Port McNeill was named after Captain William Henry McNeill of the Hudson Bay Company’s SS Beaver, the first steamship on the Pacific Northwest Coast.

We were incorporated on February 18, 1966 and were the first Town to be incorporated under the new Canadian Constitution.

A HISTORY OF PORT McNEILL LOGGING OPERATIONS

 by R.K. Vivian

Published in the Town of Port McNeill’s monthly newsletter, Town Log, October 1991 and November 1991

As a consequence of a long association with Port McNeill, its history has been a matter of personal interest. Fortunately, many of the old records pertaining to the Port McNeill logging operations are still available. The access to such documents has made it possible, in part, to track the development of a community as new forest tenures, utilization standards and logging methods evolved.

The transition from liquidation cutting to sustained yield management required the coastal regions of British Columbia to implement many dramatic modifications to the practices and attitudes pursued theretofore. In this regard one can suggest that what transpired at Port McNeill provides a case study. Admittedly not all operations along the coast prospered, as has Port McNeill. In other instances logging camps and their infrastructure were abandoned in favour of commuting from established towns, as paved highways proliferated.

A debt is owed to Tom Muir who was assistant engineer at Port McNeill during 1942 through to 1950. It is a tribute to his remarkable memory that this history includes a section dealing with those early days. A similar debt is owed to John Leesing, Dianne Gudlaugsson and Dave Sanderson for their assistance and encouragement. It must be confessed that this project would not have been attempted but for being persuaded by Ross R. Douglas that such a history would be a worthy undertaking.

LOGGING ACTIVITY PRIOR TO 1945

A number of individuals were logging in the vicinity of Port McNeill around the time the more extensive and long-term operations were being established. The names of those pioneers that should not be overlooked and include Hoy, Carson, Chisholm and Iverson. One such early operation was located near Hyde Creek. In 1936 a Mr. Hoy, with the participation of Messrs. Storey and Chisnall, established a tent camp on the beach. During 1937 they undertook to drag the large cedar logs they cut to the beach with a caterpillar tractor. The ground however proved to be far too soft and wet to be encouraging. This led to the construction of a "railroad". The locomotive consisted of a Fordson tractor adapted to run on light steel rails to pull a single car loaded with logs. A reliable source acquainted with the operation recalls that they normally produced two loads a day but with a good mechanic in constant attendance it was possible to double that number.

In 1939 a Mr. Carson established an operation adjacent to Hoy Bay. To transport his logs from the woods to tide water this individual resorted to trucks run on roads constructed of planks. Neither this nor the Hoy operation seems to have survived for more than a few years.

Around 1937, an operation of more significant proportions was established a mile west of the present ferry wharf. The N.S. McNeil Trading Company, a subsidiary of Nipon Soda of Japan, had somehow assembled, or acquired from someone who had, a block of 36 Crown granted sections of land. These sections, each one mile square, were portions of a large area surveyed in 1885. The survey had subdivided the lands extending from Port McNeill to Rupert Arm and north to Port Hardy into townships and sections. As the timber was not particularly attractive by the standards at that time but the land relatively flat it may be assumed the intent was to accommodate homesteaders rather than loggers. However, as these lands had been crown-granted during the 1890’s, logs produced could be freely exported, and undoubtedly it was this feature that attracted the Japanese company.

After an attempt to do its own logging, by 1939 the N.S. McNeil Company had contracted the logging to the C & A Logging Company, the principals being a Mr. Phelan Cyr and a Mr. Bob Allan. That the company when established was for years to be referred to as Shelly is attributed to an involvement at some point of W.C. Shelly who is more widely known for his Shelly Bakeries and 4X bread.

The contractor produced 20 to 30 million feet board measure (fbm) each year, requiring a crew of about 60 men who were accommodated in bunkhouses and fed in a cookhouse. There were at least three company houses for the use of the principals.

Access to the merchantable timber stands was obtained by constructing a planked road running due west from the camp. Its construction was similar to that of a railroad with crossties set in contact with the ground but supporting longitudinal planking, rather than steel rails, to provide a running surface for the truck tires. About 2 miles inland a substantial trestle bridge was required to cross the Cluxewe River. The logs were hauled by truck to the log dump at Shelly and then towed to a location close to the present ferry wharf. At that point they were prepared for export prior to being loaded periodically on freighters for Japan by longshoremen from Vancouver who were accommodated in bunkhouses along the beach. This practice was suspended in December of 1941 when, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the N.S. McNeil Company was seized by the Custodian of Alien Property. From then until 1945 the contractor was to work for the Custodian who diverted the logs to the Vancouver Log Market. When the timber lands were acquired by Alaska Pine Company that year, it was not company policy to export logs, and when it ultimately included them in its tree farm licence the right to export was relinquished.

