Good Timber

the Other Guys

theatre company
with the
Royal BC Museum
presents

............................................................................

Songs & Stories of the Western Logger

............................................................................
 The Other Guys
Theatre Company
with the
Royal BC Museum
proudly presents

Good
Timber
Songs and Stories
of the Western Logger
Starring
Ross Desprez
Sarah Donald
Colleen Eccleston
Kelt Eccleston
John Gogo
Mark Hellman

Director Ross Desprez

Musical Director Tobin Stokes

Visual Design John Carswell

Lighting Design Keith Houghton
Costume Design Erin Macklem
Set Design Peter Pokorny
Stage Manager Karley Wolfert
Audio Technician Ben Brysiuk

The show runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

The use of cameras, recording devices and cell phones

or texting is strictly prohibited.
Please turn off all technology so everyone can enjoy the show – thank you!
The Other Guys Theatre
Board of Directors
Chair Jim Leard
Vice-Chair Mark Dusseault
Secretary/Treasurer Heather Regan
Members Darren Adam, Michele Forslund, Lin Hansen

Communications and Management Team

Project Manager Mary Desprez
Production Manager Keith Houghton
Accountant Jenn Dakai
Publicity Heather Jeliazkov, Ovation PR
Graphic Design Jane Francis Design
Website Design Sam Estok
www.otherguystheatre.ca

Special Thanks To:

Dr. Roberta Swanson for her blessing and for providing access to her father’s poems.
Dr. Ken Williams who, as a former high-rigger in the ‘30’s, has been our resident expert.
BC Archives for the use of photographs and film from their collection.
Photographer Wilmer Gold and USW Local 1-1937 formerly I.W.A. Local 1-80 Archives
and Weyerhaeuser Int’l for access to the MacMillan Bloedel film archives.

For their assistance and faith in this project we thank:

Pauline Rafferty Dr. Robert Griffin Debra Fitzsimmons
Tim Willis Holli Hodgson Tim & Betty McGonigle
Janet MacDonald Kelly-Anne Turkington Shirley Richmond
Sue Stackhouse Vicki Holman Jim & Kathleen Russell
Pam Lowings Heather Regan

Amy Cann for granting permission to play her fiddle tune Catharsis.

Our Partner

Our Sponsors and Funders

Director's Notes
Since 2001 the Other Guys Theatre has created original theatrical productions
intended to reflect and entertain our community. Most often our productions
include a strong musical element and more and more we are finding subject matter
in local history. My wife’s family was employed in the woods of Vancouver Island
and she introduced me to Robert Swanson’s collection of logger poetry some 30
years ago. The rich imagery of the language and the meter of the poems made
me instantly aware of their adaptability to song and perhaps some sort of theatri-
cal production. It took all of these years to find this group of artists and this unique
partnership with the Royal BC Museum to bring the idea to fruition. For more than
a year these poems continued to inspire the ensemble through three workshop
sessions culminating in the material you see and hear tonight. The company is
excited to be performing in front of the amazing images compiled by John Carswell
scoured from the BC archives. Please take note of and support our sponsors and
funders. We hope you enjoy our glimpse into this rich cultural era in our history.
Ross Desprez

BC Archives: D_05051

About Robert E. Swanson (1905-1994)

Swanson worked for many years as a logger, and then as a railroad safety inspector
for the BC government. Swanson loved the sound of train steam whistles and, to
replicate their sound, invented the air horns for diesel trains that have been adapted
for use all over the world. As the inventor of the O Canada Horns (now known as
the Centennial Horns) he developed an international reputation for creating the sig-
nature sound of Canada. He is responsible for the O Canada Whistle in Vancouver,
train horns, fog horns and all ship horns including the ones found on BC Ferries. He
even invented the little hand held air horns. Although originally intended for use
as warnings on construction sites and in the woods they are now commonly used
at hockey games. He also pioneered the development of air brakes and run-away
lanes for logging trucks.

Swanson was best known however for his logger poetry and, to his legions of fans,
he will always be known as the "Bard of the Woods." During his forestry career
Swanson visited every logging camp and mill operation on the coast and spent long
evenings bull slinging with the legends of logging. He started writing down their
stories and ballads in the 1930s, and in the process he became one of BC's bestsell-
ing poets. His four chapbooks of folk verse and ballads were enormously popular in
the 1940s and 1950s.

