pancakes......... what a life .....
There's no pine or redwoods in the western part of Washington state where Grisdale was. The big timber of the ancient forests around here were mostly Douglas Fir, Red Cedar, Spruce & Hemlock with the old growth Cedars being especially impressive size wise. The pine was in the eastern part of the state and never was considered huge by old growth standards growing in the rain forests of western Washington. And the redwoods were about 600 miles due south towards southern Oregon and northern California...
This video makes me sad, I moved to Mason county when I left my parents house and lived there until two years ago when I moved to LA. I have driven by the camp grisdale site many times and it is hard to imagine what it must’ve been like
I moved to Aberdeen in 1977 and camp grisdale was long gone before that. I worked the woods for 27 years and camp grisdale was long gone when I lived there. You need to look at the dates again, I think you are mistaken
My grandfather was a busheler which was a highly skilled old growth tree faller that was paid not by the hour but by the number of board feet felled per day at Camp Grisdale for over 20 years. He was there when the first chain saw was introduced working there from late 1940's when they arrived here from Wisconsin for better job opportunities until he retired in the mid 1970's. It was also one of the wettest places in the country with over 160 inches of rainfall per year!!! He was fortunate in that he was never hurt but he always knew it was a very dangerous job too. It's probably been over 20 years but the last time we drove by what used to be Camp Grisdale there was little to see and the evidence of a huge logging camp ever being there was slim to none. Anyway, those were the days...
Was just reading the book Grisdale last of the logging camps and ran across this. My grandfather Tip (Clarence) Grandorff, Uncle John, father Neil Grandorff and several other relatives worked there, and I remember many days there as a kid growing up. I logged a few years myself but moved on into technology as I was a radio shack kid growing up. Ironically I work for a "logging" company now in technology, harvesting logs from computers (no joke). From Logger... to Logger.
Oh and whoever the Rusty Grapple is I can't imagine we don't know each other or at least the families as I see you have a video on Coffman Cove as well! :)
Thank you
My dad started his logging company in 1965.We used to go to Grisdale and dig thru their boneyard for used cable so he could survive.I remember eating in the cookhouse a few times.Think it was only during hunting season they opened it up to the public.I was pretty young then tho
Good video of Simpson Lumber Company's Camp Grisdale. My wife's uncle was one of the Vice Presidents of Simpson Lumber Company back in the '70s and '80s.
An excellent video of some of Washington States history. I've hauled many load of logs in that area during my stint as a log truck driver. Although I wasn't but a teenager when this camp was closed, I do have memories of this area in it's glory days.
Thanks Eric, that was classic.
I miss my days of logging and hauling trees to various mills. Got where we hauled them halfway across state and if we got back soon enough then we could get loaded for the next day. More than once I caught a good nap before the guys who unloaded us got there. Sometimes ten trucks were there ready to be unloaded. If the company was cool with it, one of us would unload all the trucks before they got there and it made it easier on all of us. Lots of freeway hauling and the little cars were really rude to us and saying non repeatable things like we were tree murderers and that hurt cause unless there was a secret place they came from, their houses were made from wood. Unlike some things, the timber is renewable and quick too. I lived it a brick home when I lived in Arkansas and only rich people lived in wood houses
You logging truckers had nerves of steel! I love hiking the old, overgrown decommissioned roads and wonder how in the world you all had the courage to drive up and down them in 18 wheelers…
Love old videos about history great job
I went to Simpson elementary in Montesano, WA.
Real cool.Wish i was from the older times, much of todays world sucks.I have the rb auction brochures from back when these big shutdowns in Washington happened.Good to see you post another great video Eric!
That Grisdale country had some of the overall steepest ground for working in the northwest.
RIP. George " Sunny " Miller Track loader operator Camp Govey
I worked with George one of the best heel boom operaters in the land,,his son Carl is a hell of a loggin man too.
Hi James the Miller family was my grandmother neighbors and me a Karl are the same age I hung around with him in the 1960 ' S in Hoodsport Wn. My favorite thing to do when I stayed with my grandmother was fish off the old Hoodsport Marina and watch the constant parade of log trucks roll by . My favorite truck was called '' FLUFFY '' it was a 1940 ' S GMC and was owned by the Jarvis and Hovey logging company located up on top of the old school house hill road at " SLEEP SHOP " the old GMC log trucks were replaced with me worth in the 1960'S.
Great Video Eric. I only wish there was one to go along with this that chronicled the Redwood Region, and the Purchase Northern Lumber Co. By Simpson.
Thanks Mr Rusty, more u tube stuff please. Sure miss you on h.e.f. take care, will in everett
I can't wait until the year 4000 when we can see those big trees again.
"I can log this land" ... On a clear day, you can saw forever!
100yr contract....can you imagine knowin there's work for that long...
They’re still logging💁
@@DenverPicker so how many yrs everybody been happy and contract held?..a man meant what he said…done what he meant and worked hard everyday
Was anything saved from the camp or was it all torn down
Only the mailboxes are left there
My Great Grandfather drove log trucks on the Olympic Peninsula, this industry is nothing what it used to be.
TRUTH ABOUT REGROWTH BUT TOTALLY LIES ABOUT SIMPSONS. THEY ABANDONED 660 MEN AND FAMILIES IN 1967 OR SO ALL RETIREMENTS LOST. AND A NEW MILL IN CALIFORNIA.