Marshall McClung
During the height of logging operations in Graham County, logging camps could be found scattered over most of our woodland areas.
Earl A. Parsons – who was one of the Cheoah District rangers in Graham County – wrote an article about vanishing logging camps. The article was published in the Feb. 15, 1957 issue of Southern Lumberman magazine.
Parsons mentions a Bemis Lumber Company logging camp on Big Santeetlah Creek as being one of the few remaining camps left in the area. The camp had the facilities to house and feed 80 loggers. Meals were prepared on large wood burning cook stoves by two cooks and three helpers.
At least one logging camp grew to be more like a small town than a camp. Both the Belding and Babcock Lumber Companies operated in the Slickrock Creek area and neighboring Citico Creek in Tennessee. Large trees were cut in Slickrock – including a yellow poplar tree in Fodderstack Cove that scaled out at 22,000 board feet on the Doyle-Scribner rule. The butt log took up the entire length of one of the log cars on the railroad.
It was during the Babcock era that the logging camp grew into a small town complete with a general store and a post office that was named Jeffry – for a nearby area known as “Jeffry’s Hell,” that has a complete history in itself. There was also a small school that operated for a time.
Logging camps were found on several other sites, including Squally Creek, Big Snowbird Creek, Locust Cove in the Stecoah area, Mountain Creek, Skeekah “Skeet” Cove on Huffman Creek and other areas.
With the coming of better roads being built farther into wooded areas, logging camps eventually passed into history.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.