F.. Hindes' Home Site and Local Logging History

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] That looks an old Cherokee stove, isn't it?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Either that or a lamp.

Bob Zybach: Now, look at this right through here that's been gone through a whole lot. Theres bottles and rusted cans and pop tops and. . .

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] I just wonder, if a guy had a shovel, you know as deep down here as we are one could find the old slab pile or burner site.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Oh, yeah but this guy probably would not appreciate our digging. His wife is probably an antique freak. . .

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] Oh, yeah. I imagine.

Bob Zybach: Theres apt to be some really valuable bottles through here just from the looks of things but now theres been a lot of fire through here too and a lot of metal. . .

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] I think that's what Norman was saying that this was a slab pile where they burned all the slab and sawdust and people threw their garbage in here as well.

Bob Zybach: Huh, so that's how people got rid of their garbage. They just kind of hauled it over to the slab pile, huh? Well that would. . . Certainly theres a lot of evidence that shows that that's probably the case.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] See this was all houses up in there.

Bob Zybach: So, the houses were here, the slab pile was here. Wheres the mill from here, then?

Norman Hindes: Right here.

Bob Zybach: Oh, just right next door.

Norman Hindes: Right back up there.

Bob Zybach: Well, I think between your map and that aerial we could locate the thing, just about. Now, they've got an excavation over there and they've got a bunch of clearing going on up there. Those would be. . .

Norman Hindes: That's where he's going to put his home.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] That green grass indicates the water is not too far away. Now, the mill was located right in this area,

Bob Zybach: Is there a chance, where he's clearing up there, that he's moving up. . .

Charles Hindes: Very likely. He said he uncovered some crockery up here. I thought I'd look. See, that's where our home was right in that enclosure.

Bob Zybach: Where his garden is.

Charles Hindes: Right. Only slightly above.

Bob Zybach: And so that was the end of the line for the school district.

Charles Hindes: Right. The end of the line for the habitation of camp.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] That doesn't look like burnt soil. Doesn't it?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] No, that looks like animal blood perhaps deer.

F. Hindes' Home Site and Local Logging History

Bob Zybach: That's one thing we haven't covered yet, and maybe we can do that next time is hunting and fishing.

Charles Hindes: Well, fishing was fairly good. Hunting was excellent. There were deer all over the place.

Bob Zybach: Now, where the Rohners were and Glenders at the other end of the valley there, with all those farms and stuff, they never saw deer. They say they'd see a deer every two or three

Bob Zybach: years but where Olson lived, which is up over in there a little bit, he said they fed the deer there were so many of them.

Charles Hindes: Mmm. Hmm. Right.

Bob Zybach: Do you ever remember elk?

Charles Hindes: No, I never did see any elk here.

Bob Zybach: How about bear?

Charles Hindes: I never saw any bear. They probably were here but I never saw them because that one photo you had shown some bear that were killed in the area.

Bob Zybach: Yep. So, now we're at your old home here, huh?

Charles Hindes: Right.

Bob Zybach: Heres a metal strap.

Charles Hindes: I think that's probably from a cultivator. Now, those old stumps were probably what determines our outer boundary.

Bob Zybach: One thing I talked to people who are out through here and I keep asking what it looks like and they all say just about the same as now. That is was basically sixty and seventy year old trees that they'd cut out and now there are sixty and seventy year old trees up there again and it looks about the same. Was this all clear cut back up through here?

Charles Hindes: No. It was pretty much like it is now, Bob. Pretty much scrub growth and small timber.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] We used to play in there.

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] .. . to my knowledge this area, I don't think was ever logged at least I never recall finding any old stumps prior to our logging. All logging stops straight over in this area just south of us.

Bob Zybach: Okay, lets see. I think this would be west through here.

Charles Hindes: Well, pretty much. I think west is right here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, south or southwest.

Charles Hindes: Southwest. Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay. So, the logging area was up through there and then the horses would skid down to the mill into there. Did they have a mill pond?

Charles Hindes: No. It was all gravel. The skid road just kind of went right around the hill and gradually up. Started picking up steeper grade back in there and got to the point that it was steep enough that the horses would have to pull off the side and pull the dog out and let the logs shoot down over and then pick then up down below.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] A truck hauled the logs down off there past the water tank to the mill.

Bob Zybach: Well, we're seeing a lot of bigleaf maple or maybe ash, but I think its bigleaf up there on the hill that's turning yellow. Was that hardwood up through there? Can you recall?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] No. That was all Douglas fir.

Bob Zybach: Was there any sign of older trees in there, other than the trees you're logging. Any old stumps or snags or big old trees?

Charles Hindes: Not that I recall seeing.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Norman Hindes: [NORMAN] No old growth that I remember seeing.

Bob Zybach: This area here was all prairie in 1850. Pretty much everywhere through here, but there were a couple of patches of big trees. Do you recall seeing any around here at all?

Charles Hindes: [CHUCK] Not that I remember, but it doesn't mean that they weren't here, but we saw some pretty good sized trees up around the Sulphur Springs area, but not right in here.