"The easiest way to describe Robert Swanson's writing is to say he did for the log-
gers of the BC coast what Robert Service did for the goldminers of the Klondike.
Swanson never hit international bigtime like Service but in the world of the BC coast
logger, he achieved legendary status, a status he retains to this day. Like Service's
writing, Swanson's has a breath of authenticity, a spirit of workplace vitality, which
lifts it above the common run of folk verse. As such it makes an important contribu-
tion to the story of the west coast."
-Rhymes of a Western Logger, Excerpt from Foreword by Howard White.

In the 1980s he was part of a performing troupe that read and sang literature about
logging. Forestry authority Ken Drushka observed that being on a reading tour with
Robert Swanson was "like traveling with an octogenarian rock star." A new edition
of his collected bunkhouse ballads, Rhymes of a Western Logger, was published in
1992. Robert Swanson died on October 4, 1994.
Good Timber
Songs and Stories of the Western Logger
Title Words by Music by

The Legend of the Spruce Robert E. Swanson Colleen Eccleston

Life in the Western Woods Robert E. Swanson Tobin Stokes
Chokerman's Lament John Gogo John Gogo
Logger’s Alphabet John Gogo Traditional
The Apes of BC Seattle Red Ross Desprez
The Death of Rough House Pete Robert E. Swanson
The Green Chain Jim Munro Jim Munro
The Ambitious “Punk” Robert E. Swanson Kelt Eccleston
Faithful Unto The End Robert E. Swanson John Gogo
BC Hiball Robert E. Swanson Mark Hellman
Climax Courageous Robert E. Swanson Ross Desprez
Good Timber Douglas Malloch
Cat Skinner’s Prayer Robert E. Swanson Tobin Stokes
The Gal from the Soo Author Unknown Ross Desprez
Good Bye, Old Timer Robert E. Swanson Mark Hellman
When Snoose Was King Robert E. Swanson
He's Got’er Made! Robert E. Swanson Mark Hellman
The Frozen Logger James Stevens James Stevens
Ballad of the Soiled Snowflake Robert E. Swanson
The Tame Apes Robert E. Swanson Mark Hellman
The Camps of the Holy Ghost Robert E. Swanson Ross Desprez
Lumber Cicely Fox Smith Traditional

Photo by Peter Pokorny

Take home a piece of the world premiere! Good Timber

CD’s will be on sale following each performance.
Creative Team
Ross Desprez, Creator/Director/Ensemble, is the Artistic
Director of the Other Guys Theatre Company. With the support of
the company and the community, Ross has premiered a wide range
of productions, from Charles Tidler’s poetic drama Tortoise Boy and
Tobin Stokes’ opera The Vinedressers to his own musicals Sex: the
Musical, The Ballad of Jim Pane and Moodyville Tales. His original
works and collaborations have been seen from Victoria to Halifax.
A native Vancouver Islander, Ross has performed, directed, written
plays or composed music for The Belfry Theatre, Theatre SKAM,
Sunshine Theatre, Langham Court Theatre, Kaleidoscope Theatre,
The Arts Club Theatre and Theatre One. He is also an Instructor
of Acting and Directing at Vancouver Island University. Ross would
like to thank friends, family and particularly his wife Mary for her
inspiration and her tireless support of the arts in British Columbia.
www.otherguystheatre.ca.

Tobin Stokes, Creator/Music Director, is a Victoria-based

composer and musician. He has been musically involved with
dozens of theatre productions both locally and in other Canadian
theatres. His choral music commissions have taken him to
Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, England, France, the Czech Republic,
and Australia, and his television scores has been heard on all
the major networks and stations in Canada, with rebroadcasts
in several countries. He has written full-length opera and ballet
scores and has served as composer in residence with the Victoria
Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific,
and the International Choral Kathaumixw. His music for large
events includes commissions for the BC Summer Games, the XV
Commonwealth Games, and the 2010 Olympic Games.

