During the early logging days in Graham County, logging camps were located in several areas, including Big Santeetlah, Big Snowbird and Slickrock.
As would be expected – any time a group of men are together for a period of time – there are bound to be some stories come from it.
Some of our local Cherokees also worked in logging crews. My father told two stories about working with Cherokees in a logging crew. One Cherokee seemed to be a sort a of weather prophet.
One afternoon, he picked up his lunch pail and headed for the logging camp. When asked why he was leaving, he announced it was going to rain. The sky was blue – with a bright sun shining and not a cloud in sight – so the rest of the crew continued working. All at once, the sky grew black with rain clouds and the men were soaking wet by the time they reached the camp.
The men were curious as to how he knew it would rain. He told them he listened to the hoot owls – if they changed the side of the mountain, went to another side and hooted, it was going to rain.
There came another day when this “weather prophet” did the same thing, but no rain came. The crew questioned this and was told it was a young hoot owl this time, and that he didn’t know what he was hooting about.
Another Cherokee – who was very strong – worked with my father in a logging crew. The crew was carrying large rocks and feeding them into a portable rock crusher pulled by a dozer. It was exhausting work, and the crew asked the foreman for a rest break and he refused. The Cherokee man then picked up a large rock that it would have taken two men to lift and shoved it into the hopper, causing it to choke down. The man then sat down on the road side and said, “Rest now.”
My father told of another man coming to work in their crew that no one knew. The man seemed to be acquainted with logging work and did his job. Everyone wondered about him. One morning at breakfast, he appeared with a man in handcuffs. He turned out to be an FBI agent and the man was wanted for some federal crime.
Vasco Stewart told of being snowed out of the woods in June on Big Santeetlah. He said the ground was covered in a matter of minutes, but melted the next morning.
There was one logging camp where a big bully worked. He was always picking on a young man much smaller than him, shoving him and knocking him down. One logger had seen enough and picked up a large piece of wood and knocked the bully unconscious.
He left the young man alone after that.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He is retired from the Graham County Rescue Squad.