University of California Berkeley
University of California Bancroft Library /Berkeley
Regional Oral History Office
Myron E. Krueger
FORESTRY AND TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
1925-1965
Richard A. Colgan
FORESTRY IN THE CALIFORNIA PINE REGION
Interviews Conducted by
Amelia H. Fry
Berkeley
1968
Produced Under the Auspices of
The Forest History Society
FOREWORD
This interview is part of a series produced by the
Regional Oral History Office of Bancroft Library, University of
California at Berkeley, under a grant from the Forest History
Society, whose funding was made possible by the Hill Family
Foundation .
Transcripts in the series consist of interviews with:
DeWitt Nelson, retired head of the Department of Natural Resources,
California; William R. Schofield, lobbyist for timber owners, Cal
ifornia Legislature; Rex Black, also lobbyist for timber owners,
California Legislature; Walter F. McCulIoch, retired Dean of the
School of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon;
Thornton Munger, retired head of U.S. Forest Service Experiment
Station, Pacific Northwest Region; Leo Isaac, reti red, si I vi culture
research in the Forest Service Experiment Station, Pacific North
west Region; and Walter Lund, retired chief, Division of Timber
Management, Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service;
Richard Colgan, retired forester for Diamond Metch Lumber Company;
Myron Krueger, professor of forestry, emeritus, U.C. Berkeley; and
Woodbridge Metcalf, retired extension forester, U.C. Berkeley.
Copies of the manuscripts are on deposit in the Bancroft Library,
University of California at Los Angeles; and the Forest History
Society, University of California at Santa Cruz.
Interviews done for the Forest History Society under other
auspices include: Emanuel Fritz, professor of forestry, Univer
sity of California, Berkeley, with funding from the California Red
wood Association; and a forest genetics series on the Eddy Tree
Breeding Station with tapes by W.C. Gumming, A.R. Liddicoet, N.T.
Mirov, Mrs. Lloyd Austin, Jack Carpender, and F.I. Righter, cur
rently funded by the Forest History Society Oral History Program.
The Regional Oral History Office was established to tape
record autobiographical interviews with persons prominent in the
history of the West. The Office is under the administrative
supervision of the Director of the Bancroft Library.
Willa Klug Baum, Head
Regional Oral History Office
Regional Oral History Office
Room 486 The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California
11
INTRODUCTION
MYRON KHUEGER and RICHARD COLGAN
The two Interviews which are bound together In this
volume are part of a series on forestry in California
which was an attempt to document some of the earliest
private forestry efforts. The Twenties-to-the Fifties is
the period in which the timber industry turned a corner
in California, from hit-and-miss management that rarely
led to the creation of permanent timber supplies, to
responsible, economically feasible operations that allowed
enough forest regeneration to supply the mills indefinitely.
These two interviews offer first a bird s-eye-view of the
period, and then an on-the-ground example of the essence
of the change.
Myron Krueger, professor of forestry at the University
of California, Berkeley, was chosen as the one who could
best contribute an informed and sweeping picture of
forestry developments over the timber lands of the state;
Dick Colgan is one who, as a long-time forester for Diamond
Match Company, could give a specific picture of the progress
of sound forest management in an operation that utilized
better cutting practices earlier than most others.
Professor Krueger s career covers achievements in
logging engineering; in teaching at Berkeley from 1925 to
1955 and running the summer camp; and such quasi-governmental
posts as senior lumber code examiner under the NRA in 193^
and as an advisor on forestry matters to Assistant Secretary
of Agriculture Earl Coke at the beginning of the Eisenhower
administration.
His bibliography is a long one with topics ranging
from his early studies on costs of truck and tractor
logging to a comprehensive volume on land use, on which he
collaborated with Samuel T. Dana California Lands: Owner
ship and Management (1958). One of his major contributions
is to the development of the profession of forestry: From
1946 to 1955 Krueger served on the Society of American
Foresters Accrediting Committee, most of that time as its
ill
chairman. The work of the committee led not only to a
clarification and expansion criteria, but to the negotia
tion of a working relationship between the accreditation
efforts of the Society and the regional accrediting
agencies for higher educational institutions as a whole.
Mr. Krueger and I met on the Berkeley campus before
Christmas in 19&5 an( * discussed the selection of topics
for a taped interview. The recording session Itself took
place the following month in his home, an apartment in a
retirement community near Walnut Creek, California. The
two-story building, of natural-finish redwood, was set
with others of its kind on gently rolling ground whose
natural landscaping takes advantage of creeks and trees.
In his living room, sliding glass doors provided access
to a generous balcony which overlooked canyons and hills.
Inside there were warm period furniture with bright
flowery brocades, an oriental chest, several paintings,
and a large bookcase highboy in one corner. As if to
attest to the fact that his life still extended far beyond
the bounds of his so-called "retirement residence," the
telephone s urgent ring frequently interrupted the inter
view.
Krueger, wearing a soft plaid shirt and a bolo tie
caught with an Indian turquoise arrowhead, appeared
relaxed but his mind moved with the precision of the man
whose "rigorous field engineering assignments" had often
been the horror of student railroad location surveyors at
summer camp. He was fully cooperative in our efforts to
record a true picture, and we moved swiftly but concisely
through our outline. To the regret of both of us, the sun
set, signaling the close of our interview, before we could
discuss his experiences with Assistant Agriculture
Secretary Coke.
That is another story, concerning more the relation
ships within the Forest Service and the Department of
Agriculture than the development of forestry techniques in
California, but the professor has given permission to place
in the appendix the notes from our pre-intervlew conference
on this phase of his career.
iv
Mr. Colgan s interview took place April 12, 1966, in
his friend Rex Black s home in Palo Alto, where he was
visiting for the occasion. In fact, it was retired CPPA*
Secretary Black who, after his own interview was finished,
made it possible to start a similar project with Mr.
Colgan: Black sent to the Regional Oral History Office
a grant which funded the recording and transcribing After
that was accomplished, the Forest History Society stepped
in and supported the editing and finishing with a grant
from the Hill Family Foundation fund, the source of support
for the Krueger interview, also.
Mr. Colgan s Interview was recorded in the quiet of
Hex Black s study in two stints: one before lunch and one
after lunch a repast that is still memorable for its
good California food, and wines from both France and the
Golden State.
A graduate forester from Michigan State, Colgan forsook
the Forest Service temporarily when, in 191^ he rassed the
test at a time when there were no vacancies. Then, while
working in California, his boss, F.E. Olmsted, was asked
to check a timber estimate on 25 000 acres of Diamond land
and he put Colgan in charge for the summer. This was
Colgan s introduction to the Diamond Match enterprise. After
World War I Olmsted became forester for Diamond and called
on Colgan to assist, specifically in the Idaho area. In
1922 Colgan came to Chico, California, to manage Diamond s
lands after a showdown between Olmsted and the man who was
contracting logging to independent and frequently destruc
tive "gyppos."
Here Colgan s story concerns the efforts required of an
early day forester superintendent to make forestry pay: from
cost studies to the equipment adaptation necessary in pre-
tractor days. The discovery that the Diamond areas had
been burning over every forty-two years led to greater
efforts in fire protection and the establishment of the
unique and effective North Butte Protective Association
made up of the Forest Service, the State Division of Forestry,
and Diamond.
For further information relating to material in Colgan s
Interview, the reader is referred to other interviews in
this series, specifically those of S. Rexford Black and
William P.. Schofield. Also recommended is a 399-page
*CFPA: California Forest Protective Association.
corporation history of Diamond Match, written by William
H. Hutchinson and published by the Company in 1957.
Both Colgan and Krueger received rough-edited tran
scripts to which they added further corrections and then
returned them to this office for final typing, indexing,
and assembling. During a visit by the interviewer to the
Golgans 1 summer home in the California pine country, Dick
rounded up a number of pictures to illustrate his tran
scripts, then conducted a tour through the second-growth
Diamond forests which he and the ingenious logging boss,
Dana Bailey, had nurtured by protective logging methods.
These two men, then, give accounts that hopefully
will sharpen the picture for a historian searching for
material on the years when forestry first came to
California.
Amelia R. Fry
Interviewer
March 1969
vl
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION ^
CONTENTS vl
SECTION ONE
MYRON E. KRUEGER: FORESTRY AND TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA
Chronology
Technological Developments in Logging - Tractors 1
Trucks 5
Private Forestry in the Redwoods 9
The Lumber Code of the N.H.A. , 193^-35 1>
The Accrediting Committee of the Society of
American Foresters
Appendix
SECTION TWO
RICHARD A. COLGAN: FORESTRY IN THE CALIFORNIA PINE REGION
Background and Education
Work in the U.S. Forest Service 31
To Diamond Match Tlmberlands 35
The North Butte Fire Protection District ^3
Improved Forest Practices in Diamond Match Company 51
vii
Dealing With the U.S. Forest Service 60
Forestry Developments Over the State 62
Greeley Investigation in the Society of
American Foresters 65
State Forester Pratt 6?
California Forest Protective Association 68
i
Evaluation of the Forest Practice Act of 19*4-5 70
Appendix ?6
Index
SECTION ONE
Myron E. Krueger
FORESTRY AND TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
1925-1965
All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal
agreement between Myron E. Krueger and the Regents of
the University of California and the Forest History
Society, dated November, 1968. The manuscript is thereby
made available for research purposes. All literary rights
in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are
reserved to the Bancroft Library of the University of
California at Berkeley and the Forest History Society.
No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication
without the written permission of the Director of the
Bancroft Library of the University of California at
Berkeley or the Director of the Forest History Society.
Request for permission to quote for publication
should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office,
^86 Library, and should include identification of the
specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the
passages, and identification of the user. The legal
agreement with Myron E. Krueger requires that he be
notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which
to respond.
Myron E. Krueger
MYRON KHUEGER - Chronology
Born - Glenville, New York: June 15 1 1890
1916
191?
1917
1917
After War:
Then:
1925
1938-19^1
1946-1955
B.S., Union College
B.S.A., Cornell University
With Professor Bruce on field and office
aspects of time studies in logging pine
and redwood.
M.S., University of California
Spring to Fall: U.S.P.S. Assistant Ranger -
Sawyer s Bar.
October: Army in Landes region of France,
cruising.
Modoc National Forest for a short time.
Six years as logging engineer in redwoods
for Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia and
the Northern Redwood Lumber Company of
Korbel.
Professor of Logging and Forest Engineering,
University of California, and summer camps
after Fritz.
Senior lumber code examiner under N.R.A.
On Council of S.A.F.
On Accrediting Committee of S.A.F. ; Chairman
after 19^8.
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN LOGGING
Tractors
Fry: Would you like to tell about the mechanical
devices for logging and the development of these?
Krueger: As background, I want to bring out that the
mechanical devices for logging, between the use
of animal power (oxen, horses, and mules) and
modern tractors, consisted primarily of steam
donkeys which activated steel cables. Here you
had devices that pulled logs in straight lines.
With the introduction of the tractor, you had
devices that no longer had to pull in straight
lines.
Also as a background for the consideration
of tractors, particularly, the term "yarding,"
"reading," and "long-distance transportation"
need to be defined. For example, all movement of
the log from the time you get the tree down and
severed into logs until it lands in the sawmill
is "transportation." But they normally have con
sidered the first, initial, short distance movement
of the log as "yarding" or skidding. The
secondary, somewhat longer distance Is termed
"reading." Finally, the long distance transporta
tion from the woods to the mill is usually referred
to merely as "transportation," but as I have pointed
out, it s really all transportation once you get
the tree down and severed (bucked) into logs.
With that as a background, let us consider
tractors. They were first used in long distance
transportation, as a form of reading device in
some cases, or in bona fide long distance trans
portation In connection with trucks. I m not
referring to auto trucks, but the old type of
trucks which were in a sense glorified wagons,
with the steam tractors hauling these wagons
sometimes only one, sometimes two or three con
nected together.
Pry: Was this in any particular part of the timber
region, such as Douglas fir?
Krueger: I think I should confine my remarks primarily to
California, because I m not too familiar with all
of the historical development of the entire
Douglas fir region.
In California, I think that the early use of
steam tractors for reading or long distance
transportation with wagons occurred in the
southern Sierras, and some of it in the vicinity
of Hume where they did some early day logging of
inland Sequoia (Sequoladendron glganteum). (This
is now a part of King s Canyon National Park. The
community of Hume, no longer in existence, was
located along what is now State Highway 180.)
But the first application of internal com
bustion tractors to logging occurred in the early
Twenties. In 1925 and 1926, when I first came to
the University of California, they were coming
into considerable use in the pine region of
California which is in the northern Sierra region.
Pry: This was still as long distance transportation?
Krueger: More correctly they were used as reading devices
because the logs, in some cases, were still bunched
together with horses or with small tractors or
rolled into piles by means of a "cross -haul,"
which is simply the loggers 1 way of saying a
parbuckle. A parbuckle is simply a line which
comes from a fixed point, toward which the log
is going to be rolled, and goes down under the log
and then back up over again to the team or other
power source which rolls it up an incline. As I
say, in some cases the logs were bunched by horses
and in other cases they were beginning, in 1926,
to be bunched by tractors.
But when they once were in the pile, then
they had devices which were hauled by the tractor
and referred to as "big wheels," because that s
what they were: big wheels. Big wheels had been
used with horse logging. The big wheels as used
with horse logging were sometimes fifteen feet in
diameter, but the big wheels as developed initially
for tractors were not over ten feet in diameter.
They had a hydraulic lift device, which was
Krueger: connected to a hydraulic pump on the tractor,
which would pump oil up into a cylinder which, in
turn, elevated the logs off the ground for easier
transportation. Then they were hauled into the
landing to be loaded, usually on railroad cars.
In short, the sequence was either horses or
tractors for yarding, tractors plus the big
wheels (or the hydraulic big wheels) for reading,
and finally railroads for the long distance
transportation.
The next development was to substitute arches
for the big wheels. They were actually no longer
"wheels" in that they were no longer circular.
The arches possessed "rolling" mobility because of
a track-laying type of device similar to the track
of the tractor. A line ran from a drum on the
tractor up through a fair-lead at the top of the
arch. They would attach lines, called chokers, to
several logs and pull them up under the arch, and
then proceed to the landing with them. So the
tractor became not only a yarding device, but also
a reading device in one continuous operation.
The next development was the inevitable
increase in size of units and later the application
of diesel power, rather than gasoline. It should
be explained, perhaps (and this will be evident to
anyone who is an engineer) that with gasoline
internal combustion engines you secure your detona
tion of the combustive material by electrical
spark; but in a true diesel engine, the fuel is
ignited under the heat of compression. So
originally they had to have enormous weights of
material to withstand the heat of compression.
It was for this reason that the first applications
of diesel power were in water transportation that
is, in ships or stationary units because weight
was not a problem in either case. As the metal
lurgists developed better metal alloys, permitting
greater strength with less weight, the diesel
principle could be applied to mobile equipment
such as tractors.
It finally should be pointed out that tractors
remain essentially a downhill logging device. That
is, they don t have the power to pull very large
loads up very steep hills. This has had some
significance when used on ground that is very
easily eroded. In some cases, timber operators
Krueger:
Pry:
Krueger:
have reverted back to high lead donkeys or sky
lines, so that they can pull logs uphill. The
significance of this from the standpoint of
forestry is that in pulling logs downhill to a
fixed landing for loading onto either trucks or
railroad cars, the converging lines of travel
go downhill toward a central point. Therefore
there is a concentration of water flow from the
hillside. On the other hand, in pulling logs
uphill to a central point, the downhill travel
of water is dispersed. Therefore they have found
that in some cases it is advantageous to go back
to the high lead donkeys, or the skylines to
prevent erosion.
But in general, it must be admitted that in
reasonably good terrain, tractors are much more
easily adapted to the practice of forestry,
because of the thing which I pointed out initially:
that the tractor can travel around clumps of trees
that have to be protected. Have I covered the
subject of tractors?
