14. BENNETT BROTHERS MILL

Donald M. Dickey: was sure he had a dry tree so he cut it down. He laughed about it. Yeah, Nettleton, he was a nice guy. But that was kind of interesting. All that wood rat damage was out on land that they, Smith and -- or Coote and Cornutt logged first. And part of it was over on McDonald Forest and we, I had one man that worked out continuously, then I helped when I could get away from what I was doing down in Eugene. We worked out baits for several different animals, helped the farmers and the timber men or something.

Bob Zybach: There's rabbits in that neighborhood. Did you ever see any unusual type of rabbits around the Forest Peak area? Up around Berry Creek at the higher elevations?

Donald M. Dickey: There were jack rabbits and marsh rabbits and there could have been some snowshoes. But I don't know for sure about the snowshoes.

14. BENNETT BROTHERS MILL

Bob Zybach: Okay. On the Bennett Brothers mill. Do you remember anything about the Bennett Brothers?

Donald M. Dickey: Only that it was up there for three or four years or something like that. Neil can probably tell you more about Bennett Brothers than I can.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember them personally?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh Bennett Brothers? Yeah, they were pretty good workers. I think they worked for somebody else when they came in there, then they went to work and built their own mill and worked for themselves. I think they only put out maybe 5 or 6 thousand feet a day.

Neil Vanderburg: Actually, I hauled slab wood for them, for Jack Green.

Donald M. Dickey: Beg you pardon?

Neil Vanderburg: I hauled slab wood out to the road for Jack Green out of their mill. I got about two cords a day.

Donald M. Dickey: They weren't a gung ho outfit. They probably made a living for themselves, which is probably what they intended to do to start with.

Bob Zybach: Did they live in that neighborhood?

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, they lived . . . by that time, Johnny Cornutt had moved away from the house across the road where he lived in, and at least one of the Bennetts and his wife lived there. I don't know where the other one lived.

Bob Zybach: You mentioned knowing Charlie Olson. Can you tell me that story again?

Donald M. Dickey: You mean the one about the cows?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: You want me to go over it again for you?

Bob Zybach: Yeah, we didn't record it last time.

Donald M. Dickey: Oh.

Bob Zybach: Or you can tell me a different story, if you like.

Donald M. Dickey: No, that's the only one I really know about. Charlie came over there one day, I guess along in February, it was pretty late for the cows to still be running on pasture. Well, I think they were steers, mainly. Three or four of them. Anyway, they had gotten into Hanish's 40 acres over there. I don't know whether Hanish didn't know they were there or what, but anyway, Charlie come over and said to me, he says, "Hey, I got a problem." He says, "I got, I think it's four steers, they're over at old man Hanish's place." And he says, "I'm a little bit afraid to go over and get 'em." I says, "Why?" "Well, he's kind of unpredictable." I said, "Well I guess you're right, there." So I said, "Well, let's go take a look at them." Well Hanish was over on across the creek on the other side doing something. These cows were right by a gate by our place, or steers, I said I don't see any problem here, we'll just open the gate, run them through, and close the gate while Hanish is across the creek. So that's the way we did it.

Bob Zybach: Did he even see you? Hanish?

Donald M. Dickey: No, I don't think so. I suppose he figured out what happened to it. But I wouldn't have cared if he had caught me at taking them out, cause he would have [Unintelligible] they'd have been a little afraid of Charlie Olson, watching there, the whole thing.

Bob Zybach: What did you know about Charlie? Did you know much about him?

Donald M. Dickey: Charlie was, I think he was Swedish.

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: And he and his wife used to come over once in a while. She was a real nice person. I think they were from Sweden, but outside of that we, he had oh I guess a few acres of hay over there and a dozen or so head of cattle that he ran in the summer, and I