Sarah Donald, Creator/Ensemble. Having grown up in Victoria,

Sarah is delighted to be back and to be performing with The Other
Guys. Locally she has performed at The Belfry, Blue Bridge Theatre
and numerous productions with Theatre SKAM, of which she is a
co-founding member. Sarah has worked in many theatres across
Canada and the UK. Most recent theatre credits include: As You
Like It/ Death Of A Salesman (Blue Bridge Theatre ), The Back
Kitchen Release Party (Arts Club Theatre - Jessie award winner),
Still Desire You (Alberta Theatre Projects), She Stoops to Conquer,
My Fair Lady, Christmas in Whales (Chemainus Theatre Festival),
Quasimodo (Boca Del Lupo), One Last Kiss (Vancouver Playhouse/
The Belfry), Einstein’s Gift (The Firehall/ The Gateway), All’s Well
That Ends Well, Taming of The Shrew, Anthony and Cleopatra
(Bard on the Beach) and several productions with Western Canada
Theatre. As a musician, Sarah has spent many years playing fiddle,
performing or touring with inspiring musicians such as Kris Hansen,
The Breakmen, Patrick Brealey, Stars, and The Back Kitchen.

Colleen Eccleston, Creator/Ensemble, is a singer/songwriter

with a multifaceted career including recording seven albums/CDs
of her own original material and writing, touring and recording
four CDs of original and traditional music with The Ecclestons over
the past decade. Colleen has been a Mentor for the BC Festival of
the Arts in Victoria and teaches History of Rock and Roll and The
Beatles at the University of Victoria Music Department. As a per-
former she has enjoyed sharing the stage with many artists such
as James Keelaghan, Oscar Lopez, John Gorka, Lucie-Blue Tremblay,
Garnet Rogers, Valdy, Shari Ulrich, Roy Forbes, Sue Medley, Mae
Moore, Christine Lavin and many more. Colleen has composed
songs for Amnesty International, Child Find, Carmanah and Walbran
Valley preservation movements and the Victoria Food Bank. Her
music has also been featured on Swinging on a Star with host
Murray McLaughlan and Coast to Coast, Gaberau and North by
Northwest on CBC Radio. She is releasing her brand new recording
The Garden of Chaos this summer.
Creative Team
Kelt Eccleston, Creator/Ensemble, is a veteran performer of
stage and screen. He has performed stage roles such as Romeo,
d'Artagnan and Long John Silver, has acted in films alongside
Jennifer Beals and Burt Reynolds, and has shared concert stages
with Bruce Cockburn and 54-40. He is a singer and songwriter with
the Canadian band The Ecclestons, and has been featured in music
magazines in Italy and Poland. www.theecclestons.com

John Gogo, Creator/Ensemble, is a singer, songwriter, guitar-

ist and actor, from a large musical family in Nanaimo, BC. After
a two year stint as a Chokerman in a logging camp, John followed
the lead of his musician parents. He has released three full length
albums of his original songs, four music videos (which enjoyed
rotation on CMT and MuchMusic) and toured Canada several times.
John has also appeared in two productions of The Other Guys
Theatre Company’s Moodyville Tales. He released his latest (fourth)
CD of original music, One of These Days in June 2010.
www.johngogo.com

Mark Hellman, Creator/Ensemble, has made his living as an

independent artist since 1981 as an actor, musician, dancer, pup-
peteer, voice-over artist, writer, teacher, director and independent
producer, and sometimes as all of them simultaneously. He has
lived in many parts of Canada and has toured to almost all the
other parts, moving back to Victoria in 1998. He couldn't be
happier to be collaborating with the Other Guys again, and recently
appeared in The Life Inside at the Belfry. His one-man shows
include: World's Smallest Shakespeare Co., Quinn Harley's Dream
Factory, The Minstrel's Dream (Story Theatre), and most recently
Tracks of the Troubadour (also with Story Theatre), a BC musical
ride dating back to 1860, now available for bookings (storythe-
atre.ca). Mark's also the founder and director of the Vic High
Neighbourhood Choir, an all-ages/all-levels community acapella
group now entering its sixth season. Above all, he's a proud single
dad of two daughters, step-dad to a third daughter, and adoptive
uncle of two nieces. Life is full and rich. www.markhellman.ca

John Carswell, Visual Design. John has worked in the television

and multimedia realm of Vancouver Island for the past 23 years,
and during that time has seen many changes in the technology,
style and form of media production. Working on a project that
combines the imagery of a bygone era and live music, in collabora-
tion with the talented cast and company of Good Timber has been
a rewarding, creative experience - and a great privilege. With his
partner Alice, John runs Shine*ola Communications, a company
long-associated with the Victoria arts community. Along with six
year old Will, the family enjoys hiking, camping and exploring the
good timber of this amazing province.

