7. Dunn Forest

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How large a family did he have?

William A. Davies: I don't know, but he realized he was going to have to get out of the house there; he was getting too old.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Was he living by himself there?

William A. Davies: I don't remember, I didn't see anybody else around there. I didn't ever go in the house when he was there.

7. DUNN FOREST

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Okay, let's take a look at the Paul Dunn Forest map now.

William A. Davies: You know the history of this forest?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Yes, this is really the Adair Tract. It was acquired in one block, wasn't it?

William A. Davies: Yes, this is the forest part of the Adair Tract; Paul Dunn was very instrumental in getting this. President Strand really didn't want to spend the money on it; it cost $3,500. We took the money out of the McDonald Forest fund and paid for it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Looks like a bargain today, doesn't it?

William A. Davies: (laughter) With about 40 million board feet of timber on it or something, worth $200 a thousand, how many million dollars is that? But Paul Dunn was really proud of that. He said, "That's the best thing I ever did for the university." It is too, you know. In his will, he and his wife wanted their ashes spread on Paul Dunn Forest. He's got this, "fell to feed cattle" up here. There's some of the old oak stumps still up in here. Where's that road go through? What the heck is this, is that a fence? Oh yes, that's the Ag land, yes. Which road would that be on now, up in here?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: That would be in the eastern part of Paul Dunn?

William A. Davies: Yes, the north, right in here some place. Marv will remember right on this road where it was. That's where they felled trees. You can still see the oak line, stumps there; they felled them that same year to feed the cattle.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Around Road 160, somewhere in there?

William A. Davies: Yes, you know that shows the reproductive power of Douglas-fir. That was all meadow; that was a cattle ranch or something, I guess, with oaks growing in it. You know the type, just an open meadow. Well, when they took the cattle off there, there must have been some trees around there some place; it got filled in with the most beautiful stand of Douglas-fir you ever saw. It was about a 100 years old then, I guess, but now it is older. Until that Columbus Day Storm came along, blew half it down, boy that was a beautiful stand. That was high site land.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: There's a couple of homesteads in there?

William A. Davies: Yes, all over the northeastern side of this meadow. That seemed to be a popular place for homesteads.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you know anything about any of these?

William A. Davies: No, that Tuberculosis (T.B.) Sanitarium, I think Marv's got trees planted in there now. We tried planting one year and they all died; there was so much grass in there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What's the earliest recollection you have of that, did you ever see any buildings?

William A. Davies: No, nothing but kind of a grassy meadow and blackberries.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Who told you it was a T.B. Sanitarium? Do you remember?

William A. Davies: I don't remember now. I just understood that it was; somebody must have told me.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you run across trees that had bullet shrapnel in them?

William A. Davies: Boy, we sure did.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Broke up some saw blades?

William A. Davies: Oh yes, in fact, after that Columbus Day Storm I had - Marv was one logging contractor and I had another logging contractor back in there, he was logging back in here. They had these danged bullets in there. First thing we knew about it was we took some logs in and the sawmill started screaming, "They're ruining the saws, we don't want any more of those." So we had to quit it. Well, this other contractor found a mill at Falls City that was starving to death for logs. They had circular saws with replaceable teeth so they said they would take those logs, pay us the full price, and then deduct whatever it cost them in down-time due to bullets. We got rid of a lot of them that way; took them up there and I think they took off five or six dollars a 1 ,000 board feet for down-time for hitting bullets. We've gone out there and cut logs and cut right through bullets. I borrowed a metal detector from the physics department to try to detect those bullets in the logs; it just didn't work right. Marv's got a better one now.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Metal detector?

William A. Davies: Yes, if you knew it was there you could fuss around and finally get it to buzz, but it didn't work out very well. I think Marv's got one that works now. Then, after I retired, Marv came over in here and started cutting - we never cut over there before because it was on the Ag land - and he said he found shrapnel in there. We found one of these rocket deals - tails, wings on it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: You mean like a mortar?

William A. Davies: Yes, like a big mortar.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Unexploded? What did you do with it?

William A. Davies: Well, I didn't find it; one of the other fellows found it, and I don't know what he did with it. He brought it in and showed it to me. I think he took it home or something. I don't remember who found it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you everfind any other unexploded munitions out there?

William A. Davies: No, I didn't. But one of the farmers out in here told me that the bullets were so thick out there where he was plowing, they were just like part gravel in the soil.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: This is the firing range here?

William A. Davies: Yes, in there, and they were shooting this way.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: That must have been Maneuvers then, up here?

William A. Davies: That was Maneuvers, machine-gun bullets, tanks, and things; these were .30-06 rifles here. I think they got them [bullets] all out of there now.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about these homesites up in the northeastern part of the map. Do you remember much about those?

William A. Davies: They still there, aren't they?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever see any houses or anything there? Like this one close to Berry Creek Farm Road, did you ever see that house?

William A. Davies: Yes, there's a house in there, and a barn, too. But up here, this is private land in here. Where's the boundary line?

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Here 's the boundary line, in here.

William A. Davies: Yes, runs back here some place. Yes, there are homes in here now. People live here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Here on the forest, Marv has marked a few homesites.

William A. Davies: There were some old buildings all around through there. I don't remember just where they were.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: But you don 't have any recollection of those?

William A. Davies: I have a recollection of one up here. We came up the Berry Creek Road; I can't remember where that danged old road went. That old house was up in here... Oh, yes, here. There it is, right there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Is that off of Road 130? "Spring for homestead," was right below it?

William A. Davies: Yes, now that house was there. We burned that too, but it was all dilapidated.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: That Road 130?

William A. Davies: Yes, and that was a pretty good homestead house in its day. We didn't want the kids to burn that down, either. And that's wonderful soil in there, you know, real good soil. I even took some brick home from there, filled the pickup one day. There were bricks all over the ground there, fallen off the chimney, fallen down. I remember that house.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What about this "Old Horse skid trail"down here off of 420 extension; do you know, one of the trails that's got boards horizontally placed?

William A. Davies: Oh, yes.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever see that?

William A. Davies: I've seen a couple of those; saw one on McDonald Forest. You can still see the cross pieces there where the logs had come down and the plank in between for the horses to walk on.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about Coote 's Sawmill, did you ever know anything about that?

William A. Davies: No, but this is where we came into the forest, Soap Creek farmhouse. They built this. I haven't seen this road yet, it's a new road.