A collection of Squamish forestry enthusiasts and logging history buffs are collaborating to develop a downtown walking and biking trail, tentatively called the Loggers Lane Interpretive Trail.
A band of more than a dozen businesses, organizations and individuals are working to create a trail to showcase the history of forestry in Squamish through the display of logging artifacts between Brennan Park Recreation Centre and the Squamish Yacht Club.
The project is the brainchild of members of the Sea to Sky Forestry Centre Society, and the focus of its artifacts and archives committee.
“They are interesting to people who have an interest in what forestry was all about,” said the society’s Mike Wallace. In the early days, he said, there were “pretty massive pieces of equipment because initially we were moving some pretty huge logs. It wasn’t like today where our second-growth logging is much smaller logs generally…. People don’t understand how big this machinery was and the methods that were used.”
So far, artifacts, which Wallace affectionately calls “iron,” sit between Brennan Park and the Squamish Adventure Centre.
“What we have on display now are pieces of equipment that were used locally, and each of them has a story,” Wallace said of the approximately one dozen pieces dotting the corridor trail and the southeast gravel parking lot next to the Squamish Adventure Centre.
Each piece along the route has a display board that explains the work it once did and photos of the equipment when it was new.
One of the largest pieces is in front of the Brennan Park Recreation Centre on Centennial Way.
“This is a 1940s Cargo, track-laying logging arch,” Wallace said while standing beneath the towering metal A-frame that resembles a massive industrial teeter-totter.
The piece originally was used to move logs on Vancouver Island and later in Squamish for local logging company, Squamish Mills.
A 1920s Wehr, one-man power grader, parked in front of the grounds’ entrance, was once used to maintain the logging road behind the Stawamus Chief, according to Eric Andersen, local history buff, director and committee chair.
There is technological and environmental or logging methods history in this vintage equipment – and social history too,” said Andersen. “The driver of the 1942 International logging truck drove home to his family every night. The earlier railway loggers lived in camps of 200 men.”
The society is having stories digitized so passersby can swipe their phones over Quick Response codes (QR codes) to learn more about the equipment.
Many more artifacts in various forms of disrepair exist in the district, some stored at the Al McIntosh Loggers Sports Grounds, and could eventually be put on display on the trail, Wallace said.
“We have some fairly unique pieces available to us that need some work,” he said.
The oldest artifact the group has access to is a 1911 steam donkey currently at the Loggers Sports Grounds. The list of those supporting and volunteering to create the trail is about as long as the trail itself. Businesses include Squamish Transport, Langis Transport Ltd., John Hunter Ltd. and Alta Lake Transport; and local volunteers include Norm Barr, Harvey Halvorson, Mike Marlowe, Rob Dragis, Max McCrae and Daryl McNutt, among many others.
The interpretive trail will complement the forestry centre, which is slated for adjacent to the Squamish Adventure Centre.
“We are in the process of creating site plans, business plans, development plans and a website,” Wallace said of the proposed centre.
Combined with displays and activities at the centre, the society will be able to tell the complete story of forestry – “what it was, what it is and where it is going,” Wallace said. Anyone wishing to get involved with the project can email Mike Wallace at [email protected].
***Please note this story has been corrected since it was first posted to reflect that Eric Andersen is director and committee chair, not chair of the society.
