British Columbia Forest Products Ltd.

[camptramp]

Pictures on page 6 frame #79 shows an Northwest model 80D loading out of SPARAMADIC Steel tower I believe they were 120 ft. in hieght . if you look closeiy you can see the big tires under the carrier ,same as picture of the Sparamadic in frame #81 towered down on the move . Picture #79 makes me think it was taken at Caycues as they had a couple Sparamadic,s as well as Northwests ,I don,t recegnize loader as one from Renfrew . Though Renfrew and Pit Lake each had a Sparamatic tower and Northwest loaders, A little thought I had on the numbering system for BCFP steel towers .It seems that when they started buying towers they sent out yarder winches and had them mounted on towers ,the tower took the number of the winch. I remmber the #1 slackline arriving back on a brand new 120 ft. Skajit telescoping tower #762 . In the spring of 1966 after all the old yarders on wooden sleds were recycled complete new towers got new numbers the first at Renfrew being the #797 a 120 ft. Skajit tower on atank under carrage with a new IJ80 inter lock winch.

 

[camptramp]

Born2clearcut picture on posting # 167 is the old A frame dump where the log trucks dumped after the railroad was tore up in 1953 or 1954 on the Harris Cr. side of the San Juan vally. The dump was created by dredging out the mouth of Browns Cr. where the Gordon R. meets the north arm of the San Juan R. There are pictures prior to that one showing a dragline working I suspect that is dredging that same log dump.

 

[camptramp]

Hayesno1 picture on posting #217 #224 is the old 6-223 Renfrew Div. truck in 1979 BCFP bought a Smith sander set up with peload legs (you can still see the cut off squaire tubing ) and set up the 6-223 as a sand truck in the winter and haul logs in summer could be witched back and forth in about an hour later on 1980-81 it was penioned off log haul and was permenent sand truck. For some reason the box didnt lift as high on it compared to the sander on the 6-208 which was later swapped to the 6-225 . You can only imagine our frustration when they sent the 6-225 to Nanimo Lakes to get trashed and were stuck with the 6-223 in the late 1980s when Fletcher took over us ,something about the 6-223 having a couple new rearends . The guy that made that desicion wasnt very popular , one early morning when I was up Br. 1400 in the dark on a sheet of ice when the gravel quit because box wouldnt go up any higher . I manged to ditch her in the high side before it picked up much speed . Oh the joys off sliding backwards in dark on sheer ice .

 

[Born2clearcut]

Couple pictures of possibly building booming grounds in Port Renfrew. The black and white pictures i may have posted before , sry if this is the case

 

[camptramp]

Born2clearcut The first pictures on posting 484 is the clearing to start dredging the booming grounds for the new Dlyland sort at Renfrew Div. around 1960- 1961 I remmber it being built but the exact dates are alittle fuzzy . The contractor with the cats was Ike Skelly he teamed up with another contractor who had grade shovels and draglines .After the land was cleared the boompocket was dregded the gavel was used to fill the sight of the DLS and Shop up to grade. It really was ahuge undertaking. The sight is now where the marina is located. the same contractors cleared the sight above Beach Camp and put in the services for the houses moved down from Harris Cr. I think the lower pictures are of the old A frame dump being dredged for the switch over from railroad logging to truck logging on the Harris Cr. side in the early 1950,s the boompocket for the DLS is just continuation of the A frame dump. The first picture is of pilings beeninh driven in for the new Booming grounds For the new dryland sort.

 

[Born2clearcut]

Thanks for the info camptramp , I posted some pictures of the houses moved down from Harris creek in this thread somewhere . I'll have a look I think i have some pictures of the new DLS being setup.