I did want to ask you about some specific
companies, and thought you might be able to
comrient on their contribution in the use of
tractors in California, such as the Sugar Pine
Lumber Company in Pinedale. I think you had
mentioned before I turned on the recorder that
they had a man there named Mr. Murray who was
instrumental in getting his company to use tractors ,
I should add to your statement:
practices.
and good logging
The first companies that I recall that were
using tractors, as I have described them, were
the Red River Lumber Company at Westwood, the Weed
Lumber Company at Weed, the Fruit Growers Supply
Company at Susanvllle; those were the main large
companies that were using them that early. I
think that the Sugar Pine Lumber Company at
Pinedale came into the use of tractors somewhat
later than these companies that I ve mentioned.
They did not, as I recall it, adopt tractors for
logging for their yarding as early as the other
companies that I have mentioned; however, they
adopted certain practices in the use of steam
donkeys which permitted very good logging. I
Krueger: should have mentioned also that the Diamond Match
Company, which is now the Diamond National Corpora
tion, also adopted tractors fairly early, but not
as early as the companies that I mentioned
previously.
Fry:
Krueger:
Trucks
Do you want to give us the same kind of run-down
on trucks?
I should explain that a truck, as we know it now,
consists of a tractor unit or hauling power unit.
It has the usual two front wheels and either one
or two axles at the rear. It is very short-
coupled. Attached to the truck is a semi-trailer
which contains the body of the truck and on which
the logs are loaded. The wheels of the semi
trailer again may have one or two axles depending
upon the size of the loads which are to be hauled.
So when we re speaking about trucks, it
isn t just an automobile-type device with front
wheels and rear wheels. It s a series of axles:
the front axle, one or two axles for the rear
portion of the tractor unit, and one or two axles
for the semi-trailer.
They were used first in longer distance trans
portation, to my knowledge, in northern California
by a lumber company which operated at Castella,
which is in the Sacramento Canyon. (This is in
the vicinity of Castle Crags.) It s very steep
country, very rough terrain. Even though they
were using logging railroads for their transporta
tion initially, the railroad construction must have
been very expensive. So, back in 1921, at the
Pacific Logging Congress, one of the men from this
company (and I have forgotten the name of the
company, it s no longer in existence) described
their experience. He said that they were able to
get logs out of areas where nothing else would
have been economically feasible, but that the
difficulty was with the hard rubber tires with
smooth surfaces. The trucks were practically
Krueger: unusable In even a very light rain. That was the
first use of trucks for logging of which I am
aware In California.
Pry: I suppose this was written up In the proceedings
of the Pacific Logging Congress?
Krueger: Correct.
Three things are basic to the development
and increased use of trucks in logging. One was
the development of heavy-duty pneumatic tires,
so that you no longer had this difficulty of their
becoming quite Ineffective in wet weather.
Another was the development of better highways
or roads, which permitted fairly good-sized loads
to be hauled on the public highways. And the
third is the development of diesel power, which
produced a greater pulling capacity. Here again,
it must be pointed out that the improvements in
metallurgy permitted detonation of fuel under
heat of compression in a diesel engine with lesser
weight of metal.
Truck transportation has developed now to the
point where a very small percentage of the logs
are being transported by rail In northern
California. Offhand, I can t think of any at
present. There may be a few operations. Possibly
a few logs are being hauled by the McCloud River
Lumber Company, at MoCloud near Mt. Shasta,
because they have very long distance transportation,
sometimes hauling forty or fifty miles. But, again,
trucks would be used as feeder device to the head
of the railroad, with the logs being transferred
from the trucks onto railroad cars.
Pry: So tractors and trucks formed a pretty complete
revolution.
Krueger: Oh, yes. To get greater efficiency out of the
trucks, so that the truck and the truck driver
(that Is the tractor unit of the complete trucking
unit and the truck driver) are not delayed, many
companies have gone to what they call pre-loading.
That Is, they place the trailer unit where it can
be loaded by the logging crew, with a sort of
temporary support device under the front end of
the trailer unit. It is then loaded. When the
truck driver gets back from his trip, he simply
hooks onto this tractor unit and moves out; and
Kruegen the returning trailer Is put In position. So
there Is no delay.
Another Ingenious application was used by
the Ivory Pine Company, now the Sequoia Forest
Products Company, with a sawmill at Dlnuba. The
logging operations were along the highway leading
Into Sequoia National Park. The logging operations
were so located as to require hauling logs up a
very steep road to get to the main highway. Prom
this point it was all downhill haul to Dinuba.
They used large heavy-duty motors on the truck
tractor units to haul up to this point. Here
there was a transfer point at which they would
drop the trailer unit, and a smaller-motored
tractor unit would hook on to it and take it down
to Dinuba.
It must be remembered that when hauling logs
on the public highways, either county or state,
there are limits first of all In the width of the
load. The portion of the trailer on which the
logs rest Is termed a bunk, and the bunks cannot
be over eight feet in length; so this limits the
width of the truck-trailer unit. Then, too, there
is a limit on the number of pounds of pressure on
the pavement, per wheel. This is overcome to a
certain extent by putting dual axles on the rear
of the tractor unit, dual axles on the trailer
unit, and dual tires on each end of all but the
front axle. Increasing the number of wheels
decreases the number of pounds of pressure exerted
by each wheel. There were other adaptations for
meeting the differences between off -highway and on-
highway use.
On off -highway use there is no limitation on
wheel weight. Some of the companies have developed
up to thirteen-foot bunks. I think there is one
company in the Douglas fir region that is using
sixteen-foot bunks. It is my recollection that one
company in Idaho had sixteen-foot bunks for off-
highway use. They would load the logs in two
packages, each eight feet wide, and put them on a
trailer unit for hauling considerable distances on
a private road to a transfer point from which they
were going to use the public highway. Here they
would lift off each package and ,put it on a trailer
unit with eight-foot bunks for hauling to the mill.
8
Pry:
So there was great flexibility of use In all of
this.
Krueger: Certainly.
And the significance as to forestry practice
Is that the development of trucks has enabled
smaller companies to go Into the business, because
even one truck can give them some output. But
of course one truck Is somewhat Inefficient in
that there are occasional breakdowns. When you
have a one-truck operation, when it is broken
down, you have no production.
Pry: This really is a hazard, isn t it, in the develop
ment of voluntary, private forestry in small
companies?
Krueger: Yes, and, as I pointed out to you in our discussion
of a few weeks ago, a small company is frequently
a family-type company, and therefore upon the
death of the prime owner, or head of the family,
the death taxes, or inheritance taxes, frequently
tend to cause liquidation in order to satisfy the
inheritance taxes. Therefore, the large company
with widely held stock would probably be In a
better shape to practice forestry.
However, there may be certain situations in
which a man who wished to practice forestry on
his small ownership could do so through the use
of only one small truck, because he probably
wouldn t have an operation which would be working
throughout twelve months of the year anyway. Under
these circumstances he d always have a nonproductive
period in which to work on the mechanical function
ing of his truck. Do you think of any other
questions with reference to trucks?
Pry: I can t think of any right now, but I am anxious
to hear about the very early attempts to plant
redwoods. This must have been rather significant.
PRIVATE FORESTRY IN THE REDWOODS
Krueger: I think It s true that in every forested region
of the country, the tendency has been to start
out with forest nurseries, because nurseries have
publicity value. I know that in the southern pine
region (cotton south) where forestry has been
practiced now, pretty effectively, for some thirty
years, some of the first companies to inaugurate
forestry practice there put in what they called
"show-cases" out along the road. Usually these
consisted of a small nursery to show the people
that they were growing trees from seed then
planting them on the cutover lands. But planting,
if it has to be resorted to (and sometimes it is
a perfectly good forestry practice) is rather
expensive. So if you can avoid it, you attempt
to do so.
But in keeping with many other regions, it
must be admitted that the first applications of
forestry In the redwood region were the proverbial
nurseries. And the very first one established,
which must have been some time in 1920, was the
Union Lumber Company, Fort Bragg, Mendocino County.
The interest in developing forestry in the redwood
region was started by Mr. David T. Mason.
Fry: This was with Union Lumber Company?
Krueger: Yes, with Union Lumber Company. He had spent a
number of years as Assistant Regional Forester
of the U.S. Forest Service at Missoula, Montana,
then came to the University of California in 1915
for a short period, and during the World War I
years was located In France as a U.S. Army major
of one of the forestry battalions in the Landes
region of France.
Upon his return to this country, he very
shortly had a position which called for examination
10
Krueger: (I think it was for the Bureau of Internal
Revenue) of the books of lumber companies.
Prom that he later branched out as a consulting
forester, and one of the first clients he had was
the Union Lumber Company at Fort Bragg. They
immediately established a forest nursery.
Mr. Virgil Davis, who later went with the
United States Forest Service at New Orleans,
Louisiana, and has now retired, was the first
forester of the company. The second installation,
and the second client of Mr. Mason was The Pacific
Lumber Company at Scotia, California. I was
working there in the logging engineering depart
ment, and Mr. Mason asked that I be made the
forester. And we went through the same steps of
establishing a nursery, Just south of Scotia,
for the company lands. However, before we
harvested the first crop of seedlings, I left the
company and went with the Northern Redwood Lumber
Company at Korbel.
One of the prime movers in securing reproduc
tion in the redwoods without the use of nurseries
was Professor E. Fritz, who determined that
planting in the redwoods is unnecessary. I know
that the nursery which I established at the
Pacific Lumber Company has long since been
abandoned. I can t tell you Just how many years
it was in operation. I m quite sure, also, that
the nursery of the Union Lumber Company at Fort
Bragg has been abandoned. At least it is not
used in the forestry practices of the company.
Fry: I d like to ask you more about the operations of
the Union Lumber Company and also Pacific. Do
you know anything about how the decision was made
to bring in a forester?
Krueger: To begin with, the man who was the original
president of the Union Lumber Company, Mr. C.R.
Johnson, was a rather civic-minded individual, a
very fine gentleman. I think that he was somewhat
intrigued by the idea that here his company was
located in a region with abundant moisture and
with good growing conditions in general, and that
forestry is a financially feasible possibility.
I think Mr. Mason, who is a very well-educated
professional forester, was able to convince him
of this. Here you have a company with fairly
11
Krueger: widely held stock but now with the third-generation
member of the Johnson family as president of the
company. So, I would say that was the situation
with reference to the Union Lumber Company.
With reference to the Pacific Lumber Company,
the influential stockholders in the company were
members of the Murphy family. The Murphys had
started logging originally in the state of Maine.
Just what their progress was, whether or not
there was an intervening stage in which they had
logging operations in the Lake states, I do not
know. But they eventually landed out here on the
Pacific coast with an interest in the redwoods.
And the Murphy family impressed me always as being
interested in civic things and in the long pull
for forestry operations.
But possibly they were attracted to forestry
by the activities, in about 1919 or 1920, of the
Save-the -Redwoods League, which the officers and
stockholders of the company knew would affect
their timber holdings, lying quite largely along
what is now U.S. Highway 101. They perhaps adopted
forestry, or at least the willingness to put in a
nursery, as sort of window-dressing. But I may
be wrong in this supposition.
I think, too, from a hard business standpoint,
a lot of the larger timber operators in California,
and also in the Douglas fir region, came to the
realization that lumbering proceeded from the
Northeast to the Lake states to the cotton south
to the Pacific coast, from which there was no
other place to go, unless they went to some other
country completely. So this may have had an
influence in creating a willingness to think about
forestry for continuing their operations.
Fry: It must have been quite a financial outlay for a
company to do this, so that the decision to do it
was an important one.
Krueger: I wouldn t say that there was any heavy financial
outlay for the nursery. That was not too conse
quential. They had the land; I as forester did
most of the work. That was true of Virgil Davis
at Union Lumber Company, and it was also true of
Willis Corbitt, who succeeded me as forester for
The Pacific Lumber Company. With the addition of
12
Krueger:
Fry:
only a modest amount of extra help you can grow
quite a few seedlings. And also with the redwood
species, the growth from the seedling to a plant-
able size is very rapid.
My recollection is that you plant the redwood
seed and at the end of about six, maybe eight,
months you run a blade underneath the seed bed to
root-prune the seedlings. That is, redwood
seedlings develop a very long taproot, and by
severing that taproot you encourage the develop
ment of a more diversified root system. Normally,
with such a slow-growing species as spruce, for
example, you might have to grow them in the seed
bed for two years, and then perhaps two additional
years in a transplant bed. Whereas in redwoods,
you thin out the seedlings, root-prune them, and
they are usually ready for planting in the field
at the end of one year. So there isn t a big
financial outlay for operating a redwood nursery.
They never did get to the point of actually taking
these small redwood plants out into the forest
and planting them, did they?
Krueger: In a very limited way.
For example, the company by which I was later
employed, the Northern Redwood Lumber Company,
bought some seedlings from The Pacific Lumber
Company. These were planted on a cutover area
which had been rather heavily grazed. They were
trying out all sorts of species Douglas fir,
redwood, Sitka spruce. We made plantations in two
different areas, one at Korbel and the other about
two miles distant. At Korbel we found that Sitka
spruce had the very best survival. As I recall
it, Douglas fir was the next best in survival,
and redwood had only about a thirty-five percent
survival. This poor survival probably is due to
the fact that redwoods do not develop quite as
diversified a root system. And it may be true,
too, that being the initial planting, which had
to be done with railroad maintenance gangs rather
than more experienced planters, that the planting
was not done too well.
Fry: So you didn t have trained personnel.
Krueger: Correct.
13
Fry: There .Is, some difference between laying a track
and planting a redwood tree. [Laughter] Let s
go on to the NRA [National Recovery Act].
THE LUMBER CODE OP THE NBA, 193^-35
Krueger: The Lumber Code, with reference to the forestry
provisions, was largely a quid pro quo arrange
ment. In return for being allowed certain
liberties in marketing and price control, the
operators had to follow certain forestry
practices. This was arranged very amicably
with the operators.
t
In California Mr. T.D. Woodbury, in charge
of timber management for the U.S. Forest
Service in California, was instrumental in
having us develop practices that were not so
onerous that if the NBA Code were later declared
unconstitutional, the lumber companies would
feel, not obligated, but desirous of continuing
these forestry practices. That is what happened
when it was declared unconstitutional. I think
T.D. Woodbury in California deserves a lot of
credit for having been wise enough to do that.
Pry; Was he in charge of timber management?
Krueger: Yes, he was Assistant Regional Forester in charge
of timber management for Region Five.
But, probably coupled with that, there was the
introduction of tractors, which made it easier
to practice selective logging, and also an
emerging forestry attitude of the large operators,
to which I have Just referred. That is, they were
beginning to think in terms of forestry for
continuing their life. So there are a number of
things that worked favorably on this.
Fry: It might be Interesting to get a glimpse of
exactly what someone did in your position as an
NRA forester.
Krueger: The U.S. Forest Service acted as the Inspection
unit to check compliance of the companies under
the NRA Code. It was our Job to visit all the
lumber companies to see how well they were
carrying on their forestry practices. There were
15
Krueger: two things that we were looking for. One was,
were they treating their residual stands with
reasonable respect, and not just knocking them
down? Secondly, did they have good provision
for fighting fires, if one started, such as a
supply of shovels and other small hand tools at
each landing, and did they have fire trucks to
put out fires at some distance from the current
logging?
Fry: Under Article Ten, if you did find that a company
needed to improve, what powers did you have, and
how did you proceed?
Krueger: As I recall it remember I was with the U.S.
Forest Service on Code enforcement for only four
months two things were at work here. One, the
NBA Code was declared unconstitutional quite
early. Secondly, I was allowed by Professor
Mulford, who was head of the Department of
Forestry, to take only a four-month assignment.
And therefore, in four months we hadn t much
more than made a complete Inspection of the lumber
companies and decided on which things needed
bolstering.
But you raise a very good point. If the NRA
Code had not been declared unconstitutional, I
suppose the punitive measures would have involved
taking away their privileges for marketing and
price control.
