Excerpt: Dyed-in-the-wool loggers
"These men... were the true loggers, or 'wood hicks.' Theirs was an occupation taken by choice, and in it they were specialists. The camp was their home and the woods their work. They would accept no other employment and took great pride in their calling. Others might seek for work in mills and the easier life of town, but the dyed-in-the-wool logger was virtually married to the swaying softwood forests and the muddy, swirling waves of the flooded river.
"Such men as these permanent loggers were the core of each new camp. From them local men could learn the ways of the trade until all soon merged into an efficient working force. When a job 'cut out,' most of the local men would settle in other occupations, but the drifting 'hick' would move on to new forests and the familiar life of the camp. Only in few instances did one desert the bunkhouse in favor of some blue-eyed maid and the settle life of a permanent home."
Source: W. E. Blackhurst, Riders of the Flood (1954).
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