2. McDonald Forest Acquisition

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: By Sulphur Springs?

William A. Davies: No, not Sulphur Springs, Lewisburg Saddle. It came around here. I said to the students, "Go out and clear the danged thing." People like to walk through there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Where did it terminate?

William A. Davies: It terminated here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Clear over to Road 600?

William A. Davies: Yes, it crossed a little foot bridge here. It's probably still there, and then it cut across and it cut just into Starker's.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Across the corner of Starker's?

William A. Davies: Yes, around here, down here. It went some place right in here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Marv thought that was a CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] trail. Does that make sense to you?

William A. Davies: Probably built by the CCC's.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: For what purpose?

William A. Davies: Oh, for biking, I suppose. See, they had the CCC camp down at Peavy Arboretum.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Yes, Camp Arboretum.

William A. Davies: And they built this house here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Oak Creek Guard Station?

William A. Davies: Yes, and they did a lot of work on roads, and so forth, and trails - mostly trails - and worked around the nursery down there. So they probably built that trail. You could probably still see it along here. Of course, up in here, Starker logged that; obliterated that part of it.

2. MCDONALD FOREST ACQUISITION

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What's the history of Starker owning this piece here?

William A. Davies: Well, you hear all kinds of stories about it. When Mrs. McDonald told Dean Peavy that she'd like to do something for the school, because her husband had made a lot of money in lumbering in Oregon, and Peavy told her the best thing she could do, what the school most needed, was a forest lab near the school so they could get to it easily. And she said, "Fine. Whenever you find property that's reasonable, that you want, contact my attorney, and he will make the money available for you." So Peavy was picking up a piece at a time, a piece at a time all through here; anything that was cheap, you know, a couple of dollars an acre. And he was dickering for this.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: For the piece that Starker now owns?

William A. Davies: Yes, because it was right in the middle. Starker knew about it, of course, and he jumped in and beat them to it and bought it for himself. And he was on the faculty here at the time.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did that make some people mad?

William A. Davies: I don't know, I wasn't here at that time Starker bought that piece while he was on the faculty, but that's the story I heard; I don't know.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did the school ever try to buy it from him?

William A. Davies: Yes, he didn't want to sell. One time Starker approached Dean Dunn - that was before I was manager of the forest, when Harry Nettleton was manager. The school had 160 acres, still had, on Mary's Peak - the Spaulding Tract - about 60 percent of it covered with beautiful second-growth timber. So when Starker had that logged he came to Paul Dunn and said, "Now Paul, I'll trade you this 360 acres even up for your 160; I'm willing to do that for the school." Whenever Starker says something like that, you watch out. (laughter) So Paul Dunn asked Harry Nettleton to evaluate the two pieces, and he just about had Paul convinced that he should trade. So Nettleton told Paul, "Why don't you get Bill Davies to evaluate that because that was his field. He's done a lot of that for Weyerhaeuser, and so forth." So I agreed to do it. George Barnes had made a cru se of the 160 acres up there and had all the data on it. The timber on the Spaulding Tract on Mary's Peak was worth two or three times as much, I think. But Starker came back in to see Paul about the deal; he was mad. T. J. owned some stuff right next to that on Mary's Peak so it would have been an excellent piece of property for him. But with my estimate, Paul backed off.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What year was that roughly, do you know?

William A. Davies: I don't know, it's probably in the Spaulding Tract files.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Maybe in the fifties?

William A. Davies: Probably in the fifties. It was before I became manager of the forest, and I think I became manager in 1959. So it was probably around 1950.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Bill, looking at the western half of McDonald Forest, are there sites you know about that haven't been marked on here which we should indicate?

William A. Davies: But then to finish that story, Paul offered to buy it on Bill Davies' estimate of the value and Starker said, "Well, no, I'd rather have the property than the money." I always assumed that it's in T. J.'s will, I don't know, or maybe he has turned it over to the boys. One of the boys was in several years ago about things out here. They were going to do something with it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: So the school gave up trying to secure that particular inholding?

William A. Davies: Yes, they hope they'll get it somehow. It's right in the middle of the forest. We ought to have it, Jimminy Christmas. Not too much value to anybody else now; cut all the timber off it. It'll be maybe 20 to 30 years before they can harvest any more off.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Are there any other sites in this general area that we haven't marked that you know about: sawmill sites, homesteads, trails, anything?

William A. Davies: This little piece in here. It's got the original old-growth timber in it because the timber wasn't much good anyway, it was just big. They used that for the students' use; they looked at it to study defective timber. A lot of defective timber in there; very typical spot for a place that's going bad, that's deteriorating. The fir is the old growth that's rotting, and the other stuff is coming in.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: We're talking about just below and south of Starker's holding?

William A. Davies: Right where that trail takes off. The trail takes off of Road 600, and it's right in the trail, goes right through it, that little piece right in there. Mostly before you get to the creek and back up the hill; not over the line because that's all cut. But that's right on the road there, and a lot of people never get out to see timber and they enjoy seeing those big trees in there. I got hell from some of the people in the botany department. Inside the loop here