Fry: Later on, when this became a more voluntary thing,
under Article Ten, all you could do then was Just
encourage them in self -policing. Is that correct?
Krueger: Correct. Of course, about this time the first
Forest Practice Rules came into effect under the
Forest Practice Act, 19^5, "by the state of
California. The initial Forest Practice Rules,
it must be admitted, had no punitive measures
connected with them. But as one man pointed out
at the time, it was a big step forward to think
that the lumber companies agreed to have such
laws set up. I think the more responsible lumber
companies were thinking in terms of "It s to our
advantage to have some of the less responsible
companies forced to do these things, as well as
for us."
16
Krueger: The initial Forest Practices Act lacked
teeth. But recently at a meeting, I heard Mr.
DeWitt Nelson, who is head of the State Department
of Conservation, make the remark that since more
recent changes in the laws, they do actually have
teeth for enforcement. So, I think the man was
right who originally said that the initial Forest
Practice Rules, while they were somewhat innocuous
in themselves, got the lumber companies thinking
in terms of a modest amount of regulation as to
forestry practices. These might be considered
somewhat of an outgrowth of the NBA Code.
Fry: Would you want to mention some specific lumber
companies who made great efforts in this
particular line?
Krueger: I hesitate due to the fact that I can t think of
any one company. But I would say that one company
which did a lot of work right at the start,
because they figured they might as well practice
good forestry as do poor logging, was the old
Diamond Match Company (now Diamond National Company)
They had a woods superintendent by the name of
Dana Bailey, who prided himself on the good-
looking residual stands on the company s lands,
even in spite of the fact that they were using
steam donkeys for logging.
Fry: This was even before the NRA days, is that right?
Krueger: It started a little bit before the NRA days, but
they were in a very receptive mood and complied
very well from a voluntary standpoint.
Later, one of the companies which did a
tremendous amount of work was the Collins Pine
Company up at Chester. They started out with the
idea of practicing selective logging from a stand
sanitation standpoint. It was known that much of
the pine stands that were mature and overmature
were quite susceptible to damage by the
Denc.ro ct onus beetles and that if they could
remove these very susceptible trees from the
stand, they would then put their stand in a much
healthier condition for forestry operation.
Fry: So they removed these trees first.
17
Krueger: Yes. And the criteria of those trees to be left
was the length and the appearance of the needles,
and so forth.
Pry; The regional advisory committees which were
formed to set standards under Article Ten, I
understand were made up of several organizations
interested in forestry: industry, the Forest
Service, and some of the trade organizations.
Is that right?
Krueger: Correct.
Pry: I wonder how these representatives worked together
in the committees.
Krueger: They worked together very well, and I think it s
indicative of the fact that they did work together
well because this "Joint committee, 11 you might
say, continued to function after the NRA Code was
thrown out.
Fry: You mentioned off the tape a story in which the
McCloud River Lumber Company felt that the
Forest Service was trying to exert too much
influence at one of these meetings.
Krueger: What I hoped I had said was that they had a
meeting at a camp of the McCloud River Lumber
Company. (These meetings used to be rotated;
sometimes they were held in Sacramento, some of
them in San Francisco, and some at the camps of
different Interested lumber companies.) It so
happened that the day they met at the camp of the
McCloud River Lumber Company, there seemed to be
an overabundance of men from the United States
Forest Service. I think that the tendency of the
Forest Service to load the meeting with too many
men led to the abandonment of this voluntary
committee. But I think it made a contribution
at the time it was functioning. The objection
of the McCloud River Lumber Company was to the
fact that every time he d tell the cook, "We will
now have ten extra," he d have to go to him again
and say, "Now we ll have fifteen extra." And
finally, I think, there were over twenty or
twenty-five there. So, he was objecting quite
largely from the standpoint of the fact that the
cook was likely to get mad at him.
18
Pry:
Krueger:
Fry:
Krueger:
I wonder if you d want to comment on the role of
Rex Black s organization, the California Forest
Protective Association.
Rex Black, of course, is no longer connected with
the California Forest Protective Association.
Yes, he has retired,
at the time?
Wasn t he on that committee
Yes he was, and a very prominent member and a
very effective member of the committee. He is in
business down at Santa Clara or Palo Alto, or
somewhere in that vicinity. If you have the
opportunity, he would be able to make an excellent
contribution.
19
THE ACCREDITING COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY OF
AMERICAN FORESTERS
Fry:
I believe that you were on a committee of the
Society of American Foresters called the
Accrediting Committee, and that for quite a long
period you were chairman of this committee.
Krueger: Chairman of the committee, that is correct.
Fry: You were chairman after 19^8, and you were on it
from 19^6 to 1955 according to my note.
Krueger: That would be right. To give you a little back
ground, the initial forestry education in the
United States was at Cornell University at Ithaca,
New York. They started there in about 1899 or
1900, soon after Yale offered forestry. All I
can do now is give you some of the other
institutions: there was Iowa State, Washington
University, Syracuse University, Oregon State,
University of Idaho, and the University of
California. This list is not by any means
complete. The University of Maine and the
University of Massachusetts put in forestry
curricula. One very important one is the Univer
sity of Michigan. Also, Michigan State University,
Because of the large number of institutions
that were establishing forestry curricula, every
thing was fine so long as they were strong
institutions. But eventually it became evident
that there was a tendency to proliferate curricula
just because some institution wanted to say, "We
have a Forestry Department," but without any
realization of what the financial needs were to
maintain a good, strong forestry department.
This led to accrediting some time in the late
Twenties or early Thirties. I can t recall Just
when this started. A strong contribution in this
direction was made by Professor H.H. Chapman of
Yale. He was chairman of the committee for many
years. When Professor Mulford withdrew from the
committee in 19*4-6, I became a member, replacing
20
Krueger: Professor Mulford. Then, upon the retirement
from Yale University of Professor Chapman, in
19^8, I became chairman of the Committee on
Accrediting.
Professor Chapman, who is a very extremely
hard worker, contributed a tremendous amount of
groundwork in setting up this committee and
digging into the whole subject of accrediting
in general. He had the misfortune of getting
into an argument with President Tigert of the
University of Florida, and I was later informed
that Professor Chapman was in the right. But
Professor Chapman was an individual with rather
bulldog tenacity and liked a fight of that sort.
He took on Professor Tigert and had a good case
for proving that Tigert didn t know what he was
talking about.
I can t recall Just what the squabble was,
but it put the Society of American Foresters, and
Professor Chapman, in somewhat of a bad light
with the heads of institutions. They thought
that the Society was trying to dominate too
largely the whole matter of accrediting. There
were certain other fields that had similar squabbles,
I think, for instance, one outstanding example
was In the field of nursing where two different
accrediting organizations claimed the right to
accredit nursing curricula. I think the same
thing held true for Journalism. At least, the
situation finally got to the point where the
educators decided that something must be done.
It was getting too burdensome for the universities
to participate in accrediting with many of these
organizations. So, under the leadership of
Chancellor Gustavson of the University of Nebraska
they had a number of meetings at which this was
to be brought under control.
The rule was finally adopted. They didn t
ask for comments. They Just said, "This is the
way it s going to be handled." And I think, In
general, it was fair. The various accrediting
organizations would have to operate through the
regional educational associations, such as the
Northwest Association for Higher and Secondary
Education. That was set up, and since it has
been Instituted, I think we have not had any
difficulty in the Society of American Foresters
21
Krueger: in cooperating with them.
One thing that made our cooperation a little
easier to attain was that the Society of American
Foresters has never levied any charge on the
Institution for examination. For example, when
the regional associations such as the Northwest
Association for Higher and Secondary Education
go in to examine an institution, the institution
has to assume the expenses for all of these
people that come in. It must pay their trans
portation and all expenses during the period of
the examination. The charge is quite heavy.
The Society of American Foresters has felt that
this is the contribution that they should make
to forestry education, and therefore have never
made any charge.
Fry: I don t quite understand how the S.A.F. committee
functions through the Northwestern Association.
Do you have a forester on their accrediting team?
Krueger: The Society would send two foresters in to
function with the team. One thing that we did
and I m familiar with this because I was on the
examining committee when we examined the University
of Idaho I asked If we could have one or two
members of the Northwest Association participate
with me in examining the forestry curriculum so
we d get the benefit of the things that they were
interested in, particularly general education.
That was done. The President of the University of
Seattle was one of those cooperators. I think
the other man was from the University of Montana,
but I can t for the life of me think of what
field he was in. On the other hand, I think that
we were asked to participate with some of the
other men of the Northwestern Association on
some of the general aspects of education. So, it
has worked out fairly well. We ve cooperated
fairly well.
The thing that must be remembered in accredit
ing, and this was the argument of Mr. Gustavson,
he said, "At best, accrediting can only emphasize
minimal requirements." Which is true. That Is,
you can t set up the perfect, and say that all
of them must be perfect. You set up the absolute
bedrock minimum and say, "This Is what you have to
comply with to be accredited." His feeling was
22
Krueger: that no strong institution would need that, with
which I certainly am in agreement. When I was
talking this thing over with Dean Hutchison, who
was then dean of the college of agriculture at
Berkeley, he brought out as an example that when
they started to establish the school of veterinary
medicine at Davis, some of the men came to him and
said, "Now, we need this, and we need that because
that is what will be demanded by the accrediting
organization for veterinary medicine." And he
said, "Forget that. We want the best school of
veterinary medicine in the country. What is
needed to set that up? Forget what the require
ments are. Let s make the best school of
veterinary medicine we can."
If all institutions were of that attitude,
you wouldn t need an accrediting organization.
But you do have a lot of these weak institutions
who want to have a variety of curricula, and they
haven t the financial means to support this
variety of curricula. Therefore you have a weaken
ing of some of them. Of course, that forces the
necessity of accrediting and setting up minimal
standards .
What happens is and I personally, when I was
chairman of the committee, warned a couple of
institutions: I said, "At best, you re going to
be very close to the line, and the standards that
we have established are going to change; they are
going to get more strict as time goes on. Can
you meet them?" They were sure they could. With
out mentioning names of any institutions, two of
them that were Just on the ragged edge are no
longer accredited because they couldn t keep up
the pace.
So, accrediting does have a value in making
the weaker institutions try to keep up to minimal
standards, or at least makes them stop to think
that they perhaps should not establish a curriculum
In the first place.
The Southern Institutions, where you have a
lack of finances in most oases (when I say
"Southern," I mean the cotton South, the Southeast),
have established some sort of compact whereby it
seems to me there were thirteen Institutions that
agreed they would not establish any new departments
23
Krueger: without first clearing with the organization.
Then, perhaps, one institution might establish a
curriculum in, let us say, veterinary medicine;
another one might establish a curriculum in
forestry. And they would have an exchange of
students at a minimum cost to the several affected
states. I haven t followed that in the last ten
years, but it seemed to me at the time that they
were getting on the right track.
Fry: I wanted to find out how you set the minimum
standards.
Krueger: As I implied, you had to have a constant re-
evaluation of standards. The original standards
were established by Professor Chapman. When I
became chairman of the committee, the thing that
we did was to attempt to evaluate the faculties
in supporting departments, or cooperating
departments; for instance, departments of botany,
English, mathematics, chemistry, and so forth.
I ll admit we had to use a very questionable
standard: we had to use the Ph.D., which is
admittedly a weak criterion all by itself. But
we did use other criteria as amount of publication
by professors and so forth. And we used the same
standards with reference to the forestry faculty.
Then the other thing which I was instrumental
in doing was to evaluate the libraries, which
Professor Chapman had put purely on a volume
basis. For example, Yale has, let us say, 100,000
volumes in its forestry library and therefore it
is assumed to be twice as good as an institution
which has 50,000 volumes. But I made a survey by
contacting all the forestry schools and asked what
were their outstanding publications and books in
the field of silviculture, in the field of
engineering, in the field of ecology, and in
various fields connected with forestry. From that
I made a sort of a table that certain books were
in category one, certain books were in category
two, and certain books were in category three.
Then the institution that had all of the books in
category one, regardless of the total number of
books, would be considered as having a strong
forestry library, from an undergraduate standpoint.
And that s what we were evaluating, the undergraduate
curricula.
Krueger: That brings up another point, that two
institutions, Yale and Duke, had forestry curricula
for which you qualified for entrance by having
the bachelor s degree. But, as I pointed out one
day to Dean Garrett of Yale, I said, "You don t
make any assessment of what the subject matter is
that that student has had. For example, an
undergraduate who has gone to a land-grant college
and has had an excellent course in soils and an
excellent course in botany may be much better
qualified than a man who has gotten a liberal
arts degree from some other institution."
The point I was trying to make with him was
that a student who got a Bachelor of Science
degree in forestry at let us say the University of
California, or perhaps the University of
Washington, might be a better trained forester
than the fellow who went to Yale and got his
Master of Forestry degree there.
He wouldn t agree with me, and I think he was
right in one respect. I wanted to needle him a
little bit. But it did bring up this matter of
how difficult it is to take two different standards
of forestry. Here you had two schools of forestry,
Yale and Duke, which were graduate institutions.
And all the other curricula were on the under
graduate level. Now try to evaluate them from
the standpoint of accrediting. It so happened
that neither Yale nor Duke was a weak institution
and therefore there was no question about accredit
ing. I haven t followed up on this aspect.
I don t know what the Accrediting Committee
have done recently. The question brings up the
whole subject of graduate work: shouldn t we
accredit an institution from the standpoint of
its ability to offer effective work to the Ph.D. ,
for example. Whether that s ever been tackled or
not, I don t know.
Fry: I don t have a list here of the names of some of
the members of your committee.
Krueger: The committee changes. At the time that I was
chairman of the committee, it consisted of the
head of the forestry curriculum at Michigan State
College at East Lansing, Michigan; the head of the
forestry curriculum at Colorado State College at
25
Krueger:
Fry:
Krueger:
Pry:
Krueger:
Fry:
Krueger:
Fry:
Krueger:
Fort Collins; the head of the forestry curriculum
at North Carolina State College at Balelgh.
There was one other member whose name I cannot
recall.
You don t have anyone from the Pacific area.
Well, I was. I represented the Pacific area.
That was you. Anybody from New England? Yale?
I don t think so. I was trying to think if there
were any other Southern members of the committee.
I can t think of a one there, because, outside of
Duke, most of the Southern institutions were
rather weak.
But you did have the North Carolina State man.
Were these members chosen on a basis of regional
representation?
In part, yes. But they wanted to get men who
were members of curricula at the stronger institu
tions. I should have listed North Carolina State
as one of the strong institutions.
What about Dean Dana from Michigan?
in this at that time?
Was he active
I don t recall under Chapman s committee whether
he was a member at any time or not,
recall.
I can t
APPENDIX
I
Myron Krucger
1426 Rockledge Lane, #6
Walnut Creek, Calif. 94595
March 28, 1969
Mrs. Amelia R. Fry
Regional Oral History Office
General Library - Roo 486
Univrsity Of California
Bsrkeley, California 94720
Dear Mrs. Kry:
Many thanks for your note and enclosure of
March 24.
Your notes with reference to my work with
Earl Coke are being returned herewith with
some changes and corrections. You are at
liberty to use them as you think best.
I shall look fonxyrd to receiving * copy
of the interview.
Sincerely ,
Myron Krueger
27
NOTES
MYRON KRUEGER S WORK WITH EARL COKE
EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION
From a Conference with Krueger held December 20, 1965. Retyped with
additions April 1969.
Krueger worked in Washington in 1953 with Earl Coke (later a vice
president of Bank of America in San Francisco, and later head of
agriculture agency under Governor Reagan). Before becoming Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture under Benson, Coke was head of Agriculture
Extension Service, University of California at Berkeley. With Forest
Service under his wing, he needed some orientation to this field--
and that was Krueger s job.
Coke was upset over "Stumps for Stumpage" program of the Forest Service,
felt that in most states in the West the Forest Service had an appre
ciable amount of land already, that Stumps for Stumpage was a subterfuge
to acquire more acreage.