 

[camptramp]

Born2clearcut You posted pictures of Bear Cr. and Harris Cr. Houses on the move in an earlier posting . Heres some Renfrew history for you. I dont know all the houses at Bear Cr. or Harris Cr. There about 4 maybe 5 houses that appeared built in Beach Camp about 14 that were bunk houses that were bunk houses renovated, added on to become houses . And 8 houses built in Vancouver and setup in Beach Camp. At some point of time and I believe it was after BCFP took over the Renfrew area had houses built in Vancouver . They were built on skids in two haves then barged to Port Renfrew and hauled up to Bear Cr. and Harris Cr. on the logging rail road , put to gether and held together by 3or4 steel rods throuh the floor joist and tied together in the attic. Bill Brown was the contractor who move the houses from Bear Cr. to Beach Camp in 1959 to do it he split the houses in haft and brougth them down the old rail grade . They were set up where the railroad use to run through Beach camp and where the shop and cook house ,bunk houses were located .About 24 to 26 houses . When Harris Cr. was moved down to Beach Camp in 1961 Modern House Movers was the contractor, they moved the houses down the Harris Cr. haul road in one piece they desizned and built a custum trailer haul the houses with hydralics built in to it so the right wheels lean over to ride the timber that divided the walkway from the main traveled lane of bridge. It also raised the whole house high enough to clear the gard rails. Not positive but think I belive the owner of Modern pioneered the system that uses a jack system controled remotly from a truck to raise a whole house at once. The Harris Cr. houses were set up above Beach camp along the main road through Renfrew between where the school and store are located.

 

[Born2clearcut]

Le tourneau setting up Renfrew sort 1963

 

[Born2clearcut]

Panoramic view of the new (in 1963) Port Renfrew camp from the dry land sort

 

[Vigilant]

^^^ That was a first class camp from the looks of it. Even kept the trucks and crew buses under a roof.

If I were born a few years sooner, I would have loved to live and work there.

 

[Dave Hadden]

I started there in 1976 so there had been a few changes by then but I certainly recognize it.

Thanks very much for sharing those.

And "camptramp", do we know each other?

Must have crossed paths or at least know some people in common.

I was tall, dark and good looking..............................well tall anyway. lol

Skinny too.


Take care

 

[camptramp]

Born2clearcut Really good pictures of Renfrew Div. camp when it was being built it was refered to by the locals as "The Industrial Site . The office was moved over from Beach Camp the cook house ,rec. hall and 1 bunk house were moved down from the old Harris Cr. camp , 1 bunk house was moved over from Caycues at a later date . The rest were barged in, they came in two halfs and were previouly the construction camp from Crofton when the Pulp Mill was being built. It really was one of best camps on the coast. In your Grandfathers pictures is there a picture of a mobile A frame . It was custume built by Hayes ,was built on a frame with a rubber tire undercarrage it had steel A frame hanging over the front ,the winch and cab on the back guyline to hold up A frame attacted to the back . Must have had quite a bit of counter weight as it would take the weight of a loaded off highway logging truck ,right side stakes were tripped and mobile A frame would back up withload drop it on the ground then back up leaving room for next truck to pullin front of it. Yes "Surfer Joe weve cross paths a time or two.

 

[Born2clearcut]

I do recall seeing a couple pictures of the Mobile A frame , I'll see if I can dig them out

 

[Dave Hadden]

Born2clearcut Really good pictures of Renfrew Div. camp when it was being built it was refered to by the locals as "The Industrial Site . The office was moved over from Beach Camp the cook house ,rec. hall and 1 bunk house were moved down from the old Harris Cr. camp , 1 bunk house was moved over from Caycues at a later date . The rest were barged in, they came in two halfs and were previouly the construction camp from Crofton when the Pulp Mill was being built. It really was one of best camps on the coast. In your Grandfathers pictures is there a picture of a mobile A frame . It was custume built by Hayes ,was built on a frame with a rubber tire undercarrage it had steel A frame hanging over the front ,the winch and cab on the back guyline to hold up A frame attacted to the back . Must have had quite a bit of counter weight as it would take the weight of a loaded off highway logging truck ,right side stakes were tripped and mobile A frame would back up withload drop it on the ground then back up leaving room for next truck to pullin front of it. Yes "Surfer Joe weve cross paths a time or two.