Keith Houghton, Lighting Design. Keith is a Victoria based

technician and designer and is the Production Manager for the
Belfry Theatre. He is pleased to be working with the Other Guys
once again. Past credits include Projection Coordinator – Madama
Butterfly, Regina, and Semele for Pacific Opera Victoria. Projection
Coordinator – 150 Years in Golden Mountain for Victoria Chinese
Cultural Association. Lighting Designer – Hockey Mom, Hockey
Dad for The Other Guys. Lighting Designer – Cariboo Buckaroo for
Theatre SKAM.
Creative Team
Erin Macklem, Costume Design. Erin is very happy to be back
with The Other Guys gang, the company that provided her first
big break in the biz over a decade ago. Since then her designs
have been seen at The Belfry Theatre, Pacific Opera Victoria, The
Arts Club, Kaleidoscope Theatre, Theatre SKAM, Sunshine Theatre,
Story Theatre, TheatreOne, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and Caravan
Farm Theatre. Her writing has been featured at SummerWorks
(Gladstone Gallery), Playwrights Theatre Centre (Playwrights
Colony and Festival of New Work), Rumble’s Tremors Festival
(Foreshocks and Aftershocks), Theatre SKAM (School House Rocks
and Bike Ride), Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival (mini plays), Solo
Collective (Solo Flights), and The Walking Fish Festival. She is the
Artistic Associate at the Belfry Theatre and has a BFA in Theatre
from the University of Victoria.

Peter Pokorny, Set Design. Peter studied at The College of Fine

Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia with the main focus on photography.
He started his theatre career at Capitol Theatre in Nelson, BC as a
set and lighting designer, scenic carpenter, painter and technician.
Peter has spent the last decade working at the Belfry Theatre,
Victoria as a scenic carpenter and head of props. He has collabo-
rated with some of Canada's most talented directors. Some of
Peter's design credits include: Any Night (Dual Minds, Vancouver),
Moodyville Tales (The Other Guys Theatre Company, Victoria),
Eyes on the Mountain (Opera Studio, Victoria Conservatory of
Music), Hair, The Fantasticks, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, West Side Story (Capitol Theatre, Nelson). He is
delighted to have a chance to work again with this fun and very
inspired group of talented artists.

Karley Wolfert, Stage Manager. Karley is excited to be joining

the Good Timber team on their summer adventures. A graduate of
Vancouver Island University’s Technical Theatre Program, she works
as a freelance technician and Stage Manager on Vancouver Island
and the mainland. She has had the pleasure of working in various
capacities with companies such as Chemainus Theatre Festival,
Bard on the Beach & Monster Theatre. In the future, Karley hopes
to keep exploring the incredible world of performing arts from the
backstage perspective.