Frank Heintzleman (became Governor of Alaska in 1953) worked with Lee
Kneipp (in charge of Forest Service land planning, acquisition) on
Stumps for Stumpage; it was Kneipp s idea. Kneipp didn t want to acquire
heavily wooded land, neither did Heintzleman, for fear, in part, the
National Park Service would take away such a forested area. One reason
the efforts to have a large redwood national forest under the Forest
Service did not materialize except for the Yuroc Forest. (Heintzleman
was Regional Forester, Alaska.) (Yuroc Forest may be traded for private
lands as part of the deal for a Redwood National Park.)
Coke was a nut for efficiency....
Regarding Crafts (first head of Bureau of Outdoor Recreation had been
one of those next in line for Chief of Forest Service after McArdle):
Coke said that when Crafts came in to talk to him, he had well -marshalled
thoughts, would get his business done and leave in 15 minutes. Chief
McArdle, on the other hand, would talk for an hour and still not get the
idea across to Coke. However, McArdle saw that he still had within the
Forest Service some men who "had a mistaken idea of what Pinchot meant"--
the pro-federal-regulationists (Earle Clapp-a former Acting Chief, and
Loveridge, among others). Coke wanted less anti-industry, more liasion
between industry and the Forest Service. McArdle was caught in the
middle because he would have a small rebellion on his hands from these
men still in Forest Service; McArdle wanted to wait until they retired
before instituting the change in policies desired under Republican admin-
instration. This was the idea that he was trying to get across to Coke,
without being too outspoken.
See letter to TIME magazine criticizing Crafts-- about May 1962, and
Senator Anderson s rousing reply.
SECTION TWO
Richard A. Colgan
FORESTRY IN THE CALIFORNIA PINE REGION
All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal
agreement between Richard A, Colgan and the Regents of
the University of California and the Forest History
Society, dated April, 1969. The manuscript is thereby
made available for research purposes. All literary
rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish,
are reserved to the Bancroft Library of the University
of California at Berkeley and the Forest History Society.
No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication
without the written permission of the Director of the
Bancroft Library of the University of California at
Berkeley or the Director of the Forest History Society.
Request for permission to quote for publication
should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office,
^86 Library, and should include identification of the
specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the
passages, and identification of the user. The legal
agreement with Richard A. Colgan requires that he be
notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which
to respond.
Richard A. Colgan, Jr.
28
BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
Colgan: I was born in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and grew up
on a stock farm, which my father managed. He
raised thoroughbred horses and registered cattle
and sheep, purebred hackney and. crossbred hunters
and Jumpers. My father was a second-generation
Irishman. My mother was a Kentucky rebel, so I
had rebels and Democrats on both sides.
Pry: That sort of left you free to choose, I guess.
Colgan: Well, no it didn t. It was a cardinal sin with
both my parents to be anything but a Democrat,
and I ve been lots of things but not a Democrat.
I m a Republican. Oh, sure, if they were alive,
they wouldn t object to it now. They were very
sensible.
Pry: What year were you born?
Colgan: February 2, 1891.
Pry: Did you go to school in Berwyn?
Colgan: Yes. The high school was in Berwyn, and it was
called the Tredefrin East Town High School.
Fry: According to my notes, you graduated from there
and you spent your whole school career in the same
school system. Do you remember any teacher espe
cially as important to your later life?
Colgan: No. My mother was the most important thing, I
think, in my life. She gave us ambition, my
brothers and myself.
Fry: How many children were there?
Colgan: Well, there were six of us, and the two girls
died at a very early age. I had two older brothers
and one younger. After high school, however, we
were widely separated. I went to Michigan State
University, and graduated from there in 1913, and
29
Colgan: then immediately came to California and lived in
the Sierras for twenty-five or thirty years,
with Just occasional contacts with the rest of
the family.
Pry: At what point did you get interested in forestry
after growing up on a stock farm?
Colgan: Well, I went from Eastern Pennsylvania to
Michigan in order to study forestry, because
I had the idea I d wear a big Stetson hat and
pack a gun. I ve had a nice life to lead, but I
haven t got the gun yet. [Laughter]
Pry: How did you first get acquainted with the idea
of being a forester?
Colgan: Oh, I suppose because it was the time of Chief
Forester Glfford Pinchot and all the conservation
issues were Just getting into the papers. It was
the time when Gifford Pinchot was doing his best
to ruin forestry and the growing of timber by
persuading people that it was a sin to use lumber.
Pry: You mean there was some over-education done there?
Colgan: Of course, if you grow trees, you have to sell
lumber. There s no other philosophy about that.
You can t Just go out and grow trees for the fun
of it, because it s a very expensive operation.
You have to figure out some way to pay for growing
those trees.
Pry: It is an economic process, too.
Colgan: It s alj. economic, I think, unless you want to
grow a park, or some trees for landscaping; you
have to have an end to it.
Pry: At the time you were in college, was it the
Gifford Pinchot atmosphere that really made you
interested in forestry?
Colgan: Well, I think it was the publicity and the lure
of getting out in the open.
Pry: So right from the first, in college, you studied
forestry?
Colgan: Yes. A straight four years of it.
30
Fry: By and large men were entering the Forest Service
when they graduated. Did you take the Forest
Service exam?
Golgan: Yes. But I didn t pass it the first time. The
examination was so much different from my con
ception of what I thought it was going to be.
And sometimes I can be a little hard on the
courses we had: they were very sketchy, and so
forth.
Fry: Was the exam then of the more practical nature
how to fix a pack on a mule or. . . ?
Colgan: Oh, I took the examination in 191 3 t and then
again in 191^, and I passed it very easily then,
because I was in my second year of working in the
woods in California, and I knew what a fire-trail
looked like.
Fry: It was knowing the on-the-grounds activities you
missed out on in Michigan.
31
WORK IN THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
When did you first come to California?
Between my Junior and senior years in 1912.
I had a year in cruising timber for the Forest
Service here in California.
Where did you do that?
On the Plumas, out of the Sierra Valley. It was
around the summit of what we called in those days,
and still do, red fir, which partially surrounded
the.... the Abies magnificia, you call it. They
called Douglas fir "red fir" in those days in
California. There s quite a lot of mixed nomen
clature.
And then the next year, there weren t any
jobs available for foresters, so I went back on
the same Job, only we were a little farther north.
Still in Plumas.
This was in the Forest Service?
Yes.
After your senior year?
Yes. Then I stayed here.
So the work in the red fir area was sort of a
summertime temporary Job while you were a student,
and immediately after graduation also.
Yes. Timber cruising generally is summertime
work in California, because of the weather
conditions.
I did pass the test in 1914 and got my ratings
while I was on the second Job up in Last Chance
Country of Plumas.
I have on my notes that you worked at Madison
Forest Products Laboratory.
32
Colgan: On account of this arm. It was broken when I was
three years old, and I couldn t get in the army,
so I got a Job there during World War I.
Pry: What were you doing between the time you were
cruising on the Plumas and working in the
Laboratory?
Colgan: Quite a bit. [Laughter] I starved for four years.
Fry: As an assistant?
Colgan: No. I was looking for a Job, mostly.
Pry: Let s go back to the time Just after you passed
the test. When you were classified as a forest
assistant in the Forest Service, where did you go?
Colgan: Didn t go anywhere. I remained on the Plumas, and
there was no money available for more forest
assistants, so I had to go look for a Job, and I
spent a winter over in Mill Valley working for
Olms ted. I don t know whether S. Rexford Black*
told you about Olms ted or not?
Fry: He was a very outstanding landscape architect,
wasn t he?
Colgan: No. That s another one. This was F.E. Olmsted, in
1907 a forester for the federal government; the first
regional forester in San Francisco. He went back
to Boston and opened a consulting foresters
service. It was a failure. He came back here.
There was a threesome back there, but he was back
here on his own.
His brother-in-law, Regional Forester [Region
Five] Coert dy Bois recommended him to a Job on
Mount Tamalpais after a big fire over there; I
think the fire happened in 1912 or 13, and it
was quite disastrous. They had to call out the
Navy and there were big headlines and so forth.
So he gave me enough to keep me alive there.
*Black, Hexford, "Private and State Forestry
in California, 191? to I960," typed transcript of
a tape-recorded interview conducted by Amelia R.
Fry, University of California Bancroft Library
Regional Oral History Office, (Berkeley, 1968).
33
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
What did you do for him?
Oh, I dug foot trails, manual work out there.
I suppose Rex told you about his Job over there?
I was a little ahead of him on that.
And then Olmsted got a Job, on contract, to
check cruise 25 ,000 acres of Diamond Match land.
And, not knowing anybody else who d ever been a
cruiser, he put me in charge of the Job of
cruising, which kept me alive for three summers.
I spent the winters mostly in Mill Valley.
Working for Olmsted in the winter?
No. Just not working at all in the winter. It
was kind of hard. Then the war came along, and
that s when 1 went to Madison. Olmsted knew
somebody back there, and knew that they were, like
everybody else, hard up for any kind of trained
personnel, so I went back as a I don t know what
my title was but I wound up in charge of testing
glue for airplane parts.
How was this testing done?
Oh, by pulling laminated pieces apart, and machines
measured per square inch the pressure it took to
pull them apart.
Then this was not chemical testing [Laughter],
You thought maybe I was doing it by taste?
[Laughter]
That would have kept you out of the army for even
longerl
I think 1919 was the year I was transferred by the
Forest Service from Madison to Quincy In Plumas
County National Forest.
So you were back on the Plumas,
for this?
Had you asked
Well, I had asked for a transfer back to
California. I wasn t very much interested in
the prospects in the Laboratory. I did want to
get back to California.
Pry: And you preferred actual forest operations to
research?
Colgan: Very much so, compared with the research that
was going on there. I d been on the Plumas
before, and knew some of the personnel.
Pry: Who was in charge at the Madison Lab at that time?
Golgan: "Cap" Winslow.
Pry: What were your impressions of him?
Colgan: [Laughter] I d rather not say.
Pry: Do you want to move on to a discussion of your
Job on the Plumas?
Colgan: Yes. I was a forest examiner and assistant to
Ray Orr, who was in charge of timber sales and
timber marking practices, and I carried on with
that for a few months. I guess I was in charge
of about four or five small sales.
Pry:
It sounds like you were there for Just a short
while.
Some cut over lands of The Diamond Match Company near Lyonsville, Cal
ifornia, logged since 1910. Photo 1934.
State Forester Pratt and In
spector Fowler examining one
of the donkeys of the Diamond
Match Co. with R. Colgan who
find it fully up to standard
set by State Fire Law. Jones
Spark Arrester made in Chico.
1925.
Jones Spark Arrester - 1926
35
TO DIAMOND MATCH TIMBERIANDS
Colgan: I think In about October, Olmsted was called to
Diamond and asked to be their forester, and I
was asked to be his assistant. I started out as
a company forester for their operations in the
panhandle of Idaho.
Pry: What did this Include? Fire protection primarily?
Colgan: Not primarily. Idaho has had fire protection
organizations where timber owners pay in their
share. And they either combine with the State of
Idaho or the Forest Service lands, or both, and
they have a fire-fighting organization outside of
the companies.
Fry: So the companies didn t have to handle this
themselves?
Colgan: No, I represented the Diamond Match Company on
one of those fire-fighting organizations as a
director of whatever they called them. I didn t
have any responsibility for the work in the fields,
Fry: What other major companies were up there near the
Diamond Match lands?
Colgan: Humbird Lumber Company, Northern Pacific, and I
believe Weyerhaueser was interested through
Potlatch. I think those three were the main ones.
Fry: So you four were probably the major ones in that
fire-protection organization?
Colgan: Yes. Up around Priest Lake.
Fry: How did this work out? Fairly equitably for
everybody concerned?
Colgan: Well, yes. I think it did. They still have that
system up there.
Fry: It was in its early days when you went up there?
Colgan: Well, I guess they had been in existence for
about ten years. I think they started after the
big fires of about 1910. Their success depended
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
a lot on whom they had as manager, who was really
their chief fire fighter, and the weather; if the
weather was bad, no matter how good he was, he
couldn t do much.
Do you remember who the manager was when you were
there?
One year, a man by the name of Baker, who came
from the Forest Service. He was not a success.
He talked too much, and dreamed too much, and I
don t know Just what he did. I wasn t there. I
didn t work in personal contact with the fire
chief there. During his tenure I was transferred
down to Chioo, California, shortly for part of
that season, Just temporarily.
Were your duties with the company also in some
other area than fire protection?
I never found out, [Laughter] We did timber
cruising and that kind of work, before I found
out. And they didn t know. I think they...
They didn t know how to use you?
No.
Or what forestry was really for, is this what you
mean?
That s what I mean. And before I found out that
they didn t know yet, they sent me an assistant
that I didn t know what to do with. [Laughter]
But we found some mapping and cruise work to do.
I kept myself a little busy, but not very.
At this time, did they have any idea of laying
out any plans for sustained yield production?
No. Not up there. It wasn t possible. The
main thing we tried to do was a feeble attempt
to do something about cleaning up the slash and
so forth. We found it was easier, during the
summertime, to let the fires to it, anyhow.
[Laughter]
Let one problem take care of another.
I wanted to ask you one more question about
the fire organizations in Idaho. Did they ever
3?
Pry:
Col gam
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colean:
Pry:
have a permanent fire crew?
Well, not as we know them now. They had guards
and lookouts, and the manager, and a supply of
tools and those things, but they got their fire
fighters from towns all over.
Yes, that s the way it was everywhere. Then
they transferred you back to Chico, California.
Yes. Late 1920, 21. I guess it was 22 that
I really was transferred.
Can you tell us what you did in Chico. Was this
a promotion of some sort? Looks like you were
already pretty well promoted.
No. It looks like the president of the company
had suggested to Olmsted that they should have a
forester in California as well as in Idaho.
And they were going to designate a man by the
name of Compton, who was the chief civil engineer
at Stirling City, and give him the title of
forester. And I said, "I don t think you should
do that. I know more about California timber and
I think I should have that. You could do away
with a position up here which I think is of very
little importance, and I could leave my assistant
here to let this develop." And he did, in about
the same way that I suggested.
I was designated as a staff officer for the
Diamond Match and supposedly reported directly
to the New York office of the Diamond Match. So
I was on my own, and had to find, out what to do,
and I became the chief fire-fighter, among other
things. Since they had a few gyppos* contracted
to work on the logs in Stirling City and had a
contractor running all things, who wasn t
interested in anything outside of where he was
making his money, I gradually worked my way into
supervising the gyppos.
You had the cooperation of the New York office on
this?
*Gyppos: contract loggers.
38
Colgan: That s a kindly word to use, but I was paid by
the New York office, and I really can truthfully
say that they didn t know what I was doing. And
I had to make friends with the rest of the
management and men there and get along as best
I could.
Fry: Well, who was manager of all the California
operations of Diamond Match at that time?
Colgan: There wasn t any. But W.B. Dean was manager of
the retail yards. And Thatcher had a contract
to run the sawmill and produce the logs and
lumber. I took over the rest of it.
Fry: So you were in charge of all their timber
operations, without anybody above you in
California.
Colgan: That s right. Nobody below me either.
Fry: As a forester, you could make all the decisions
about where the cutting would be done?
Colgan: No. They were made by the contract which the
president, Fairburn, had made with Thatcher to
cut and saw certain timber on a certain tract out
there. Fairburn was the only one who could change
the contract or do anything about what Thatcher
did.
Fry: Fairburn was in New York?
Colgan: Yes.
Fry: So that Thatcher, then, actually had the power
to decide where the cutting occurred?
Colgan: On that area that was under contract. But he
didn t say anything about the northern tract or
other places. It wasn t anybody s responsibility,
so I accepted it.
Fry: And did you bring in gyppos?
Colgan: No. The gyppos were already in. And later on I
brought some in.
Fry: Were you eventually able to control the cutting
decisions which previously Thatcher had under the
contract?
