Adverse

Uphill road grade for loaded log trucks or trains.

Alibi Day

Pay day in the camps, when many loggers develop toothaches, requiring trips to town.

Backfire

Controlled fire set ahead of wild fire to reduce fuel materials.

Bakehead

Railroad fireman.  Also called the "tallow-pot."

Barber Chair

On stump, slivered wood between undercut and back cut, sometimes sticking up a foot or more, resembling back of a chair.

Belly Ache

Transmission trouble in logging tractor.

Big Blue Butt

A large butt log, sometimes heavy enough at one end to sink.  Railroad ties from such logs are called sinkers.

Biltmore Stick

A specialized ruler for measuring height, diameter, and volume of trees.

Birling

Log rolling.  (In water.)

Blowup

Explosive-like spread of a forest fire due to weather conditions.

Boiling Up

Washing clothes in camp

Boom

Log storage in water.

Boomer

Migratory logger.

Bootjack

Designed to help loggers get caulked boots off.

Brains

Company president or other high official.

Bucker

Man who saws felled trees into log lengths.  According to fallers, a bucker is a made-over faller, one who has been hit on the head by falling branches.

Buckskin

Weathered snag, bark off.

Bug

Switch used to transmit radio or electric signals.

Bug Kill

Trees or timber stands killed by insects

Bull Choker

Heavy choker used when extra strength is needed to move big tog or overcome bad hang-up.

Bull of the Woods

Logging superintendent.

Bullbuck

Cutting crew boss.  He is a key man, and many technically trained foresters are to be found on this job.

Bullcook

Camp chore-boy or handyman.

Bullwhacker

Ox teamster of early western logging.

Bumper

Full name, knot bumper.  He trims limbs still left on logs at landing.  Also unhooks chokers.  Term applies mostly to Western Pine region.  Counterpart in Douglas fir logging is landing chaser.

Bunk

Log rest on railroad car or truck.  Also logger's bed.

Bunkhouse

Camp logger's home, where new logging records are made nightly, starting right after supper.

Bunkhouse Fables

Colorful narratives of adventures on the last trip to town.

Busheling

Contract work at so much per thousand board feet.

Camp Inspector

Short-stake logger

Camp Robber

Canada jay or whiskey jack, bird about the size of robin that hangs out among loggers, especially when fed.

Candy Side

Fast, highball, well-equipped operation.

Cat

Tractor.

Cat Doctor

Tractor mechanic.

Cat Face

Partly healed fire scar on tree, usually at base.

Cat Skinner

Tractor driver.

Caulks

(Pronounced "Corks")  Steel pegs in soles of heavy boots, giving loggers secure footing in woods.

Chance

A "show,” or an operation.  Example: "Truck chance" means transport by truck best; "winter chance" means loggable in winter.

Chaser

Man who unhooks chokers at spar tree.

Cheat Stick

Log scaler's measuring rule.

Cherry Picker

Crane or other power rig for picking up logs along railroad or truck road.  Sometimes used for short skidding jobs.

Choker

Steel necktie, wire rope loop to grip logs for the pull to landing.  Usually 3/4 to 1-1/2 inch diameter, 15 to 35 feet long, knob at both ends and sliding hook for either knob.

Chokerman

Also known as choker setter.  He fixes the chokers around logs.

Chunk

Broken log.

Cold Deck

A pile of logs yarded in to a tree.

Cold Trailing

Digging fire line along edge of forest fire that appears to be dead, as a safety measure in case it should revive.

Conk

Tree disease, usually detectable from fruiting body growth.

Crown Fire

Fire traveling through foliage of trees.

Crummy

Caboose of log train.  Crew bus of truck logging outfits.

Dendroctonus

A destructive bark beetle that annually kills millions of feet of timber.

Dinging

Loaders riding hook or tongs.  (Prohibited by safety codes.)

Donkey

Steam engine, upright boiler, several drums, mounted on heavy log sled, used as logging power plant. Now largely supplanted by gasoline and diesel units.