A Logger's Dictionary
from Rhymes of a Western Logger by Robert E. Swanson

A brains: the headmen, bosses, owners,

ape (usually ‘tame-ape’): a rigging man.
ass: the back end of anything.
B bull: conversation as a pastime.
bag boom: logs in water surrounded by
boom sticks in circle.
big holed the air: put air brakes on in
emergency.
bight: to be inside the angle of a line or
block.
bitch: a tough anything (a bitch of a day);
blew the lid: to get out with gusto; to
quit in a hurry.
board hole: a hole cut by fallers in a
stump for spring boards.
boom: logs rafted in water ready to tow.
bone yard: place for worn-out machines.
boxing gloves: counterweights on a
Climax locomotive.
etc.
bucker: a man who cuts logs once felled
in the woods.
bull of the woods: the superintendent,
foreman, etc.
bull block: a large open-mouthed pulley
block.
bull bucker: the boss of the fallers and
buckers.
bull cook: man who puts in wood, makes
beds, etc. in camp.
bull moose: a large anything.
bull pen: second class steerage on a
northern boat.
bunk: a rude form of bed; anything but
the truth.
bunk house: the residence of anything
but a happily married man.
C gear-stripper: truck driver, sometimes
cat: a caterpillar tractor.
cat-skinner: a caterpillar tractor operator.
cat-tracks: the tread of a cat tractor.
caulked boots: spiked boots for walking
on logs.
cherry-picker: machine for picking up
lost logs on a railway.
chicken-crap show: miserable outfit.
chin-whiskered: poor show, haywire,
lousy.
choker: steel cable with hood end to put
on logs.
chokerman: man who puts on chokers
(setting chokers).
chuck: Chinook word for salt water; the
sea; food.
chunk: a log not bucked off at both ends;
usually left in the woods.
claim: timbered country surveyed to be
logged by a company.
Climax: a breed of geared locomotive.
complaining: something which a hooker
does a lot of.
crock: a bottle of liquor.
cross cuts: cross cut saws for cutting
logs.
crown: the top branches of a standing
tree.
crummie: a closed boxcar for hauling
loggers.
D inkslinger: time-keeper or office man.
dame: a female person aged from 9 to 90.
dangle: to move fast.
diesel yarder: diesel powered yarding
donkey.
dive: a place not so good.
dolly: a roller for timber.
donkey: a logging engine with drums.
donkey puncher: donkey engineer.
dozer: bulldozer.
droop: stoop-shouldered person.
duplex: a loading donkey with double
engines.
E person.
eagle eye: sharp eye; loco engineer.
eye: a loop splice in end of cable.
F
fake: a gas donkey.
falling and bucking: falling trees and
cutting them up into logs.
fir: a coniferous tree of the west coast.
flicker: a woodpecker, bird of the north-
west.
flunkey: a table waiter or a dishwasher.
fog: steam.
G log dump: end of railroad where logs are
galloping goose: a locomotive that runs
with a galloping motion.
‘gear jammer’.
goat: a rig-up donkey.
good-head: a good fellow to work with.
guthammer: dinner gong.
guy: a male person aged from 9 to 90.
gyppo: a small log contractor (poor, hay-
wire).
H
haulback: line which pulls rigging back in
yarding.
hay burner: a horse.
haywire: inclined to be not up to stan-
dard (broken).
head-tree: spar-tree next to the railway.
heart: centre growth rings of a tree.
heel-line: line for tightening skyline.
hi-ball: go ahead fast; fast outfit; fast.
high-lead: system of logging using spar-
tree.
hiring board: blackboard upon which
jobs are written in a hiring office.
hitting-the-ball: working very fast.
hog: locomotive; also known as a “locie”.
hogger: locomotive engineer.
home guard: a man who works for the
same company and never quits his job.
hooker: hooktender; boss of yarding
crew.
I
J
jack: money.
jack-pot: a hell of a mess.
jagger: sharp strands on a worn cable.
jewelry: rigging, hooks, knobs, etc.
J.P.: Justice of the Peace.
jug: jail.
jungle: a name for logging camps and
the woods.
K
king pin: part of a log car; the main
kink: a twist in a cable.
knit: to splice a cable.
knoll: a rounded timbered ridge.
L
lead: to hang a block.
line: “line” is said when enough slack has
been pulled out by hand, also the name for
any rope.
loaders: the men who load logs onto rail-
way cars or trucks.
locie: a logging locomotive, also known
as ‘a hog’.
put in water.
M show: conditions governing output of
mainline: the main hauling line in yard- logs.
ing. side-swipe: to hit sideways.
main-line: the main railway. side winder: a tree knocked sideways by
mill: sawmill. another tree.
mug up: cup of coffee, not at mealtime. skidder: a skyline system for rough
ground; a donkey engine special for this
N system.
nose: front end of a machine (or front of skid road: road on which logs are
anything). dragged.
nose bag show: had to pack a lunch skidroad: a street in town which loggers
bucket to work. frequent.
notch: a groove in a stump for a guy line. skyline: 1 ¾ to 2 ¼ inch steel cable,
three thousand feet long, to haul logs
O through the air in rough country.
open face: a wide drum donkey. slash: logged-off country.
sled: sled on which donkey sits.
P soup: superintendent.
pannicky: always in trouble, or excitable. spar-tree: tree topped and rigged in high
pencil pusher: time-keeper. lead system.
pension: an easy job. stake: wages saved up to spend on a
percolate: to make a machine run well. spree in town.
pig: sled used in skid road to bring hooks stand: a good “stand” of timber.
back. stanfield suits: long woolly underwear.
powder-monkey: man who uses explo- straw line: small line to pull the haulback
sive powder in the woods. line.
pull the pin: to quit the job and go to stump: what is left in the ground when
town. tree is felled.
punk (whistle punk): signal man on suckhole: a tale packer to the boss.
yarding crew. swedish fiddle: a bucking saw.
purchase: a good steady pull (using
blocks). T
tame ape: a real logger.
Q timber: logs and trees fit to be logged.
quirk: an artful trick. Timber-r-r-r!: signal call, “Keep clear,
tree is going to fall”.
R tongs: tongs used to load logs onto
raft (Davis raft): invented by Davis at railway car.
Port Renfrew, BC; a boom of logs capable top a tree: rigger climbs and cuts off top.
of being towed in heavy seas, bound up tycoon: a big boss logger.
with cables.
raise hell: to do anything in a boisterous U
manner. undercut: the notch cut determining
rat: a no-good person, an informer. which way a tree will fall.
rigging: lines, hooks, etc. unit: a combined yarding and loading
rigger (high rigger): a man who tops donkey on railway wheels.
trees and rigs same.
rip-wrap: cable spiked crossways on a V
blank road for traction. virgin forest: forest not yet opened up
rob: to steal parts of one machine for for logging.
another.
W
S whistle: a signal (on a whistle) in yarding
scaler: man who measures and calculates logs.
logs. widow-maker: a loose limb hanging high
scissor-bill: a stupid person. in a tree.
section crew: a railroad track repair wrench: to repair a machine.
man.
setting (“a setting”): a piece of country Y
to be logged off to one spar tree. Y: a track for turning a locomotive around.
shanty queen: logger’s wife living in a yarding: hauling logs from the stump into
shack in camp. a pile at the track.
shay: a geared locomotive; sidewinder.
The Logger
British Columbia has been a forest industry
province for well over 100 years. Logging
and its associated industries has involved
more people than any other economic activity
in this province. Whether we enthuse over
the romance of a by-gone era or see it as
destroying the forest, we must remain aware
of what is happening in our woods.