39
Colgan: Yes, but not until a little after that. Thatcher
was well, he had his men logging in a very
destructive manner, and Olmsted tried to do some
thing with the president about it, and they had
quite a brawl about it, and it wound up in 1922,
or sometime in there, that they dismissed Olmsted,
and left me alone there.
Pry: So Olmsted was kind of bearing the brunt of this
controversy within the company.
Colgan: Yes. Well, he was a very outspoken person.
Fry: He didn t shrink from this fight?
Colgan: No. He Just loved it. He wrote some very, very
strong letters and Fairburn had to make a
decision between Olmsted and Thatcher.
Fry: So he chose Thatcher. This left you to cope with
Thatcher then?
Colgan: Yes. I had to get along with Thatcher.
Fry: Instead of making a big issue of this, then, you
went ahead and tried to work with him?
Colgan: Yes,
Fry: And were you actually able to influence his logging
methods with the gyppos?
Colgan: Not very much. No. I influenced the fire-
protection work, and things like that.
But in 1922 Fairburn came out for an Inspection,
He stayed for a week or so in Stirling City. I
think if he had done that before, Olmsted would
not have been dismissed, because he saw what an
inefficient operation it was.
Fry: It was the usual problem of top management being
so far away and not really knowing what was going
on. When he came out here, were you the one to
show him around?
Colgan: No, I let him see for himself.
Fry: But you did get to talk to him?
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Golgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pryt
Oh yes, I talked to him. He brought his family
out, and I was asked to entertain them and show
them around.
What was your Impression of him, at the time?
Very good. Of course, I was a little awed a man
of that Importance even talking to me I
So you stayed on. In the other lands, such as
those in the north, where you didn t have
Thatcher s contracts to contend with, what sort
of operations were you able to develop?
Well, there weren t
We had an agreement
the fire-protection
them a quarter-cent
that was all it was
because they didn t
tion than we did.
any operations in those lands,
with the Forest Service to do
work on them; we were paying
an acre. [Laughter] And
worth at the time, too,
have a much better organ! za-
And then there wasn t anything else happening in
the north?
No.
I get the impression, then, that you more or less
carved out your Job, Independently?
After Pairburn was through with his inspection,
he decided to end Thatcher s contract. It ran
out in 22, so he switched over and made it a
Diamond Match operation, with Compton, the
engineer I spoke of, as superintendent. He gave
W.B. Dean the title of general manager of the
retail yards and lumber production and timber lands,
So Dean was more or less his California manager?
Yes. And I was left with the same title.
Did you have to report to Dean, or were you still
reporting to Pairburn in New York?
Colgan: Well, I had to report to Dean because there
wasn t anybody else to report to, and I wasn t
writing any reports. I was fighting fire in the
summertime and bringing maps up to date in the
winter time, and doing the tax work in winter,
too, and after this went on for a time, I realized
Colgan: that I wasn t in a very strong economic position,
because I couldn t produce anything for the
company as a forester. There wasn t anybody
doing any work on the allocation of cost and on
the logging and milling operations. So I got to
working and put in some cost figures. I used to
take the timekeeper s books in the evenings, and
I got a pretty good idea of what it was costing
to do this logging and sawmllling.
Fry: You were able, then, to work up this more or less
statistical study of man-hours and costs involved
in timber operations?
Colgan: Well, you re giving it a later definition of
cost-keeping. My method was very fundamental.
It was how much it cost to fell timber, how much
to yard it, and I broke it down in all operations-
no costs per hour, Just the costs of doing it.
Fry: Were any changes made as a result of this?
Colgan: Well, we had quite a lot of discussion between
Dean and Fairburn, and Fairburn sent a man down
to make a study.
Fry: A similar study?
Colgan: A study of costs and how they could possibly
make a better showing at Stirling City and the
sawmill. And from that came the decision to make
a change in management, and Dean, after a little
argument with Fairburn, had me appointed as
superintendent of the sawmill and works.
Fry: Dean did?
Colgant Yes. He was on my side.
Fry: You were taking whose place?
Colgan: Compton s.
Fry: Would this be a good time for you to describe
where the company employees were living at that
time and what life was like around Stirling City?
Colgan: Well, Stirling City was a company town. And
about half the people owned their own house and
lot, and half of them rented from the Diamond
Colgan: Match Company. We also had a cookhouse and
boarding house where the unmarried sawmill workers
and lumber workers stayed.
Pry: Did anyone ever Just build his own house on
company land?
Colgan: There might have been an isolated case.
We also had construction camps, out in the
woods. There were facilities for married couples
in the camp but the main part of it was for the
single man. The cookhouse was.
Fry: Were you married by this time? [1922-23]
Colgan: No. I got married in 26.
Pry: So you stayed with the single men then?
Colgan: No. I had a room in Stirling City and also a
room in Chico. I was married in 26. In 28,
when I became superintendent, we moved to Stirling
City from Chico, In the summertime I had a house
over at Butte Meadows.
[Break for Lunch]
THE NORTH BUTTE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT*
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Now, between 1929 and 1932 you were the Diamond
Match representative on the North Butte Fire
Protection organization?
Yes. I had had my initial baptism in fire-
fighting at Quincy, on the Plumas National Forest,
and then I came over to Stirling City. After a
year or so I had full responsibility for putting
out all the fires, so I learned quite a bit about
it and how to direct men and how to keep them
working on it.
How did you set up the North Butte organization
from the beginning?
Oh, it Just sort of fell into line. Of course,
the loggers already knew how to put out fires,
how to build trails and cut down trees. It was a
problem of getting the right group of loggers at
the right place at the right time and keeping them
coordinated, and I learned to do it mostly by
walking around the fire and kept walking around
the fire and kept people where I thought it
needed them.
So these must have been fires small enough to walk
around. What did you do when they got too big
for this?
*"The Diamond Match Company again became in
volved in a special effort to prevent and reduce
forest fire loss in this [Butte County] area in
1929 when the North Butte Fire Protection District
was created by co-operative agreement between the
company, the U.S. Forest Service, and State Divi
sion on Forestry. The parties each extended annual
fire control expenditures to reach the combined sum
of 10 cents per acre. Three cents was the approxi
mate average cost at the time." Clar, C. Raymond:
California Government and Forestry, Division of
Forestry, Sacramento, 1959 P 202 footnote.
Colgan: They didn t get too big. We could walk around
pretty big fires. On one I walked for seventy-
two hours.
I think that the answer to fire-protection
was that whoever was in charge of it had to know
what the fire was doing. I found that was lacking
in most of the National Forest fire-fighting. The
man in charge was usually back at camp, and you
had to go back to camp to find out what he wanted
done, or send somebody back, and by the time he
got back to the fire, the situation was so far
changed that you had to do something else and it
began all over again. So that s the reason the
Forest Service fire^ got so big.
I started thinking about sustained yield in
the late 20 s, did a little research which,
because of the inavailabllity of records, was not
complete. It was extensive but you had to assume
a lot of things. I found that the land around
Diamond Match had been burning over the entire
area once every forty years, and there was no use
trying to start any sustained production of trees,
or sustained yield if it burned over once in every
forty years. So I was asked to make a little talk
on industrial forestry at a Society of American
Foresters section meeting down at San Francisco
one time. Instead of talking about the trials and
tribulations of an Industrial forester, I gave
what I thought was pretty strong criticism of the
fire protection in California and the lack of it
in our area, and I mentioned that forestry wouldn t
amount to anything until we started putting out
fires.
And from that, and with the help of Rex Black
and Bill Rider from the State Division of Forestry,
we got the North Butte Fire Protection District
started. This organization covered about 300,000
acres, of which we assumed Diamond Match had
100,000, and the Forest Service had 100,000, and
outside of that, was another 100,000 acres or so
of unprotected privately-owned timber for which
the State Division of Forestry became liable. So
we each put in one-third of the cost in either
manpower or equipment or something else and really
started intensive fire protection in there. It
turned out to be quite successful. We had one of
the first pre-suppression fire fighting crews with
Colgan: a fire truck which had water and a hose on it
which Rex Black, through the California Forest
Protective Association, furnished. Three of us
furnished the men for it, and it was quite
successful.
It was the first one there may have been one
more like it before that but it was the first
one that had been tested on a designated area.
And that s the history of the North Butte Protec
tive Association. That was around 30 or 31
Pry: Let me show you some notes and minutes here for
you to review; then I ll ask you some more
questions.
[machine off, then on]
Was this plan originally promoted by any
particular agency, such as the Forest Service or
the State Division of Forestry?
Colgan: Well, the Forest Service was under contract to us.
We were paying in something per acre, but their
fires were burning away from the National Forest
and getting over onto our land, and they were
doing considerable damage and of course we couldn t
sue them or anything. In 1924 it was terrific.
I was out on a fire practically every day during
the summer season.
Fry: And a high percentage of these came from Forest
Service lands?
Colgan: Very many of them, yes. And then in 26 or 2?
they had one came out of Mill Creek that destroyed
125,000,000 board feet of our timber in Tehama.
County. You must have an Indication that there
was considerable ideological and political con
troversy going on then. The leaders of the Forest
Service were doing every possible thing they could
to get a law passed that would give them the power
to control the cutting of timber in private lands.
If that had happened, of course, there would be
no private lands left. So we were doing everything
we could in good forestry, and it was open warfare
between industrial foresters and timber owners and
loggers on one hand, and the Forest Service on the
other hand. And when things happened like thnt
125,000,000 board feet loss, why we made the mont
of it.
Colgan: We did do quite a bit, and then Bex was
trying to build the State Division of Forestry
up, so that they could do things. I can remember
that sometime between 22 and 28 the State
Division of Forestry appropriation was $50,000 for
two years. It s over $22, 000, 000 a year now.
So that was the time that we were trying to
get things done. The Forest Service had the
conception that they were God and knew how to do
everything, in the way of fire protection and
timber managing and everything, and they did think
that they could write a forest management plan
and enforce it by edict. We were sure they couldn t,
and they ve demonstrated it so far. It s pretty
hard to get anybody to write a plan for 50,000
acres now, without spending $10 to $25*000 to
survey the area and mark the trees and do every
thing else, get the fire protection record and
so forth. And they had the temerity to say that
they could write a federal law to take over the
management of all lands. So we had a pretty
intensive fight, and it had a lot to do with
everything that happened, too.
Fry: In setting up the North Butte organization, did
this difference of opinion on federal regulation
affect your operations, even though this didn t
have much to do with fire fighting?
Colgan: There was this, that if you criticized the Forest
Service they said, "We don t get enough appropri
ations." If the state was criticized, they didn t
have enough appropriations. And I was criticized
for not getting the men from the mill quick
enough in a fire or something like that. So,
after all this talking (and these minutes you ve
shown me cover a very, very small portion of what
we said outside the meetings and what Rex said) , we
agreed that Diamond Match would put $100,000 into
wages and the State would do the same; we agreed
to let the Forest Service put a ranger in charge
who would dispense the money and manage the
personnel and be head of the fire department.
And the State agreed to put a deputy in.
Fry: Full time?
Colgan: Yes, full time. The Forest Service put Reuben Box
in, and the State put in Hufford. They moved Into
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Stirling City and had headquarters there. Hufford
did most of the physical work and management,
under Box s supervision. I was in Stirling City
then, as superintendent. We got along very nicely
for quite a number of years. Then the Forest
Service wanted to move Box out, and we wanted
Hufford to go in his place. But they used the
excuse that no one except the Forest Service
officer could spend federal government money, so
we had to come back and accept a Forest Service
man, although we knew that Hufford was the man for
the Job.
Then the CCC camps came along and threw
everything out of balance because of their man
power and the work they were doing. The North
Butte Fire Protection District gradually faded.
You mean that this whole operation was taken over
by CCC?
Yes. Well, the CCC personnel were under the
Forest Service, and they took it over. But we
had the State fire fighting crews available, that
is the pre-suppression crews. The foundation for
trained fire fighting crews had been established
and it went on, too*
But after CCC came in, you did not maintain your
pre-suppression crews and your fire fighting crews?
I think we continued to have a crew on the Diamond
fire truck at Stirling City. We also had a fire
truck at our logging camp and had men assigned
to that who acted as a suppression crew.
We had five or six CCC camps, that had
probably at least 200 men each, in the vicinity
of our lands, who were ready to fight fires at
any time. That was their main Job. They were out
digging roads and doing other things, but as soon
as a fire started everybody went into that. The
small crews that we had would have been so far
outnumbered in importance that we depended on the
CCC.
The Board of Forestry minutes for May of 1929*
mention that Vice-chairman Walter Mulford was
*See appendix <
Pry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
hoping that this Butte plan could be made workable
so that in a couple of years it would be good
supporting evidence to request more money for
other places from a future legislature. I was
wondering if you felt that up to the time of CCC
this was indeed proving itself a workable plan.
I know it was. I bragged in my annual report of
the downward curve of the fires. Oh, yes. It was
very impressive.
I hope that you still have some of these annual
reports and the speech that you made before the
S.A.P. section.
I certainly don t have the speech because I never
wrote a speech in those days. I didn t have
enough know-how to write a speech until many years
later, and know that I could deliver much better
from a typewritten script than I could off-the-cuff.
So that s lost. But maybe if you can dig up some
of the reports from the North Butte Association,
that would be good to deposit along with the
transcript.
The reports that I mentioned were reports that I
made to Pairburn of the Diamond Match Company.
Did your Idaho experience have anything to do with
it?
No.
How did Stevenot, who was the Natural Resources
Director, react?
I m surprised that I don t remember. I remember
the name, but I don t remember having had a thing
to do with him. Probably, if it wasn t at a Board
Meeting, Bex talked to him quite a bit, as head
of the California Forest Protective Association.
I remember Rex mentioning him quite a bit.
Actually, this organization was pushed along
pretty well by CFPA?
Yes, by Rex and Deputy State Forester W.B. Rider.
I say that we "shamed" the Forest Service or "dared"
them into coming along with us. We said, "Here s
Colgan: two of us who will go. Do you want to let this
drop because you won t come along?" They had a
lot of objections about regulations and laws and
everything, but we really shamed them into it.
Pry: They seemed to worry about having the funds to
Join you.
Colgan: Well, they had them if they wanted to put them in
there. They came along fine after we got it
started. Marvelous cooperation.
Pry: Was Bevier Show the Regional Forester then?
Colgan: Yes.
Pry: Did he drag his feet, or did he know what was
going on?
Colgan: He knew what was going on, and after we got it
started he went along very good but until then
they Just thought, "This is going too good.
We re getting a little adverse publicity here
because here s private timber land doing better
in its fire record than our National Forest next
to it." So they dragged their feet and insisted
that it be run by the Forest Service.
Fry: The whole thing?
Colgant No. We agreed in the beginning and left it that
way, that the boss should be a Forest Service
official, and the State man would be the deputy.
Fry: What was your position in this?
Colgan: I was manager of the Diamond Match lands, which
was about a third of it. It was all about in
equal thirds, give or take a bit. We had 120,000
acres down there; there were about 300 , 000 acres
in the total area, but some of our 120,000 were
not in the district; they were on the fringes of
it.
Fry: Why was this set up there and not on some other
land somewhere else?
Colgan: Because we thought of it.
Pry: H We" meaning whom? Diamond Match?
50
Colgan: Diamond Match and California Forest Protective
Association, and the State Division of Forestry.
Fry: I was wondering why some of the other members of
California Protective Association didn t raise
their voices In protest and say, "We want this
on our lands, too." Mr. Black was supposed to
represent them, too.
Colgan: Yes. Well he said, "If you want It, we ll start
working on it."
Fry: But this means financial outlay on their part?
Colgan: Oh yes.
Fry: So you feel that the financial contribution was
critical, and Diamond Match was willing?
Colgan: Rex and I thought it up and started working on it.