Donkey Puncher

Engineer

Drag'er

To quit.

Duff

Humus and partly decayed organic matter of forest floor.

Dynamite

Snuff.

Eagle Eye

Section boss.

Faller

One who cuts down trees.  Called sawyer in pine region.  Fir region buckers say fallers are buckers who were hit hard in head.

Fernhopper

West coast forester.

Fire Line

A strip dug to mineral earth around a forest fire.  Usually built now with bulldozers, its purpose is twofold: To try to stop the fire; to be starting line for backfires.

Fly Camp

Stub, or temporary camp

Flyer

Type of skyline donkey used in the 1920's.

Flying Dutchman

A rigging hookup for high-leading parallel to railroad.

Fore And Aft

A skid road built in steep country for sliding logs into water.

Gandy Dancer

Section worker on railroad.  Track gang member

Gandy Dancing

Hiding gravel.  Raising rail track after new ballast has been dumped.

Gilflirt

(Verb) - All fouled up.  (From horse logging days.)

Gin Pole

Short spar tree for loading

Give'er Snoose

To increase power, to hurry up, to get the babbitt out of the well-known shoes.

Goat

Switching engine in woods.  Also applied to small, pressure-tank burner used for starting fires in oil-burning donkey engines.

Gopher

Powderman.  He shoots small holes under logs so rigging men can get choker around log.

Got’er Made

Quitting.

Grapple

Fork-like hook used in yarding operations.  Grapple yarder.

Groan Box

Radio.

Grouse Ladders

Limby trees, wolf trees.

Gut Robber

Cook.

Gyppo

Contract logger or small operator.  Many versions are heard as to origin of word. One is that during World War I, when log skidding was frequently contracted out to small operators who had a team of horses, such operators moved about a lot and got to be known as "gypsies."  In pine country, they were also known as packsackers.  With the years, "Gypsy" developed into the euphemism "Gyppo."  The term may have had a certain tang of "haywiring" in its earlier days, but not now.  "Gyppo" is widely used and universally accredited, and it does not denote "gypping."

Hair Pounder

Teamster

Hangup

A turn of logs fouled up in a root, snag, or stump.

Hardtack Outfit

Poor feeding outfit.

Haulback

Steel cable That pulls main line And chokers back to the woods from yarding tree.

Hayburner

Horse.

Haywire

Out of order, second rate.

Haywire Show

Poorly equipped logging operation.

Hen Skins

Tight summer underwear

High Lead

Logging system using lifting power of high rigging to get logs up and over obstructions on way in from woods to landing.

High Lead Block

Gigantic steel pulley, weighing up to 3,600 pounds, strapped to top of spar tree for carrying main line.

High Wheels

Gigantic wheels once used for skidding.

Highball

Hurry up.

Highball Side

The fast, regular logging side of any operation.

Highclimber

Man who cuts off tops of chosen spar trees and hangs rigging in them for the setting.

Hindu

Loop at end of straw line, carrying hook.

Hit The Ball

Get going.  Speed up operations.

Hit The Pike

Head for town.

Hitler

In one area of the Western Pine region the first gas-powered chain saw came from Germany in 1936 or 1937.  It was manufactured at Kiel, parts assembled at Vancouver, B.C. Loggers got to calling all gas chain saws "Hitlers.”  Term did not become general and did not stick.

Hoghead

Locomotive engineer.

Holster

Jammer operator in pine country.  Also known as puncher.

Home Guard

Steady employee, opposite of camp inspector.

Hooker

Common in pine country, pairs of men at landing, handling the loading hooks.

Hooktender

The boss of the rigging, or yarding, crew in high lead logging.

Hoosier

Green man in woods.

Hoosier Up

(Verb) -To play practical jokes on embryo loggers.

Hoot-Nanny

Undercutter.  A device to hold crosscut saw while sawing from underneath.

Hypsometer

An instrument for measuring height of trees.

