My duties in those days were mainly checking softwood cutting areas for top lopping compliance which was a fire prevention measure. Fire prevention was our primary responsibility along with suppression of same when it occurred. One fire stands out in my memory for many different reasons. It was near the Herkimer, Hamilton County line due south of Rock Dam on the Moose. When it started Ranger Roderick, who monitored the Hamilton County portion, and I combined our efforts because we were uncertain as to exactly where it was located.
We moved on the fire with some of Gould’s forestry crew, if memory serves me right, Carl and Tub Kornmeyer and Charley Levesque. Howard Weiman and Wesley Clair ran the Pacific Marine Pump which was set up on the Moose below Rock Dam. We soon learned the elevation and distance required a second pump to relay a sufficient amount of water to effectively extinguish the ensuing ground fire. The Gould crew told me that they had a pump and other fire equipment stored down at their headquarters where the bridge on the Club crossed the river. I left the fire to retrieve the second pump, hose, fuel, relay tank and other sundries connected with the pumps use.
I needed a crew of at least four more men to help tote the gear so I headed for Leonard Pauquet’s Lumber Camp near Balsam Lake. It was just past noon when I arrived at the camp and the ‘jacks had just finished lunch. The foreman’s name was Amie and I told him of my problem and requested four men to help. He relayed my request to the assembled crew in French, the only language they pretended to know and they responded with shrugs of the shoulders and obvious reluctance to volunteer. They knew they would not be making as much money fighting fire as they would cutting timber. We had the authority to conscript able bodied men but I highly doubted explaining this to them would have any effect. So I gave them a choice. Either come and help or I would radio the fire tower, have them explain the situation to Gould’s Woodland Manager, John Burrell and ask him to close the job down until the fire was out. I also told the foreman I would pad the meager hourly stipend the state paid and ensure them they would lose nothing in time lost from their regular work.
They came, helped and we soon had the fire out. An interesting sidelight, we had to wade across the river with the gear and one guy went down and under the water but only momentarily. He had the sixty-five pound pump on his back but as one would imagine being a lumberjack in excellent shape came back up as quickly as he went under.
I had to check at least twice following the fire to be absolutely sure it was out. Buster Bird flew me in and out with a Super Cub with floats and we landed and took off on the Stillwater above Rock Dam. My son Marty was four or five at the time and he went with us. It was an adventure he never forgot. It proved to be a problem thereafter whenever I had a fire call, he wanted to come.
Both Ranger Roderick and I had other fires over the years in the area but none quite as memorable as the Rock Dam. Getting to work with the men from Gould was particularly memorable. They were all good woodsmen highly skilled, amiable and a pleasure to know. Howard Weiman is the only surviving member of the Gould team at 94. Roderick and I are both in our eighties.
I thought that I would get into the state purchase of the tract in this segment but feel there is still a lot of history readers would want to know about the pre-state era. I at least have to touch on some of the more well known leased camp owners such as Leonard Harwood and the only private landowner that I knew of, Alan Wilcox of Mohawk Hotel fame on Fourth Lake who owned Beaver Lake.