The next operation to establish at Port McNeill was that of Pioneer Timber Company, a Vancouver company of which W.C. Shelly was the major owner. It had been logging since 1933 on Malcolm Island. By an agreement signed in April 1937, Pioneer Timber Company contracted to log on a number of the 59 timber licences held by the Broughton Straits Timber Co., a subsidiary of Powell River Company, and to remove 40 to 50 million fbm a year.It was required to sell to Powell River Company 85% of all the hemlock, balsam and spruce, which in total in any one year had to exceed 20 million fbm. Pioneer could keep its 15% share of the pulp species produced in the form of saw logs, with all the cedar and what little amounts of Douglas fir there were to be found. In August of 1937 Pioneer Timber moved its equipment and buildings to Port McNeill from Malcolm Island and established a camp one mile east of the C & A Operation.

Invoking a common practice of that time, Mr. L.F. Hoy, for successfully introducing Pioneer Timber Company to the Broughton Straits Timber Company, secured a remuneration of five cents for each thousand board feet removed from a large portion of the block of timber licences. This arrangement was perpetuated from 1937 though to 1979 although, by and large, all the timber to which it was applicable had been removed by 1956. It is unlikely that Mr. Hoy would have realized such a generous reward for his role of "matchmaker" but for the outbreak of war in 1939. Many years later a Mr. Bill McKee, the son of one of the principals, expressed an opinion that had it not been for the war Pioneer Timber undoubtedly would have soon gone broke like the others that had tried logging at Port McNeill.

The initial four or five years of logging at Port McNeill were confined to timber immediately west of the present town. The logs were transported by truck from the woods to the dump over fore and aft timber roads. The running surface for the trucks was provided by logs, with their top surfaces flattened using broad axes. Saplings were spiked to the inner edges of the logs to guide the solid rubber tired truck and trailer wheels. A timber road resembled a trestle throughout most of its length as it was supported on pile-driven piers of untreated wood. As a consequence its useful life was only some 5 to 7 years. Despite being a labour intensive way of building a road, stories persist that a crew could construct 96 feet per day that involved 6 pile-driven bents at 16 foot intervals with the installation of stringers along which the trucks would travel. A distinct disadvantage was that the logs large enough to provide a hand-hewn surface, on which to drive the trucks, could otherwise have been sold for saw logs. On the whole it was a cumbersome, costly and inflexible system with a limited life and was soon abandoned for fore and aft plank roads of the type used by the first C & A Operation. Regardless, neither of these road systems was practical on anything but relatively flat land or following the valley bottoms.

The planks and cross ties required for the plank roads were provided by a portable sawmill or "bush" mill. As the construction of the planked road progressed it was necessary to relocate the sawmill periodically to keep it close to the point at which the planks were being used. The criteria for an acceptable site for the bush-mill was three-fold. It had to be within a good stand of hemlock and balsam so the saw logs could be yarded directly to the mill; involve a flat area about a hectare in size to accommodate the mill and storage space for the planks and cross ties produced; and, adjacent to a steep slope to simplify the disposal of the sawdust slabs created by the sawing. One can readily appreciate why the plank roads were superseded toward the end of the 1940’s by roads surfaced with gravel and fragmented rock.

The implementation of fore and aft plank roads was accompanied by the replacement of the hard rubber tire trucks used to that point with newer trucks running on pneumatic tires. The trucks used on the timber roads had been standard models of the 1930’s that had been subjected to rudimentary modifications to transport logs. The trucks with which they were replaced had been constructed specifically for log hauling by a manufacturer of the name of Hayes. 

The Hayes trucks, being more substantially constructed and with bigger engines, could carry a load of some 40 m³ (9000 fbm) or twice that of the trucks replaced. The progressive improvements in log truck design over the years have been such that an average load on an off-highway log truck now in common use at Port McNeill is 78 m³.

The Pioneer Timber fore and aft plank roads headed west from the log dump, crossed the Cluxewe River, turned south following the west side of the Cluxewe River and then a tributary to its headwaters which overlooked Nimpkish Lake. The roads stopped at a point some 11 miles from tidewater. By and large, all the logging undertaken during the initial seven years was confined to portions of what is now Tree Farm Licence 39, managed by MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.

The annual production of 50 million fbm in those days would have involved a crew approximating 170 men. Accommodation consisted of possibly 24 cabins for families and a series of 2 to a room – 8 man bunkhouses, a cookhouse and a communal washhouse. The logging superintendents associated with the Pioneer Timber operation during the 1940’s included Jack "step and a half" Phelps, Harry McQuillan, Bill Petty, Viv Hunter, Jim Braley and Bert Peck.

One should not think for a moment that it was all work and no play. An area separating the bunkhouses from the family quarters was devoted to a baseball field. The playing surface of the ball field was gravel, the only clue as to its intended use being the traditional backstop. Nonetheless, it received lots of use by the men’s and women’s softball teams as well as providing a playground and sports field for the school. Immediately adjacent to the field was a large community hall and, until a new and larger facility was built a short distance away in 1954, a two room school for grades 1 to 8.

Through the 1940’s and into the 50’s, the community hall was the focal point for most of the social and recreational interests, providing for a diversity of activities. The floor area was such that it could be used for basketball, badminton, roller skating, dances and the movies that were screened twice weekly. A stage was available for PTA concerts, Christmas parties and Hallowe’en parties, among others. The hall also accommodated the monthly church services, weekly Sunday School, summer bible camps, lending library and, at one point, a coffee shop.