In The Bight

Dangerous area in rigging, where line under stress may strike a workman.

Increment

Increase in wood growth.

Increment Borer

Instrument for core-drilling tree trunks.  Foresters read history of tree in core, which records annual growth.

Inkslinger

Timekeeper.

Iron Burner

Blacksmith.

Jagger

Wire rope sliver or "whisker."

Jillpoke

A prop, a pole to pry; also, an unloading device.  If a logger slips on a log and his posterior alights on a limb stub, he has suffered a painful "jillpoking."

Job-Shark

Employment agent.

Kerf

Slit made by saw.

King Snipe

Boss man of track-laying crew.

Landing

Where logs are loaded.

Leader

Latest year's height growth on tree's main stem.

Leftovers

Wood materials for which there is no economic use.

Log Brand

Hammered identification mark on logs ends.

Loky

Locomotive.

Long Butt

(Noun or verb)- When tree butt is decayed or crooked, or otherwise economically unsuited for use, tree is "long-butted," which means the butt cut is left in the woods.  In south, the term is "jumpbutt."

Man Catcher

Employment agent.

Meow

Kink or bad twist in steel rope.

Misery Whip

Bucking or crosscut saw.

Molly Hogan

A substitute for cotter pins, fashioned from strands of wire rope.  Formerly widely used, still persisting despite safety codes forbidding them.

Monthly Insult

Paycheck.

Mulligan Car

Crew car.

Node

Circle of knots in tree trunk denoting end of one year's height growth and beginning of next.

Nose Bag

Cold lunch.

Nose Bag Show

Camp where crew carries lunch to woods.

Outlaw Camp

Small crew preparing next campsite.

Parbuckle

Method of moving a log by rolling in bights of two lines.

Pass Line

Highclimber's elevator on spar tree

Paul Bunyan

Logger's hero.

Pea Vey

Cantdog.  Tool for rolling logs by hand,

Peeler

Short log, or bolt, suitable for peeling for plywood.

Pike Pole

Long pole with steel point and hook, used to move logs in water.

Pot

Steam donkey engine.

Powder Monkey

Dynamite man.  Also called gopher

Pre-Logging

Removing small breakable timber before the main logging.

Pulaski

Special tool combining ax and hoe principles.  Named after ranger hero of 1910 Idaho fires.

Pull the Pin

To quit the job.

Pung

Logger's purse

Punk

Logging camp bread.  Also "The punk" for whistle punk or signalman.

Push

Foreman

Quebec Choker

Peavey.  Is short

Raft

Logs in water, kept in leash by boom-sticks.

Red Lead

Catsup.

Re-Logging

Business of combing harvested areas for additional materials after primary Logging is finished.  Often done with lighter equipment that makes it practical.

Reprod

Forest reproduction.  Teenage and younger trees.

Residual Stand

Trees, often of sawlog size but good growers, left to grow for next harvest cycle, nucleus of next crop.  Also called reserve stand.

Rigging

Lines, blocks, hooks, etc., at business end of logging.  "Working in the rigging," means any log-moving job from the stump to wheeled haul.

Rigging Crew

The crew that brings in the logs.  Consists of choker setters, hook-on-men, whistle punk, chaser, rigging slinger and hooktender.

Rigging Slinger

Hooktender's first assistant.  He picks logs for the turns, untangles rigging, signals to the whistle punk when to start and stop lines.

Ripe

Trees that have reached their "three-score and ten."  "Over-ripe" means trees that have attained high old age.

Road

A strip of harvesting area embracing everything that can be yarded out from spar tree to tail block.

Rotation

Timber crop cycle.

Round Stuff

Logs.

Russian Coupling

Unfinished log cut left by bucker.  Very dangerous to rigging crew.

Salt Chuck

Tidewater.

Saplings

Trees up to 4 inches diameter.

Saw Timber

Trees over 12 inches in diameter, breast high.

Scaler

Busheler's enemy.

