13. FOREST FIRES AND REFORESTATION

Donald M. Dickey: Mrs. Cornutt who lived to be over 100 years old. She had some kind of a problem where a glass of wine helped. She had a glass of wine every day. And this was during prohibition days.

Bob Zybach: Where would she get the wine?

Donald M. Dickey: I think that you could buy it with a permit.

Bob Zybach: Oh. So she had kind of like a medical permit, or something?

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, I think so. I mean she wasn't a lady to go out and get drunk or anything.

Donald M. Dickey: This was something that whatever her problem was, it helped her out.

Bob Zybach: Were the Cootes and Cornutts looked upon as pretty solid members of the community? Did most people get along with them real well?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh, yeah, they were good solid members of the community.

Bob Zybach: Now, I understand that Weinert ended up owning Coote's third mill. Do you know the story behind that?

Donald M. Dickey: It would be his second mill I think. But anyway it was the one around the side of the mountain. Well, Coote was paying off his help with groceries and stuff, that he bought from Weinert. And finally it just got to the point that Johnny sat down with the bill and they decided that Johnny should take the mill over and go from there.

Bob Zybach: Then, is that when Coote went down to California at that time?

Donald M. Dickey: I think that's when he went to California.

Bob Zybach: How long did Weinert keep the mill going then?

Donald M. Dickey: Well, Weinert had the mill up there going a couple of years or whatever it took to cut the timber off. Then he had a mill over on his own place, over on Weinert Creek.

Bob Zybach: On Weinert Creek?

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah. You know, that I said that the Weinert farm was over the hill west of the Hauge farm where Coopers mill was?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: I think that Weinert had a mill over there. Cooper had a mill over there too. But

Donald M. Dickey: I'm not sure whether Weinert did or not. But anyway there was a mill over there.

13. FOREST FIRES AND REFORESTATION

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any forest fires in the neighborhood?

Donald M. Dickey: Huh?

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any forest fires in the neighborhood?

Donald M. Dickey: The only forest fire that I ever remember was one spring that they wanted to burn some stuff off before it got too dry and they set it afire and it took off and they had to, my dad had to fight fire, it was about 6:00 before they got it out so they could come home and eat.

Bob Zybach: Was it a very big fire?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh, I don't know. Two acres?

Bob Zybach: And that is the only fire you can remember?

Donald M. Dickey: That's the only fire I ever remember. I don't know why they didn't have a good fire up there. Had plenty of logging and stuff. They'd burn that. They'd go in there quick as it started to rain the fall and set it afire and burn it up while it was still raining.

Bob Zybach: The slash?

Donald M. Dickey: The slash, yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did they ever plant trees?

Donald M. Dickey: They left seed trees in those days. Something that they're missing out on now, I think.

Bob Zybach: Did the seed trees work?

Donald M. Dickey: You're darn right they work. Interesting sidelight to this, is that in 1957 after the College had a bunch of this timber land up there, they called me up one day and says "Hey, what do you know about doing wood rat control?" This was a bushy footed wood rat, I think. I says I don't know anything about it, but I'll look it up in books and see. I was doing rat control and rabbit control, and all those things, but we hadn't run into wood rat problems. So I says, why don't I come up and talk to you and see what your problem is and we'll see what we can work out. So I went up and talked to the fellow, and he took us out and showed us around, and they had discovered there on the, oh what did he call that, up there that College forest to start with?

Bob Zybach: Adair tract? Or McDonald Forest? Dunn.

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, McDonald or whatever. Anyway, they were losing 45% of their trees or something like that, but it was a heck of a bunch of them. So I says, well, I'll look

Donald M. Dickey: up and see what I can find out in the literature and let you know. But I couldn't find out anything about doing wood rat control. So I called him up and told him, I says, "Now, if you want us to do something, we will spend some time up there seeing what we can come up with. And then if we come up with something that will work, why, we'd like to do the work for you." Well he says "That's fine." So we spent a couple of weeks up there trying out different things, and finally we found out that Thallium sulfate on grain did a job. Thallium sulphate's a bad word now, but it wasn't then. So he says, "Well how much will it cost to get this problem under control?" And I says, "Well, when you are talking about how much, do you want us to charge by the acre, or how?" And he said, "Well, yeah, I suppose by the acre would be a good way." So I said, "Let us do 40 acres for you and then figure out how much time it takes, what it'd take for us to break even or a little better on our wages, on the thing." So we did 700 acres of wood rat control for him the next two or three months. Got 3 bucks an acre for doing it. And we were the only ones doing it. We were the only ones that knew much about wood rat control for a while.

Bob Zybach: Who were you dealing with at the school there?

Donald M. Dickey: Beg your pardon?

Bob Zybach: Who was the man you were dealing with at the school?

Donald M. Dickey: I was trying to remember his name a while ago. He was a forester up there, I can't remember his name.

Bob Zybach: Would it be Nettleton or Rowley?

Donald M. Dickey: What?

Bob Zybach: Nettleton or Rowley?

Donald M. Dickey: Nettleton, yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Donald M. Dickey: He isn't still around is he?

Bob Zybach: No.

Donald M. Dickey: Nettleton was a good guy. We was out one day and he was telling me about one time when he was younger they were out, and had to camp overnight or something. Anyway, they sent him out to get some dry wood to burn. And he found a, oh these trees that lose their needles in the wintertime [Larch}? He found one of those and