Hmmm, ok then, be coy.

And thanks for sharing your memories about things BCFP related. I really appreciate them as I enjoyed my time with BCFP and knew a ton of good people back then.
Fond memories except for when I got married and lived in Renfrew for a time. lol
Crazy times.



Take care.

 

[Hayesno1]

camptramp; re your post #492. I think there have been posted a few pics of that unique mobile Hayes A-frame somewhere on this great site, but I am not sure / can't remember which thread. I got the book "Working in the Woods" bu Ken Drushka and there is a good pic of her in action. It seems to me it was running on 24 rubber tires.

 

[camptramp]

Surfer Joe the handle suits you Dave you definatly know me, I hired on at Renfrew Sept. 79 ( for the 5th time ) I hauled the last load of logs on the 6-221 6-222 before they were retired off the log haul . And were reasiged to water tank duty. I drove the 6-232 for a couple of years. I drove the 6-284 brand new .

 

[Born2clearcut]

Le tourneau (same as posted in #488 ) working hard in the Renfrew sort 1964

 

[Dave Hadden]

Surfer Joe the handle suits you Dave you definatly know me, I hired on at Renfrew Sept. 79 ( for the 5th time ) I hauled the last load of logs on the 6-221 6-222 before they were retired off the log haul . And were reasiged to water tank duty. I drove the 6-232 for a couple of years. I drove the 6-284 brand new .

Weird that I can't recall anyone ever using "surfer Joe" to describe me. And, although the surfing crowd all called me by the nickname Hump, nobody called me that at work.
Having racked what remains of my brain I'm dismayed to confess I don't remember any of the truck driver's names from those days although I could certainly put faces to names if and when I heard them. Weird because obviously I did know their names at one time. I do recall the driver from Renfrew who always kept his truck immaculate compared to many others but I can't even remember his name for sure.(Don??)
And 1979 was a very busy year as the company made their biggest net profit ever to date, at 98 million as I recall. We bought a few things for the shop and the company bought all kinds of things and made major investments all over too.
Then came the 80's.

Notwithstanding all of that and still not knowing who you are I'd like to offer many thanks for your memories and recollections regarding those BCFP days being shared here.
Brings back lots of good memories.............just not many names. LOL


Take care.

 

[camptramp]

Dave H Dont you just love a mystery. A lot of woods gone over the brow log since BCFP got picked over by the vultures from down under . Funny I can still remmber walking over the Bear Cr. tresle when I was 6 years old but dont ask me where or what I was doing this time last year . I guess the hazy memory might be from whiskey the I use to consume in camp. Your right on it was Don Orza who use to hate pushing the lowbed and if he did , the next time he got near the shop he had the front bumper painted. When the 40-91 and 40-96 were brought over from Nanaimo Lakes Don grab the 40-91 I had just lost the 41-145 (6-284) inherited Dons old truck the 6-244. A couple days later,he desided it wasnt a great move as the 40-91 was under powered bald tires and the preload trailers were plain run down junk ,yours truly ended up with it. At the end of 1991 we shut down ,that winter Renfrew and Caycuse Div. became HBO with lots of trucks available the 2 two Pacific 40-91 40-96 were left parked for about a year .The 40-91 was the one first repowered new tires painted the fenders rebuilt a couple of trailers. Don was back in that truck in a flash .When Calvin Oliver and Mike Cross found out the whole story (they were from Caycse) they did the 40-96 next repowered it new tires then they went through every corner of the shop to get enough paint to paint the 40-96 from the front bumper to the tail frame ,it looked brand new and when I checked the manufacturer date it was the newest offhighway in the Div. Thanks again Calvin and Mike

 

[Dave Hadden]

Loving your stuff.

Thank you.......................sincerely.


Take care.