Section 37

Where all good loggers go when they cash in their chips.  No underbrush there.  Every tree is straight and eight feet in diameter, 400 feet tall.  No scalers are allowed there.  Section 37 in Klamath Lake near Algoma, Oregon.

Seedling

Tree developed from seed.  Very small trees.

Setting

Area within yarding distance of spar tree.

Sheepherder

Logger who wears bib overalls.

Shoo-Fly

Building the road around by way of the head of a canyon instead of by bridge or fill across it.  Used either as verb or noun.

Show

A logging operation or logging chance.

Side

One complete logging operation.

Side Winder

Tree knocked sideways by another tree.  Also denotes fork of a tree growing straight up, parallel to main trunk.

Sister Hooks

Twin hooks on a single line.

Siwash

(Verb) to bend a powered linearound a stump to change direction of pull.

Skid Grease

Butter.

Skidder

Powerful engine for skyline logging, "usually with own steel spar.

Skidroad

Roads on which logs were dragged in early days.  Usually built of peeled logs.  Term later was applied to loggers' favorite hangout area in town (tenderloin district).  Eastern writers, ignoring bitter western protests, have sought to pervert the term to "skid row" and apply it to seamy urban districts frequented by derelicts.

Sky Hooks

Mythical, all-powerful hooks that hook-tenders cry for when they have to fight bad hang-ups.

Sky Pilot

Traveling preacher who visits camps.

Skybound

Tree that refuses to fall, even when wedged.  Also denotes buttrigging fouled up in high-lead block.

Slash

Leftovers of the timber harvest.

Sleeper

Railroad tie.  In fire protection circles, a "sleeper" is a forest fire, possibly set by lightning, which smolders quietly and unobserved perhaps several days, later to blaze forth unexpectedly.

Slush

Coffee.  Also called mud.

Snag

Dead tree, standing.

Snoose

Swedish conditioning powder, Scandinavian dynamite, galloping dust, snuff.

Snorkle

Boom extension used to pick up logs.

Spar Tree

Work tree of high-lead logging.  Limbed and topped, it supports blocks and rigging hung high to give lift to the pull.

Spider Web

Early-day term on larger streams and bays, denoting log booms strung across mouths of feeder streams to catch escaped logs.

Spike Top

Standing tree whose top is dead.

Springboard

Board with steel shoe on one end, formerly widely used by fallers as a platform.  Shoed end was stuck in a small notch in tree trunk.

Stag Tree

Tree whose top has been broken off.

Stag

High-water pants and shirts.

Straw Line

Light line for rigging up.

String of Flats

Stack of hotcakes

Stump Age

Standing merchantable timber.  Can also denote price paid for timber.

Sucker

Big limb.

Talk

Creaking of tree immediately before falling to the ground.

Tin Hat

Hardhat now almost universally used by western loggers for protection.  Made of aluminum, plastic or laminated paper - anything but tin.

Tin Pants

Heavy, water-repellent duck trousers.

Tin Pants Show

Rainy weather, rainy country.

Tree Farmer

Rubber-tied skidder

Turn

A load.  In high-lead logging, it is usually two chokers full of logs.

Undercut

Notch cut to regulate direction of tree's fall.

Wanigan

Floating camp of river-driving crew

Whiskers

Jaggers on worn chokers.

Whistle Punk

Signalman.

Whorl

Circle of limbs denoting end of one year's growth.

Widowmaker

Dangerous limb that may fall.

Windfall Bucker

Bucker who works alone on wind-thrown trees.  Fallers say windfall buckers are loggers who not only talk to themselves; they also answer themselves.

Winter Chance

Harvesting operation not likely to be forced down by winter weather.

Wolf Tree

Tree that occupies more space than its value warrants.  Usually a limby, low-value specimen.

Wood Buck

Man who saws firewood for camp.

Yarding

Moving logs to a central spot.  Verb developed in west from eastern and southern "timberyard."