Of course, Rex couldn t work on Swift Berry. He
didn t have the problem there [Berry was forester
for Michigan-California Company], and he wasn t
especially prepared to take it. Before it was all
over, they had the CCC. It never occurred to me
or I ve never heard anybody say anything about
somebody else in the Protective Association wanting
a similar project.
At that time Rex had the means to get a little
money for things like trucks. He was gradually
putting trucks into all the private logging areas
that would accept them and could use them.
Fry: Was this done under some kind of Clarke-McNary
rebate funds, too?
Colgan: He got the money from Clark e-McNary and used it
for trucks.
Fry: Was any of the North Butte Protective Association
a part of the Clarke-McNary agreement?
Colgan: No.
51
IMPROVED FOREST PRACTICES IN DIAMOND MATCH
COMPANY
Colgam I think we can pretty well cover this subject
by a little statement. I had been working to
improve logging practices in relation to the
problem of loggers knocking down remaining
reproduction and immature trees. I had talked
and preached to all the loggers and the logging
bosses, and so forth, but they were measuring
their bread and butter by the number and quantity
of logs that they delivered per day, and it was
pretty hard to make them believe that they could
do anything if it might in any way diminish the
production of logs per day. I made some progress.
And I made some progress in fire protection
equipment, on donkey engines and on having equip
ment shovels and axes in boxes around. Rex
was very helpful in bringing suggestions in from
other places. And he helped get a law passed
after we started this, and it spread all through
the California Forest Protective Association s
operators. The law was passed practically
requiring everybody to have what two or three of
the larger ones, like Diamond Match, had on their
donkey engines, and so forth.
Fry: These were the spark arresters?
Colgan: Yes. Rex did a lot of work on making spark
arresters more efficient. Whenever we would get
an improvement, we would put it on and try it
out or adopt it as ours. We had big red boxes at
all the donkey engines, with 225 shovels, and
hatchets, and water bags, and all that. Then we
put pumps on our donkey engines with hose that we
could put out. That went along pretty good.
But I had trouble until after I became
superintendent, and then I started working
directly with our logging boss, Dana Bailey.
Where we could, we worked out logging with a
high lead and I can show you some of those areas.
52
Colgan: We left reproduction and seed trees, and every
thing in a satisfactory condition.
I have to go back a little bit and say that
we introduced tractors. Sixty-power caterpillar
tractors came into the woods as yarders, sub
stituting for the donkey, in or about 1925. They
were first tried out in our area by a gyppo who
goes way back to the beginning. This gyppo was
already working for Diamond Match when I first
started, and he had a little old tractor. We
looked at it and watched it. So we got three
sixty-power caterpillar tractors and started
hauling logs downhill with them. They were much
less destructive than the old donkeys. But we
had so much logging below the track that the
caterpillar couldn t pull uphill, we Just had to
have the donkeys to get logs from those areas.
Pry: When you were logging downhill from the area where
you were yarding, you mean?
Colgan: Yes. We worked out a way that we could save
timber and save wear and tear on the engines,
and save the wire rope, which was very expensive
in logging. Through Bailey and myself, most
everybody in camp was Just as proud of walking
away from a logging setting, or a logging chance,
and leaving saying, "Here is enough left on the
ground so that we re sure we are going to have
good reproduction and we re going to protect it
from fire."
I d send out a mimeograph every year on why
we protected it from fire, and who was fire boss;
I was first if I was there; if somebody else was
first on the scene, he was boss, and so on down
the line; then the duties.
Pry: Kind of a little handbook for your company?
Colgan: It was a paper on the bulletin board. I remember
one rule was that if you see a fire, it doesn t
matter who s there or where it is: drop everything
and go put the fire out. It used to be that if a
faller saw a fire going, he d go on falling, not
pay any attention to it. That wasn t his Job.
But we made it everybody s Job. That was very
successful. Then, we made it everybody s Job to
save a little tree in logging if it could be saved.
53
Fry: Dana Bailey apparently was the kind of a logging
superintendent who could see eye to eye with you
on this.
Colgan: Very much so. We worked together very well.
Fry: This seems to be where some of the biggest problems
in forestry lie: in actually getting a logging
superintendent to go along and follow up on what
the forester tells him to do.
Colgam That was it exactly.
Fry: What made Dana Bailey different?
Colgan: I was superintendent, not forester.
Fry: And you were literally his boss.
Colgan: Yes. And also, it was common sense. From 1926
(it really started in 28, but you can go back to
26) we reduced the direct cost of lumber from
$22.50 down to $10.50 per one thousand board feet.
Fry: This happened between what years?
Colgan: 1928 and 35. In 1935 the NBA Code came in and
forced us to raise wages. It broke the comparison
there. But we kept it going down, anyway, up
until the war came.
Fry: When the unions came in, and NBA, and so forth,
your wages
Colgan: NBA came in and moved the minimum wage from 350 to
375^ per hour. But it didn t do very much to the
rest of our operation. I can t remember the year
that the unions came In, but I think It was prior
to 3?. But the unions didn t make much difference
in our wages, except at the box plant and the mill
work plant at Chloo. It wasn t until the war
started in Europe and labor was scarce that the
unions were really effective. The unions were
never able to negotiate with our personnel depart
ment as high an hourly rate as I wanted them to
have.
Fry:
What do you mean?
Colgan: The company wouldn t pay what I thought they
should pay or pay what was necessary to get
sufficient labor.
Fry: During the Thirties up to the beginning of the
European war, was this still primarily transient
labor you were using or were you able to have
rather permanent residents?
Colgan: Even after World War II, we had a very permanent
core of men.
Pry: You mean you did all through the Thirties?
Colgan: All through the depression years, until it kind
of got over. We had a good core of very wf M-
satlsfied men.
Pry: By "core" what do you mean?
Colgan: I mean our principal men. Hook tenders, choker
setters, rigging setters. The only floating part
we had at all was the common laborers.
Pry: Can you give us an explanation of hov. you managed
to bring about selective cutting using a high
lead, leaving the seed trees? This must have
taken some doing.
Colgan: Siwash.
Pry: What s that?
Colgan: That s a technical term. There was a lot of mostly
Douglas fir and some other trees that were visibly
defective. We would select these trees ahead of
time and run the main line around those trees.
These trees would keep the line from knocking over
the other trees. So it was a protective thing.
Pry: So the line didn t go straight down the hill?
Colgan: Not every time. If it had a curve in it, that
was what was destructive about high lead. If
there was a curve in where you picked the log up,
the line would tend to straighten itself out and
would knock everything down. We d have strong
trees to keeo it from knocking everything down.
It s simple. We called them "siwash" trees.
55
Fry: Your tractors came in rather early.
Colgan: The tractors were used by the Red River Lumber
Company In hauling their high wheels in sub
stitution of horses. Do you know what high wheels
are?
Pry: No.
Colgan: They are wheels twelve or fifteen feet in
diameter with a big axle between, and you d just
lift the front end of the logs up on this axle.
Then you d haul it in with Just a few inches of
the. log dragging on the ground. It did away with
a lot of friction. On level ground, I guess it
was the best logging ever. Red River had some
ground they could use it on.
They developed putting a sixty-power tractor
in place of the two span of horses. That s the
first place in California that I know of its
being used. They tried them down at Sugar Pine,
out of Fresno. Then we put them in at Stirling
City.
Fry: How much did you have to do with actually deciding
on how much timber the mill could use, and things
like this?
Colgan: We only had one mill most of the time. The volume
was decided by the ability of the sales department,
which I at that time had very little to do with,
and by the season. We were a seasonal mill in that
we only had storage in the pond for about a month s
logging. They hadn t devised any way to hold the
logs like they do now. (They put them in these
big decks and keep the water spray on them, and
they can put all they want In.)
Then, the volume of cutting depended on a
kind of a consensus between the sales department
and the capacity of our mill, and the capacity of
the railroad. If we got thirty-five to forty
million board feet in, we were in pretty good
shape, especially if we d get forty in. You can
spread a lot of cost over forty million as compared
to thirty million.
Fry: Did you ever have any problems or run any tests on
insect eradication or insect control?
56
Colgan; No. We had in connection with our logging
operation, and on the whole very little insect
damage, except we had one year of very bad
insect damage in Douglas fir. But we didn t
worry much about that because Douglas fir wasn t
considered a commercially valuable species at
that time. We had some other insect damage but
it was low percentage. We would cut the infested
trees down; and if we could use them we would,
otherwise we d Just leave them there.
Pry: Did you find that the species that were considered
usable varied during your career with Diamond
Match? I thought maybe you could give us a
picture of this.
Colgan: We cut all species from 1924 on. At times we had
to be selective with the two firs, white fir and
Douglas fir. At some time during the operation,
the demand for white fir was so small and the
price so small that we wouldn t cut any white
fir. And there were many times when we would not
cut white fir unless we could get one or two
number one logs and nothing under number three.
We did do a lot of selective cutting.
Fry: What was done in the way of plotting out cutting
patterns for future years?
Colgan: Nothing. It was all in our head.
Pry: So there were no elaborate maps made with cutting
patterns?
Colgan: Up until the time I left (19^5) we were about
fifty percent on railroad logging: you logged
at the end of the railroad. If the market
changed, you couldn t change with it very well.
But since then truck logging has developed. We
began truck logging about 1940 or 42, then we
made a selection by opening up our Free Valley
timber; we built a road over there and bought
six trucks. It was high-grade timber. We
started that to give us a better average; we
were getting low-grade timber north of Butte
Meadows.
Pry: Were you able to have any kind of growth studies?
Colgan: We had some growth plots and we did quite a few
studies. The principal study that we made was
57
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Pry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
during the NBA days. I made a study of growth and
estimated volume, and presented quite a report to
the NBA Code, showing that we were on a sustained
yield basis, because of our growth studies in
area and volume. I did that because the NBA
Lumber Code gave you ten percent more volume in
your cut if you were on a sustained yield. So it
was economical to have that come about. We were
the first company in America to get that.
Oh, you were. How were you able to be first?
Oh, it didn t take long. It took three or four
months to go out and get the samples and so forth.
At that time, what did you estimate a cutting
cycle to be? How many years?
I think we figured it on a maximum of 120 and a
minimum of eighty years. I think about seventy
million board feet a year was the figure that we
could cut.
If my memory is correct, I believe a forester
before your time he began with Diamond in 190*4-
(in this little Diamond Match pamphlet here)
estimated a thirty or forty year cycle.
Did I say a 120-year cycle?
I thought that was what you said.
I should have said rotation. A cycle is how often
you can log in a given area. You might take a
quarter of it every twenty-five years, and have a
cutting cycle of twenty-five years, but a rotation
of 120 years. It takes a tree eighty to a hundred
years to grow to logging size.
Oh, well, I think this was referring to cycle; it
says that "[Harvey C.] Stiles laid out a forest
management program that Involved a thirty-year
cutting cycle.... 11 That s in W.H. Hutchinson s
book.*
Hutchinson, William H., California Heritage.
a History of Northern California Lumbering; published
by Diamond National Corporation, p. 32 , no date.
(See appendix)
58
Colgan: No. Harvey Stiles became the first commercial
forester in the Pacific Coast lumber industry
when he assumed his duties for Diamond, about
January, 190^. But that s all dressing.
Fry: Oh, it is?
Colgan: think.
Fry: You don t think he really was much of a forester
as you came to know about him?
Colgan: I never found anything in the files or maps or
anything else that had his name on it, or I never
heard of him until "Hutch" found him in the records
that he looked through, in the newspapers or
something back there. There was nothing in the
company. Even Olmsted didn t have a plan developed,
Fry: And when you were forester, the plan was Just
something that you carried around in your head,
and you knew what to cut and what not to?
Colgan: Right. I knew what I wanted to cut. I generally
cut what I had to, though.
Fry: There was another little thing on the last page
of this pamphlet which says that Diamond became
the first Pacific Coast company to be certified
by an agency of the federal government as a
sustained yield operator of timber lands. Now,
is that the NRA thing you were referring to?
Colgan: Yes.
Fry: Just before you left the company, the tree farm
movement started. Did Diamond Match have anything
to do with that?
Colgan: We were certified as a tree farm about 19^3. We
were the first in California.
Fry: This was a movement that Ed Stamm was quite
closely connected with Ed Stamm, the man at Crown
Zellerbach. You said you knew him.
Colgan: I knew him quite well.
Fry: I m very curious about how your philosophies in
forestry differed, if they did.
59
Colgan* He was in Douglas fir and I was in pine. We
logged by selective cutting, and he logged by
selective units. He cut the whole unit.
Fry: Clear cut?
Colgan: Clear cut. We didn t. I think that would be
about the only difference.
Pry: Was this because your forests were mixed forests
and his mostly were not?
Colgan: No, Douglas fir does much better reproducing if
it is on clear cut land; it has the ability to
produce in even-age stands, whereas in pine one
tree will go out ahead and suppress the rest of
them more than it does in Douglas fir possibly
because they have so much more moisture in the
Douglas fir area; they have enough moisture for
all the trees and enough food for all of them,
where we don t have enough moisture and some of
them get the best of it, the same as humans.
Pry: I meant to ask you if you had done anything on
reseeding.
Colgan: We tried it. But wait till you see that land over
there, you won t ask that question. We got plenty
of second growth.
Fry: Without reseeding, you mean?
Colgan: Without reseeding.
Fry: So reseeding was no more efficient than Just
letting nature take its course?
Colgan: The only place you needed reseeding or replanting
was on land that burnt over more than once in a
five or ten year period. You can t stop the trees
from growing in the pine region except by fire.
You Just can t stop them from growing. So, forestry
in our area was principally helping nature and
providing for the utilization of what nature gave
us. You could go to school a thousand years and
talk about seeding and rate of growth, but you
Just had to take what nature gave you. You coi
take what nature gave you and keep it going and
you had good forestry. We planted on two or three
burned-over areas, unsuccessfully. I think that
if you get up to visit Butte Meadows, Dana Bailey
can show them to you.
60
DEALING WITH THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE
Pry: I was going to ask you about the areas where you
perhaps had a checkerboard ownership with the
Forest Service. Did you have any areas like
this?
Colgan: We had some*
Fry: I suppose you bid on Forest Service timber, and
out that along with your own in those situations.
Could you give me some idea of how you worked
with the Forest Service on this?
Colgan: Our Forest Service cutting was such a small per
centage of our total that we would not be
typical. The Forest Service program was effective
where mills were dependent on National Forest land
for at least fifty percent of their production.
We would get a sale, maybe, of forty acres or
eighty acres every year or two. During the war,
and after I left, when white fir was more salable,
we went above our elevation and took some pure
white fir stands on government sales. We had
very little trouble with them.
Fry: Was there ever much difference of opinion on what
trees should be marked?
Colgan: Oh, on all government sales, there was quite a
difference of opinion, but it was mostly economical
in nature. They make you take trees that you
don t believe you can make a living on, and they ll
leave trees that could be the difference between
a profit and a loss.
Fry: When you bid, do you know at that point what trees
you can take and what trees you cannot?
Colgan: You know from experience what they usually will
mark; and they should have a sample of their
marking so you can look at it.
Fry: What was the recourse If your expectations proved
too high?
61
Colgan: None. Since I ve quit the business there ve
been several companies who even went so far as
to form a Western Lumberman s Association, and
their sole object is to make the Forest Service
be more economically minded.
Partly it started from a sale to American
Forest Products, down in Sierra or Sequoia.
Anyhow, the Forest Service sold a ten-year cut
on their estimate, and American Forest Products
Company bought it and cut it according to their
marking plan and came out with eight years cut
there instead of ten. In other words, the cruise
was two years off, which was a long ways. They
made quite a pitch to get it back, and that was
one reason this Association was formed. They
went to Washington and had hearings and every
thing. I don t believe they got anything out of
it.
Fry: Has Western Lumber Association been more
successful?
Colgan: Oh, no, I don t think they ve accomplished very
much. But they have done something. Of course,
you keep pecking away. It might have been worse
if they hadn t been there.
62
FORESTRY DEVELOPMENTS OVEH THE STATE
Fry: Well, what do we have left on our outline?