Many British Columbians, including Robert

Swanson, look back at the lives of early
loggers and see a saga of hardship, danger
and romance. Poetry, novels, tales and art
all celebrate an adventure that goes back to
the early bull punchers – men who drove their
oxen and pulled the turns of logs to the sawmill.
Others look to the not quite so distant past,
and reflect on the days when steam-powered
donkey engines and locomotives ruled the
woods. Frequently, it is the sound of the steam
whistle that brings nostalgia for this lost era.

Robert Swanson’s poetry captured the life

of the logger during a time when the woods
were changing, chains saws were replacing
hands saws and diesel-powered engines were
replacing steam. A whole lifestyle was
disappearing. He also sought to capture
the very sounds that once echoed through
the woods. He created air horns that sounded
like steam whistles and are used all over
North America. Robert Swanson kept alive
an awareness of what many call the heyday
of the logger – the days when the rough and
ready timber beasts roamed the woods with
axe and saw and their formidable steam
engines. A time, once again, brought to
life here in the songs of Good Timber.

The Royal BC Museum is the caretaker of

many materials that document those past lives.
We have large collections of photographs of log-
gers and of how they lived. The photographs
also show what it was like before the loggers’
encroachment and how the forest has changed
over the past 100 years. Our collections show
the ambivalence of an industry that cut the
forest down, while at the same time treasured
the outdoor life and even envisioned the forest
as a trust. Some loggers did go into the woods
just for a job, but for many it was a means of
finding an active life in the outdoors they loved.
All of this is documented in the collections of
the Royal BC Museum, and especially in the
photographs and manuscript records of the BC
Archives.

Dr. Robert Griffin

Manager, Human History
Royal BC Museum

BC Archives: E_00797