Production Date: 1941
Source Type: Photograph
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: George McKinnon, The Owl Drug Company
Postmark: Not Applicable
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: This photograph is one of ten photographs and companion negatives contained in a packet. The photographs were developed by The Owl Drug Company located in Lewiston, Nez Perce County, Idaho. The customer's name, written in pencil on the packet, is Geo McKinnon. Also written in pencil on this photograph packet is "pictures of camp 14 winter of 1941 & 1942."
Camp 14 of Potlatch Forests, Inc. was located in the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 2, Township 39 North, Range 6 East Boise Meridian, at the confluence of the East Fork of Beaver Creek and Sheep Mountain Creek. Sheep Mountain Saddle Forest Service Road and National Forest Road 251 intersect about 200 feet east of this confluence. Camp 14 was located approximately 11.75 miles northeast of Headquarter, Clearwater County, Idaho.
George H. McKinnon served as Camp 14 foreman from 1939 to his death at his home in Lewiston on August 27, 1942. George's death notice mentions that he was "the first P. F. I. camp foreman in the Clearwater white pine belt."
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Farbo, in his history of Potlatch lumber camps, writes the following concerning Camp 14 (1930-1962):
"One of the longest occupied camps in the railroad logging history of the Headquarters [Idaho] side. This camp began as a tent-railroad car camp and was relocated at least twice during its tenure. After partial destruction by structural fires, the rail car camp was replaced with a pre-fabricated board building-passenger rail car complex.
After Morrison-Knudson completed the track to Camp 6 in 1928, the Clearwater Timber Company took over the grade construction to the end of the line -- the East Fork of Beaver Creek. High priority prevailed in spite of swampy flats and steep, rocky canyons and the rail reached the Camp 14 site in 1930.
Very little information is available about the camp in the 1930's. The depression years, 1932-1935, probably curtailed operations at this "end of the line" camp. From 1935 to 1943, logging contractors were active and registered a total of 31,512 man days of work. The Family Tree [a publication of Potlatch Forests, Inc.] began publication in the fall of 1936 and reported that 9 1/2 miles of truck roads and landings were under construction in November. George McKinnon was camp boss.
Logging was in full bore during 1940-1941. The peak crew numbered 185 men and logging took place on the Harlan Creek spur, Sheep Mountain Creek spur, Beaver Creek above Bonner Creek and a dray haul from Camp W. Skidding was by horse, cat, railroad jammer and truck jammer. Volume logged in 1940 was 13.9 M.M. and in 1941, 18.5 M.M.
In 1942, a total of 515 men worked out of Camp 14. Of this total 394 were bachelors and 121 were married. Eighteen men with the name of "Johnson" were on the payroll. Logs were trucked from Camp W and 14 scalers were employed at the reload and rail landings. Foreman George McKinnon died -- a long time, faithful and competent employee. Two crews were placed on the trail run to try 'gyppo logging.'"
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The following death notice for George McKinnon appeared in the August 1942 issue of The Family Tree, a publication of Potlatch Forest, Inc.:
"GEORGE McKINNON, 1880-1942
Mirthful, mischievous eyes instantly told one his nature. Spinner of tall yarns, stooped by hard labor, but young in spirit with a kindly, humorous way about him. He was more than just the foreman of a logging camp and his passing is a loss to all the men of Clearwater and to those others that knew him. A part of the early logging days of the Clearwater goes with him and although he will long be remembered as foreman of the first Clearwater camps, his leaving marks an indefinable break from those early days. A native of Nova Scotia, he was a credit to the industry that knew him best."
Sources:
Anonymous. August 1942. George McKinnon, 1880-1942. The Family Tree 6(11):7. [The Family Tree was a publication of Potlatch Forests, Inc. and was printed in Lewiston, Nez Perce County, Idaho.]
Farbo, Tom. 1996. White Pine Wobblies and Wannigans: A History of Potlatch Lumber Camps, North Central Idaho, 1903-1986. Lewiston, Idaho: Steeley Print and Binding. 362 p. [see pp. 245-249]
Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Spokane County, Washington; August 28, 1942; Volume 56, Number 293, Second Section, Page 5, Column 5. Column titled "George McKinnon Funeral Thursday."
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