Colgan: I think we have too much. [Laughter]
Fry: We re really trying to move through a lot of
material here. Do you have some opinions about
how the developments In forestry compare between
the pine region, the Douglas fir region, and our
redwood belt in California?
Colgan: I think we were ahead of both Douglas fir and
redwood. After we were quite sure that the
selective system in pine was the way to do it,
redwood adopted It and quit. [telephone rings]
The redwood companies did quite a little planting
and some other similar things. But it was quite
a few years after that, that they did. They have
practiced selective cutting after tractors
replaced donkey engines. I can t comment on the
amount, or anything, because I Just got it from
hearsay. I haven t seen enough of it to say any
thing.
When you say redwood region, there s quite
a difference between what the redwood region is
since World War II and what it was before. Before
the war it was nothing but redwood. And since
the war they probably cut more Douglas fir than
they do redwood. And I think that they have
mostly cut on a system similar to that used in
Oregon: block cutting. But I think some of it
is selective. So I guess I really don t know
enough about it.
I know it was many years after we were con
sidering our selective cutting system when
industry and forest conservation finally accepted
the clear cutting by areas that they are doing
in the Douglas fir region. I think, probably,
tradewise the Douglas fir people have more timber
under permanent productive system than we have
down here. Way back somewhere, the State had a
logging diameter limit put in. You couldn t log
63
Colgan: any tree if it was under twenty inches, and that
limit still exists in some areas. Then the
Forest Practice Law came in, in 19^5* and the
diameter limit was more or less superseded. The
diameter limit was acceptable to everybody
because you couldn t make any money on those
small trees anyhow.
Fry: So the twenty-inch limit worked out pretty well
at that time?
Golgan: Yes. Then this twelve and three-quarters* came
along shortly after that, in 1925 to assure the
operators that if they did leave these above
twenty inches and any more they wanted to, they
would have forty years before the residual would
be taxed, which I think was the most effective
thing to encourage forest management that we have,
Fry: That was a real turning point?
Colgan: Oh, I think it was, very much so. I wouldn t
exactly call it a turning point because it was a
few years after that before there was enough
difference in the taxing method for it to be
actually felt. They weren t taxing timber on
cut over lands anyhow.
Do you have something about the repeal of
the compulsory fire law? Rex probably told you
about that. It was a clumsy law as far as
collections were concerned. It was taxing the
timber owners for protection, when the State was
actually protecting other lands without taxing
them.
Fry: You mean the lower altitude lands of chaparral
and grass got free protection while the timber
owners had to pay?
Colgan: That s right. And the State couldn t afford to
collect the taxes of the acreage as far as they
had.
*Timber tax exemption amendment to the
California Constitution, named from Section
12-3/^4- in Constitution article.
Colgan: I don t recall this World War II fire protec
tion legislation that s on the outline. I don t
remember that.
Pry: I think this was when the new State plan went
into effect, in which the entire system of fire
protection in the state was worked out. I think
Ray Clar had something to do with this plan: it
designated which lands would be primarily under
Forest Service protection, which would be
Golgan: Oh, yes, they zoned the state areas into....
Pry: Watershed lands, and so forth.
Golgan: I d rather not comment on that. I really don t
know. All ours were under protection of the
company .
65
GREELEY INVESTIGATION IN THE SOCIETY OF
AMERICAN FORESTERS
Fry: I guess you got the notes that I sent you on the
Society of American Foresters investigation of
Rex Black s* activities in trying to dislodge
an inadequate state forester. Perhaps you can
take up the story where Mr. Black and I left off,
because you and Swift Berry, Clyde Martin, Bill
Schofield, and T.K. Oliver asked for an investiga
tion of President H.H. Chapman, after the Society
had investigated Black.
Colgan: I think that was more or less a diversionary
attack. We all thought, and I do now, that
Chapman was over-zealous. He had to have been to
attempt an investigation of such a scope with the
facilities that he had and the time he had to do
it.
I don t see mentioned in the notes at all
that after Chapman s action, the local [Northern
California] chapter of SAP voted and recommended
to the national chapter that the action against
Black be reassessed, and a more thorough study
made and both sides of it be reviewed. William
Greeley was the chairman of the committee that
did the second study. He talked to me, and he
talked to everybody else, and my memory is that
they reversed Chapman s decision. Or at least
Black was given the privilege of going back.
Fry: About this Greeley Investigation: in the process
of it, did Greeley talk to you?
Colgan: He talked to me, and more people; I don t know who
besides myself. And I know that they reversed
Chapman s opinion.
*See (1) Appendix, notes on investigation;
(2) Black, Rexford, "Private and State Forestry in
California, 191? to I960," typed transcript of a
tape-recorded interview conducted by Amelia R.
Fry, University of California Bancroft Library
Regional Oral History Office (Berkeley, 1968).
66
Fry: This was at the Instigation of the entire
California section of SAP?
Colgan: Yes. Chapman s action had been taken, and we
requested that the section do something, and
they voted to petition the national SAP.
Pry: Was this primarily in response to a request
from you and Berry?
Colgan: We were active on the floor in getting action.
I wouldn t say that we were any more effective
than a lot of others that were on the floor, and
who didn t know what was going on until they
were told at the next meeting. But I think it s
something that would be well forgotten. It had
very little to do with the results of forestry,
I think.
6?
STATE FORESTER PRATT
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
Colgan:
Fry:
What about the Pratt problem? Did you have much
to do with the efforts to get him out of the
office of State Forester and a more satisfactory
man in?
No, but I sided with Hex. Pratt was inefficient
and wasn t the right man for the Job; and I think
ninety percent of the foresters in California
would have to go along with that.
You mean industrial foresters?
All of them. All of them would have to, knowing
him as well as I did, and his ability. The thing
that started Rex on his campaign was triggered
by the fact that Rex was traveling around as a
member of the State Board of Forestry, as chairman
of it, with some of the deputy state foresters,
and inspecting things, and he went up to look at
a lookout up in Trinity County somewhere and
found the lookout up there had covered all the
windows on the sunny side with blankets. He
said his eyes were sore and he couldn t stand the
sunlight in there. Even after that Pratt wouldn t
take that man out of there.
He had a fire lookout looking for fires
started and he had the windows covered. So that s
what started Rex. He knew Pratt had deficiencies
but when Rex protested that, and Pratt wouldn t
make a change, Rex thought it was time to do
something.
Is there anything else that you d like to add?
68
CALIFORNIA FOREST PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
Colgan: I think it would be good to make a special topic
of the California Forest Protective Association
in general. I could no more, under "CFPA
legislative action and research" in our outline
cover that in five times the time we ve put on
this. It s Just too big a subject. Rex was very
effective in getting satisfactory legislation and
preventing adverse legislation. Rex got more
new ideas in, that I know about, than all the
other CFPA heads put together.
Bill Schofield,* who followed Rex, was
especially good in preventing adverse legislation
and in pushing through legislation that somebody
else started. We haven t had Jack Callahan in
office long enough to evaluate him.
But this started by encouragement from the
Forest Service because they [the Forest Service]
wanted someplace where they could go and discuss
conditions and encourage industry to do something
without going to all the industry.
The first head of the Forest Protective
Association was a man by the name of Rhodes and
then I think Swift Berry came in, and then Rex
came in. You see all the legislation that s gone
through that period? It would be impossible for
me to give I d have to be so sketchy, and it
would be all from memory. If that is, which I
think it is, important to the history of forestry
and fire protection, they should put somebody on
it and research it for a year, go through the
files and so forth.
*Schofleld, William, "Forestry, Lobbying, and
Resource Legislation, 1931-1961," a typed transcript
of a tape-recorded interview conducted by Amelia
R. Fry, University of California Bancroft Library
Regional Oral History Office (Berkeley, 1968).
69
Fry: Did you actually work Kith the Legislature, too?
Colgan: When Rex wanted me to, I d go down and talk to
them, and to my own legislator, and anybody else
I happened to know, and go before committees,
and. all that.
Fry: Do you think this is one of the areas Fritz had
in mind when he says that you and Swift Berry
and Rex Black worked together a great deal on the
problems?*
Colgan: No. He had in mind that our progress in forest
management and cutting practices developed from
mutual exchange of ideas and results; I d go and
look at Swift s and he d come over and look at
mine, and Rex and Swift and I d get together.
Every time we had a meeting in San Francisco, we d
spend the evening together and talk over what we
were trying and what we didn t like and what we
liked. That s what he meant by that.
Fry: Did you have anything to do with that rash of
legislation that led to the reorganization of the
State Board of Forestry?
Colgan: I can t say. I slightly remember, but I don t
remember having much to do with it.
Fry: Then there was the Forest Practice Act that came
along afterwards in 19^5 But I think this was
just as you were about ready to go to Washington
as head of the National Lumber Manufacturing
Association.
* Fritz, Emanuel, The Colonel William B.
Greeley Lectures in Industrial Forestry Number
Four: "The Development of Industrial Forestry in
California," University of Washington, College of
Forestry, I960, Seattle, bO pp.
70
EVALUATION OP THE FOBEST PRACTICE ACT OP
Colgan: I had quite a lot to do with the Forest Practice
Act. I did everything I could to stop it, and
wasn t very successful.
Fry: California Forest Protective Association
supported it in its provisions, which listed
minimum diameters and also set up the organiza
tion necessary to administrate and to write the
recommended practice rules.
Colgan: They set up district committees. I think
they had the north Sierra, the south Sierra, and
the Coast Range; and they had a Forest Practice
committee in each of those made up of lumbermen
and timber owners, farmers and somebody else, to
write their own rules and decide on management.
The State Division of Forestry inspects the
cutting to see whether they re up to standard.
That was pushed by Bill Rosecrans, who was then
chairman of the State Board of Forestry. I think
he wanted something to leave....
Fry: Behind as his monument?
Colgan: Yes.
Fry: Can you give me specific objections to the Act?
Colgan: At the time I was Just getting a reaction from
this compulsory fire protection law, which
required pumps and tools, spark arresters, fire
lines around mills, and other things. We at
Diamond Match were asked to support that when it
went in, and we supported it on a basis that they
said, "Eighty-five percent of the mills are
satisfactory at the present time. All we want
this law for is to be able to get the other
fifteen percent in line." So they got it in
without any objections. Prom then on they
inspected the eighty-five percent that were doing
a good Job and let the fifteen percent who weren t
alone, because they were small operators, and if
they fined them or did anything, it would backfire
71
Colgan: on them politically. I think, and was a very
strong believer, that the forest practice rules
would do the same thing, and I believe they have.
Fry: They tolerated the ones that are really violating
it?
Colgan: Yes.
Pry: The smaller ones?
Golgan: Yes. And they re pretty hard to catch up with,
too, with these forest practice rules, because
they can go in and log for three or four months
in summertime and the inspectors can t find them
in the winter time. Now they re trying to amend
it to catch these things, and they can t do it.
I noticed particularly that, when I left here
in V? to go to Washington, I thought we had a
showplace everywhere. Why, we could take anybody
into the woods anywhere, and the companies were
doing a commendable Job. When I came back I didn t
find any of them that I could have approved; they
had been under the forest practice rules for six
years, and they weren t doing any kind of timber
management that I would really approve of.
Pry: You felt that the standards actually fell, then?
Colgan: Yes, because they could sell smaller trees so
trees were logged that should have been allowed
to mature. It was economics, partly.
Pry: This was not done in conjunction Just with thinning
of stands, then?
Colgan: Oh, no. No. And they weren t allowed to do
thinning under the Act. They did it in spite of
the Act. They did it because it was economically
feasible to do it. Before that we were doing a
good Job regardless of economics well, not
regardless of economics....
Pry: Regardless of legislation?
Colgant Yes.
Pry: I think we have Just about everything right down
to the time when you leave for Washington, and
72
Fry: that s another story that I don t think we can
get into here. Maybe it can be recorded at
another time.
Colgan: I d be glad to skip it.
[Laughter]
APPENDIX
S. KC..A.I- <_>rfD BL.ACK rj-t
011 NORTH CALIFORNIA AVENUE
PALO ALTO. CALIFORNIA
March 28, 1966
llrs. Amelia Fry
Regional Oral History Office
Bancroft Library, Room 486
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
Dear Mrs. Pry:
In paragraph three of your letter to me you pretty well covered
broadly the items Mr. Colg an can detail for you.
As to spark arresters, following the CFPA study, reference was
made to several brands of arrester. One used by the Diamond Match
Company was improved by the manufacturer that I think was located at
Oroville. The other consisted of mounting a tank of water on top
of the machine and the stack was an inverted U with the belief that
the pressure of the exhaust in the stack would drive sparks into
the water. Mr. Colgan had one on a log loading machine, and it set
a fire. I believe he had a larger tank made than the one furnished
by the manufacturer after which the machine set no fires. He and
his locomotive men also experimented with oil burning engines and
were able to develop ways of improving their safety.
He made growth and yield studies in support of provinp his
company was on a sustained yield basis. They applied only to areas
selectively logged. No plantings were made to my knowledge. I
do not know the answer to the tree farm question.
The North Butte Forest Protection organization was Mr. Colgan s
idea, and rather vaguely I seem to remember helping on that, but he
will know for sure. As a result of it protection improved. There
was greater efficiency with one man in charge of the entire area
instead of three different groups. I think it helped build up the
use of fire trucks with water, and preventive clearing along roads,
etc. Again Mr. Colgan will remember the details much better than I.
Would certainly ask Mr. Colgan about it.
Prior to the North Butte project Mr. Colgan 1 s duties were
pretty well limited to the logging operating area. On lands other
than that, which were inside the National Forest, protection was
handled by the Forest Service. On lands outside the boundaries of
the National Forest protection was handled or mishandled by the State.
During that period Mr. Colgan and his employees were the ^ain source
of labor for putting out fires in all of the above areas.
Mr. Colgan went with the Diamond Match Company before I joined
the CFPA. Because of football injuries he could not get in the
Arny, but during that war period was at the Forest Experiment Station
in Madison, Wisconsin. I do not know when he left the station to
work in California.
In general it is my belief that Mr. Colgan did more to
inprove private forestry practices in the pine region of
California than any other man in the employ of an operating
lumber company.
74
Notes on State Board of Forestry Meet*n<?s
Regarding establishment of North Butte Forest
Protection Organization
1929
March: Stevenot (Director of Natural Resources) superests that In
plan? for next biennial budget (which next Board meeting
would consider) a "preliminary report be prepared, which
would Include placing of men and trucks in the various
counties, and which could be dissected by the board. 1 *
Perhaps Eldorado or Nevada selected "to go the limit"
for fire protection, as a demonstration of what could he
a "comnli shed In all counties.
Rider suggested Butte County (on account "of conditions
there."). "...he felt sure the state could depend upon
cooperation from the Diamond Match Company...."
District Forester Show also had a plan, Mulford pointed
out, to fire proof one national forest.
State Forester Pratt directed to present a fire plan
for the State at next meeting, If possible In CD operation
with the USFS plan and in contiguous territory.
April t Apparently "skipped."
May : Plan presented by Mr. Hiram Wyman, who had prepared plan.
(A "U. of Minnesota graduate forester" who had made a
preliminary plan "through the agency of the California
Forest Protective Association," and "Butte County had been
selected as the one for mhfc which to make the plan
had
V
Problem of administration discussed? Three agencies Involved,
the Forest Service, the State Board of Forestry, and the
timber owners with possibility of the County Involved, too.
"It was Mr. Colgan s opinion that for the first season,
or until the plan was partly established, the simplest way
would be to have the work done by a U.S. Forest Ranger, under
the direct supervision of the S. Division of Forestry."
Lankeyt Have a man under permanent appointment with the
TT.S.F.S. to supervise work for the other agencies. (Lackey
there In Show s place.) Funds would have to be deposited with
and dispensed by TJ.S.F.S.,ln accordance with their regulations,
Cost Estimates; Lackey said U.S.F.S. "has only been able to
show costs of averaare of 1-j^ per acre." Wyman s plan showed
costs running between 7^ and 10^ an acre. Pardee wondered
how a 100< plan could be worked out "unless there was a
1CV rate--7*y for prevention and 2^4 for reserve fund."