For those with other interests there was the "poker shack", a not uncommon structure in logging camps of the 1940’s, located amid the bunkhouses. There was also a combination pool hall and barbershop. Neither poker shack nor pool hall were to receive much use after the mid 1950’s when the number of men living in bunkhouses had been greatly reduced.

During the 1940’s every camp building was painted a barn red with white trim. It made no difference whether or not it was a bunkhouse, family house, community hall, saw-filing shack, or tool shed. This less than imaginative colour choice was to be remedied as the camp entered the decade of the 1950’s. Each structure was repainted in distinct colours chosen from a wide assortment of compatible pastel pigments. The result had a tremendous psychological affect on the inhabitants. The transformation was further enhanced when the company provided materials for picket fences and prizes for best gardeners.

The recreational facilities would be supplemented with the construction of an outdoor swimming pool in 1957. The project was a joint effort involving the company and volunteer workers. It was an immediate response to the accidental drowning of a six-year-old boy playing alone on a float used for mooring small boats. The Camp engineer at the time, while an expert in road and bridge construction, had to quickly familiarize himself with swimming pool construction. The pool was patterned on one that had only recently been completed at Woss Camp in the Nimpkish Valley. The Community Association for many years would retain the services of a Physical Education student as a life guard during four months each summer to teach swimming so a similar accident would never again be experienced.

DEVELOPMENTS AFTER 1945

Early in 1945 Pioneer Timber Company was acquired by Alaska Pine Company of Vancouver, whose dependence on the Vancouver log market for its two sawmills on the Fraser River was forcing it to look for more security of supply. Although Powell River Company would get 56% of the volume to be removed from the timber licences the opportunity to direct the remaining 44% to Alaska Pine mills was not one to be foregone. As it has been said, "Half a loaf is better than none."

In the latter part of 1945 the Alaska Pine holdings in the Port McNeill area were supplemented by the purchase of all the lands and assets of the N.S. McNeil Trading Co. Ltd. Until the contract under which they were logging had run its term, the Cyr and Allan operation remained a distinct operating entity until July 1949. At that point the logging was integrated with that undertaken by Pioneer Timber.

By then the only small permanent logging operation in the area was that of Dickie Bros. Logging. The operation, run by Russell Dickie, employed a small crew to log timber sales, acquired periodically from the Forest Service, on the point across the bay from Port McNeill. He would also run the sawmill maintained by Pioneer when bridge timbers, decking and dimension lumber were required for camp use.

The development from 1945 onwards would reflect the philosophy of Mr. Walter Koerner who, in the European tradition with which he was familiar, endorsed a concept of permanent forest based communities whenever it was possible. Such a concept was not one that had been widely practised previously in British Columbia. The accepted practice was that which provided bunkhouses for "single" men and commonly required married individuals to leave their families in town. While a company might provide a few houses they were, by way of example, allocated to the superintendent, foremen and camp accountant. Nonetheless, it was not unusual for a few of the crew to bring houses with them. Along the coast it was convenient to move the family home on a log raft. Undoubtedly the wartime restrictions on the mobility of loggers, among others, provided an incentive to settle at a given camp and build accommodation, however rudimentary, for one’s family. For a nominal monthly payment water, power, garbage pick-up, freight and stove oil deliveries were available.

Should anyone owning a house decide to sell and move on, more often than not, the company would purchase the house. This became a common practice when it was obvious that an ability of the employer to offer housing assured a more stable and experienced workforce, which was difficult to attract after the war. By 1950 there were very close to 80 families settled in Port McNeill, 90% of them living in Company houses.

An interesting component of the available housing was a set of eight duplexes that initially provided wartime housing for shipyard workers in Bremerton. They had been moved to Port McNeill during 1950 by an individual who proposed to relog Pioneer Timber logging slash. The duplexes were to serve as accommodation for his contract crews. The vision proved to be a bit premature. Mills had not yet equipped themselves to handle small or short logs that had to be bundled prior to booming and towing. It was to be some six years before re-logging or salvage logging was a viable activity. At that point some pulp mills had been equipped to use the material as a source of wood chips.

ESTABLISHING A PERMANENT FOREST BASED COMMUNITY

Any uncertainty regarding the future of Port McNeill was dispelled during May of 1959. At that time the forest lands upon which the Port McNeill operation was dependant were included within the tree farm licence. While the original intent was that the lands would constitute a distinct management unit, they instead became one of the five dispersed blocks that comprised TFL 25. With the licensee’s extensive private tenures supplemented with contiguous Crown land, the Port McNeill operation was assured of an operational area that could provide an annual allowable cut that would sustain a reduced but nonetheless viable operation in perpetuity.

Such an assurance of permanent employment opportunities encouraged individuals, particularly those with families, to settle, for the long term, if not permanently.

While the housing that had its origins primarily during the 1940’s was much sought after, it was, with few exceptions, very rudimentary, makeshift and during the winters cold and costly to heat. Furthermore, about half the family houses, the bunkhouses and camp infrastructure were located on land that would have to be vacated when the Broughton Straits cutting contract was concluded. While not then a matter of immediate concern, it was to be a consideration whenever long-term plans were being formulated.