Not only is the Forks community surviving in spite of the spotted owl issue, they have managed to put together a piece of their lives to share with others, the Forks Timber Museum. We recently discovered this community jewel.
Highlights of the Museum
The first thing I noticed, when when we arrived, was an awesome sign, a work of art, to the right of the museum - two life-size carved men sawing a log. To the left of the museum is a logger's memorial, a ten-foot statue of a logger with a chain saw, honoring loggers lost in the woes of their profession. Next stands the Forks Visitor Center. A real fire outlook is on the side of the museum and a five-mile nature trail is there for those wanting to walk.
We stopped in the visitor center, then made our way over to the memorial, saving the museum for last.
Talking to a volunteer in the museum I learned the Forks High School carpentry class and other volunteers built this cedar museum; it was a labor of love. I also learned, sadly, like the booming logging industry of the past, the carpentry class has since been displaced to make room for computer classes.
It's apparent the students left a great legacy, however. Inside, among many other items are log samples of types of wood, tools used in logging, even a 9-foot-three-inch-long, wood-burning cast iron stove used to cook for loggers in camps. It's huge!
Viewing the stove I imagined an army of hungry loggers piled around a long, wood table with no chairs that is reminiscent of a logging camp kitchen. I learn that women who waitressed in log camps were called "flunkies." Loggers do have their own language.
Looking around, up and down stairs, I observed a cedar canoe, scale steam equipment, early farm implements, pioneer clothes you may dress in for pictures and fire-fighting gear. One could spend a day there if interested in the logging industry.
Logging Literature
What really got to me, in the scheme of a logger's life, though, was a table filled with papers on area issues. The whispers of a forgotten industry reached out: stop, read the literature. I picked up the first piece of paper I saw.
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