Oilman said certain areas In Southern California are as high
as 3^ an acre, and even that has not really fireproofed the
area.
More discussion of location: Mulford fefljs that Shasta
County fires are "not as Important" as those In Butte
"because there is a better opportunity here (and all up and
75
the Mother Lode) to convince the public of the Importance
of an Intensified plan.... in National Forest lands and In valuable
second crrbwth lands...." He said he would like to have the
Tsup-ctestedl clan for a couple of years, "and If it succeeds,
he felt it would be the best supporting evidence we could bri nr
to a reouest for more money for this sort of work from a future
legislature."
Lackey says plan of BSFS can be changed to an area idjacent
to t>->e one planned for the Division of Forestry, Instead of
us^ng the Shasta National Forest. Mulford delegated to
t Show abo .it this.
v os attending this meeting: Dr. Geo. C. Pardee (c-hm fr
Walter Mulford
H.S. Gllmmn
A. J. Mathews
Swift Berry
W.O. Blasingame
D. Eyman Huff
and
M.B. Pratt, Sec.
Richard E. Colgan
E.V. Lackey
June t with the following in attendanee--Pratt, Price, Durbin,
Colgan, Black, Young, Frost, O Connell, Delaney,
followlmr was adopted: The USFS is "unable to Increase
exoendHures for- additional guards or lookouts in 1929, but
will increase road and trail work within the unit." Telephone
extensions to Bald Mountain; guard at Bottle creek to be
moved to Bald Mountain as secondary lookout.
State of Calif, to place a patrolman at Ma^alla and
lookout on Saw Mill Peak. One on Cohasset Ridsre 1n July.
^3000 allotted for fire break construction in 1929 for four men
as fire fighters on call of Delaney or Young. Their services
paid for by agency using them. State s new truck to be in
Auburn. Diamond Match Co. to furnish 2 patrolmen by June,! 1 ^,
plus financing telephone construction Crom West Branch to
Platt Hill. (Patrolmen to be under supervision of TT.S.^.S. )
C.F.p.A. will finance telephone construction from Campbellvllle
to Cohasset, up to $600.00, the construction work to be
supervised bv the TT.S.F.S.
was asked to orepare a coop agreement providing for
a oln to finance and administer a unified fire protection
district with a single control system and a year-long fire
chief 1n charge, for 1^30.
Signed by S.R. Black, (CFPA); R.S. Colgan (Diamond Match);
and ^rank B. Delaney (U.S.F.S.)
FLACK CASE
c:iRO:iOLOGY ITOTES:
ll-^U* Fritz denounces Black
l-2c-3 charges pre-
sented to Council
Summary:
The charges against Black were signed by
7 people names withheld XHobcstMnaxtaxlaac
L.K. McDanicls , Chairman of
9-35 investigation ended
11-20-35, Council
found Llack guilty.
Names of Councillors:
U.K. Chapman,
S.T. Dana, V. Pres.
P. W. Reed, Lxec Sec
L.A. Warren, bus.
Columbia ^iver Section, wrote to SAF Pr s.
Chapman that the section vrill study black case
with ane eye to bj -laws--adequate protection of
the individual from unfounded or hasty action.
(SAP Affairs, Feb., 1936, pp. 3-12)
Chapman answered in two parts: (1) Pro
cedure in Constitution and Ly-Laws; Procedure
actually followed.
Charges presented against Black were:
1. He secured a position on the g tate Board of
Forestry by political neans , and was elected
chairman at the request of Gov. Kolph for the
purpose of getting Pratt dismissed.
2. He tried, without sanction of the Board,
to get Gov. Rolph to dismiss Pratt for "in-
?.W. Eesley, G ."uCollingwood, ^ritz, xCotok, V. Rhoades , Hutledge, Shepard,
Spring, Winkonwerder.
competency and political activity." Gov.
thought that Black had the approval of Board.
charges presen-
ted to Council a-
gainst Pres. Chapman.
(re mention of
Swift Berry, E.T. Allen)
charges
wore thrown out.
Council wanted to deal
only with concrete facts.
3. Black has discredited Pratt to ais super
visors, to the public, and suhordinates.
i|. Black has usurped the autcority of the
state forester.
5. About samo as above.
6. Ho failed to call meetings for board of
forestry, usurped the ijero Datives of tho State
Board.
7. V/hen the initiative was won to put the State
Forester under the protection of Civil Service,
Black tried to get the Loard of Forestry to
dismiss him in the interim, which Black could
have done with the new Board member (Fritz s)
vote. But Fritz caught on and would net ac
cept the appointment.
Chapman, with Black s okay (according to Chapman), sent a copy of
these charges to C?PA directors. Swift Berry and ur. iloir accused Chap
man of "broadcasting the charges." Chapman says that clso Ble.ck "game
me no names of persons to write to corroborate his statements made in Ills
reply (defense) of July 18." However, Swift Ferry and Richard Colgan
sont in nr o-F lack s tat orients.
The case was sent to each member beginning Sept 2fl)--
100 pages, single spaces. O n ly four coiji.s, so each member
nailed in his vote then forwarded the case testimony to
another member. Black was expelled.
Black s answer to charges: He had reqi ested that Chapman
have charges published in Journal, but this could hot be done
because of Black s attack on Pratt in his own defense,
Chapman defends countercharge that theU.S.F.S. men wanted
Pratt retained, since "lumbermen" wanted him fired. Chap-
nan says that Berry intimated the opposite point of view,
signed
Charges against Chapman were siggled by:
Swift .Terry, R.A.Colgan, Clyde S. Martin, T.K. Oliver, and
W.R.Schofield.
FROM S.A.P Affairs. March, 1936,
Volume 2, No. 3, pp. 19-20:
"Petition in the Case of S. Rexford Black"
Prom the California Section, and the two Pacific North
west Sections. Petition dated December 12, 1935 a month before
the charges against Black were formally presented to the
national S.A.P. Council. The Council agreed on January 25
to crant a review of the Black case. Greeley was probably
chairman of the review committee.
In the December, 1936 S.A.F, Affairs, H.H. Chapman writes
"Procedure in Cases of Disciplinary Action, " a summary of con
siderations for changing the procedure in the S.A.P, By-laws
for hearing charges against members, indicting, and deciding on
guilt or innocence.
WESTERN PINE ASSOCIATION
Yoon Building
Portland, Oregon
Sacramento 16, California
March 12, 19/5
vi-V
llr. Dc .Jitt Uolocn
Eoputy Director of Natural Resources
Clato Forester
Ofxico Euildii^ No. 1
Sacr^scn oo, California
Re: Dedication of Vcotora Pino Trco
Faiuo in tho California Pina Region
Dear Mr. Nelson:
You aro f ami liar with tho Y/estern* Fino Trco Fara n.jvcaont which
ao you linov Is a private initiative and backed by private indujiiiy The
Trco Fai3 program is designed to advance tho luiJaer industr/o conservation
program end to demonstrate to tho public tliat tho forest OWUOITJ ar.d tiubor
opcratora aro protecting and icanaglng thoir foieot properties to cccure
1 uturo foroot crops.
Registration of Tree Farm in tho national Trco Faia Syotea io
under tho oponoorohip and direction of tho National Lumber Mauulccturero .
Aosociation. Tho V ootorn Pino Aoocciatiou, t;liich io affiliated x?ith tha N.LJ>* -
IfVA*^ ccoporatoD in tho development of tho Trco Kara project, c.:id act through
ito Forest Ccnaorvation Coicaittco, Forcot Practice Cor3ittec3 iu tho various
otatoo end ito For 03 try Staff ao tho oponoor in tho VJostom Piiie Region of
tho 11 UootciTi States.
Tho cccoapanying VJcotorn Pino Aooociation Circular, No. 2?05, giveo
in Eoro dotailo tho formulation of the Troo Farm
of qualified trco fares ia not limited to Aosociation
ncnboro only; tho policy of tho Acoociation io to cdnit non-ucw jarj to Troo
Fara corbificotion after review of thoir applicationo , inspection of their
foroat proparulca and favorable action by tho Association Forcob Practico
Coiiaittco and Foreot Conservation Cocuittoo.
The Troo Fam novcacnt haa developed rapidly oinco ito adoption.
At tho preacnt tins, coro than tx;o nillion acres of privately owned forcat
landD in tho Uootorn Pino Region aro registered under the Trco tani oyotca
ns indicated by roadoido oi^no olong Mghuayo end forest roado. Iu tho Callf-
oriiia Pino n^^ion noro than four hundred thouoand acres have bocn approved
for coriificatloa ao Troo Farno.
Tho cicnificanco end tho development of treo farzo for tho consorv-
ction of foroot rcoourcco through ni^n^ccncni for continuous prouuoulcii of
forcot ci - op3 linvo boon tho grour.d for dedication procrono in tlio Abates of
Gi oGon ei;d U johington, Because of tho najor role played by the iortot rccources,
end tho forward otcp in forc3t;y by tho ootabliolimcnt of Treo lari^J, tho Ciiiof
Lwcutivcs of Oregon and V/aohington honored tho occasion by dedicating, in
poroon, tho Troo Farms in thooo states.
Mr. DeWitt "el son / JJK /v Page tofr J*~ liar 12, 1945
^^ The increasing
interest in the forcat resources and forcat lands oitho Scato of
California, end the rocont approval of applications for certification as
Western Pino Tree Farms of fiftcon email EL Borauo County foroa o properties
iu tho nil important occond grcvbh timber bolt oi tho foothills of tho forest
holdings of tho Ilicliican-CaliforaiaJfJVTiVv^ Corapaiiy in El Dorado County and
of the Win ton Luwbcr Company in ccljacent Asador County, centers of great
limbering activities, preoent an opportune tine for ouch a dedication.
Furthermore, a dedication will offer a great opportunity to publicize the
important forest legislation nou in proceoo in tlio State Legislature.
The attached copy of tho report of tho oocrotary of tho oub-com-
nittco of tho Association 1 o California Forcot Practice Coamittco on the
inspection of the foroot areao of the fifteen cunoro contains a rocolution
recoi^iendlng tint tho Forestry Staff of tho Association nalco all necessary
arrangements for a forcal dedication of tho 12. Dorado group of Tree Fama.
As a Tree Farm io n cooperative cntoi^prioe, which dopondo for its
ouccoss on cound understanding end writing relationship between private
enterprise, tho public and local, otato and fcdoral govornaento , our appearance
before tho State Board of Forcatry at its mooting on March 16, 1945 to request
the Doard s cooperation in furthering this pro^an is greatly appreciated.
Enclosed are a program of the dedication of the firot Western
Pino Tree Fara at Klamath Falls, Oregon, and a booklet containing the remarks
made by the speakers in connection with the formal dedication. A similar
dedication was held at Omak, Waohington, whore tho Governor of Washington
dedicated, in person, the Tree Farm of the Biloa-Colenan Lumber Company.
An outline of a tentative program of a dedication subject to
revisions, dependent upon the participants, io also attached.
It has been suggested that the dedication be held a ^
California, between Juno 11 and 19.,. .1945, prof drably on or after June 15.
As a trip to ooiae of the tree farm areas and tho placing of slcns is planned,
the weather will bo more stable and the roads iu better condition for travel
ing at that time. Too, State forestry legislation will have been enacted,
The Chief Forester of the Soil Conoervation Sorvico will be in tho West at
that time and he has expressed his desire to attend tho dedication. The Soil
Conservation Sorvico has done excellent work in fostering fann forestry in
l.l Dorado County.
Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated and v.- \;ould likn to
have your valuable advice and assistance in planning this progx;aa.
Yours very truly,
C. ^ Zaayer, District Forest Ehginoer
76
INDEX
&**
Bailey, Dana, 2/6, 51, 52, 53
Berry, Swift, 50. 65-66
Black, Hex, 18, 48, 50, 51, 65, 6?, 68
; -v
California Forest Protective Association, 48, 50 * 68-69, 70
Chapman, H...H., 19-20, 23, 65
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 47
64
Act, 50
Collins Pine Co., 16-1?
Compton, - -, 37, 40, 4l
Davis, Virgil, 10. 11
Dean, W. B., 38, 40, 4l
Diamond Match Co. See Diamond National Corporation
Diamond National Corporation, 5, 16, 35-43, 46, 51-59
Education
professional schools
accrediation, 19-25
schooling of Colgan, 28-30
Equipment
tractors, 1-5 52, 55
trucks, 5-8
Fairburn, - -, 38, 39-^0, 41, 48, ^9
Pire
protection, 35-37, *K>, ^3-50, 63-64
Forest Practice Act, 15-16, 63, 70-72
Forest practices, 9-12, 51-59, 62-64
Fritz, E., 10-69
Greeley, William, 65-66
Hutchinson, W. H. , 57-58
Hutchison, C. B. , 22
Insects, 55-56
Johnson, C. R. , 10-11
Labor conditions, 53-54
Lumber camps
housing, 41-42
77
McCloud River Lumber Co., 6, 17
Mason, David T., 9-10
Mulford, Walter, 15, 19-20, 4?
NBA Lumber Code, article 10, 14-18, 53 t 57
Nurseries, 9-10, 11
Olmsted, F. E. , 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 58
Pacific Logging Congress, 5-6
Pacific Lumber Co., 10, 11
Plnchot, Gifford, 29
Pratt, , 67
Regulation, public
federal, of forest practices, 46, 70-71
state, of forest practices, 62-63
Schofield, William, 68
Show, Bevier, 49
Society of American Foresters, 44, 48, 65-66
accreditation, 19-25
Stamm, Ed, 58-59
Stiles, Harvey C., 57-58
Sustained yield, 36, 44, 58
Thatcher, , 38-19, 40
Timber management, 38-41
Union Lumber Co., 9, 10
United States Forest Service (USFS)
Forest Products Laboratory, 31, 33, 34
Private industry relations, 44-50, 60-61
Western Lumber Association, 6l
Winsloic, Cap, 34
Woodbury, T. D. , 14
MYRON KRUEGER
1416 ROCKLEDOE LANE. MANOR
WALNUT CREEK. CALIFORNIA 9XKMX 94595
September 24, 1969
Mrs. Amelia R. Fry
Room 486 Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
Dear Mrs. Fry:
Many thanks for making the Krueger-Colgan volume
of the Oral Regional History available to me. You
have done an excellent job.
Naturally inepeaking to a dictating machine, there
is always much awkwardness of speech. Such mild bloopers
make the oral history sound more authentic. There are
only two items that I think should be augmented on an
ERRATA sheet. On page 17, sew a ti line from the bottom
in the statement " every time he d tell the cook...."
This would be more complete if it were to say: "..... every
time he d (Elmer Hall, the Woods Superintendent) tell the
cook ". On page 19 is a more serious error.
in my second statement. The third sentence should be:
"They started there in about 1899 or 1900," This should
be followed by an extra sentences "Soon after Yale offered
forestry."
I have in my files an item from Mrs. Willa Baum referring
to a "permission to deposit your interview". I have in
my files no other item.
Again with thanks and best wishes.
Cordially yours,
^,^ A ,
My /on Krueger
Amelia R. Fry
Graduated from the University of Oklahoma
in 1947 with a B.A. in psychology, wrote for
campus magazine; Master of Arts in educational
psychology from the University of Illinois in
1952 , with heavy minors in English for both
degrees.
Taught freshman English at the University of
Illinois 1947-48, and Hiram College (Ohio)
1954-55. Also taught English as a foreign
language in Chicago 1950-53.
Writes feature articles for various newspapers,
was reporter for a suburban daily 1966-67.
Writes professional articles for journals and
historical magazines.
Joined the staff of Regional Oral History
Office in February, 1959, specializing in the
field of conservation and forest history.
14 4 I 7
