Silliman's Papers
The documents page for danielsilliman.blogpsot.com.Thursday, June 20, 2002
Gyppos, company loggers work side by side despite animosity
BY DANIEL SILLIMAN
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Anyone who could cut down a tree and move it was in business on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Trees were cut by large companies that hired numerous loggers, erected camps and processed timber.
Trees were cut by homesteaders clearing land to farm and build cabins. And trees were cut by independent loggers called Gyppos.
Nicknamed by company loggers who compared them to gypsies, the independent Gyppos worked for themselves felling trees and selling the lumber.
According to a Gyppo report in the Jefferson County Historical Society files: “The hand logger had a saw, ax and a peavey. He usually operated on government land in ‘free’ timber which he didn’t pay for. His cut was small for he had to take only those trees close to the water,” Gyppos worked for themselves, worked cheaper than company loggers and didn’t pay for their timber claims.
That created tension between them and company loggers. “The regular loggers were small businessmen who usually bought their stumpage and paid for lumber,” the history report said. “Besides four or five yokes or pairs of oxen, considerable hand equipment was used; saws, peaveys, axes, chains, heavy ropes, blocks . . . Men who knew their business could get out 30,000 to 40,000 board feet of logs a day with such an outfit.”Independent loggers had trouble working with area mills, and often there were hard feelings between them.
“The price the loggers received from timber varied from season to season, depending largely on the price of green sawed lumber, but also on whether a mill had a full supply of logs in the mill pond or if the pond was empty.”Loggers often suspected that mills slowed down cutting to drop prices.
Occasionally, independent logging operations stopped selling timber attempting to hold up the lumber supply until prices increased.
They never succeeded.
Company logging operations and those operations most heavily in debt kept working and kept selling logs. That resulted in increased tension between company and independent loggers.
Despite the tension and animosity, Gyppos and company loggers continued to cut down trees side by side.
BY DANIEL SILLIMAN
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Anyone who could cut down a tree and move it was in business on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Trees were cut by large companies that hired numerous loggers, erected camps and processed timber.
Trees were cut by homesteaders clearing land to farm and build cabins. And trees were cut by independent loggers called Gyppos.
Nicknamed by company loggers who compared them to gypsies, the independent Gyppos worked for themselves felling trees and selling the lumber.
According to a Gyppo report in the Jefferson County Historical Society files: “The hand logger had a saw, ax and a peavey. He usually operated on government land in ‘free’ timber which he didn’t pay for. His cut was small for he had to take only those trees close to the water,” Gyppos worked for themselves, worked cheaper than company loggers and didn’t pay for their timber claims.
That created tension between them and company loggers. “The regular loggers were small businessmen who usually bought their stumpage and paid for lumber,” the history report said. “Besides four or five yokes or pairs of oxen, considerable hand equipment was used; saws, peaveys, axes, chains, heavy ropes, blocks . . . Men who knew their business could get out 30,000 to 40,000 board feet of logs a day with such an outfit.”Independent loggers had trouble working with area mills, and often there were hard feelings between them.
“The price the loggers received from timber varied from season to season, depending largely on the price of green sawed lumber, but also on whether a mill had a full supply of logs in the mill pond or if the pond was empty.”Loggers often suspected that mills slowed down cutting to drop prices.
Occasionally, independent logging operations stopped selling timber attempting to hold up the lumber supply until prices increased.
They never succeeded.
Company logging operations and those operations most heavily in debt kept working and kept selling logs. That resulted in increased tension between company and independent loggers.
Despite the tension and animosity, Gyppos and company loggers continued to cut down trees side by side.
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