Logging has always been an exceptionally demanding and dangerous industry. The first loggers didn’t have access to power tools and machinery and had to do everything by hand using very rudimentary hand tools.
In this image, Herbert James Hillier and George Grant stand on springboards hammered into slots on the tree to help them get high enough to make a clean cut. The large hand saw can be seen propped up against the tree.
Once the tree had been felled, the logs were transported on plank roads to the shoreline where they were gathered up and formed into a raft of logs, known as a log boom, for onward travel by water.
Good food has always been essential for keeping the loggers happy in the camps. This image shows the cook, Joe Fisher on the left, next to baker Kim Wright, at work in the logging camp cookhouse.
If you have a story to share about the early days of logging around Ucluelet, please contact the Historical Society.