VMC LogoFrom Camp to Community: Cowichan Forest Life

The Loggers : LOGGERS ARTS

The logging camps could be a lonely and isolating experience for many of the loggers. The men were in the woods for long stretches of time away from loved ones. During leisure hours some would play cards and gamble money from next weeks draw day, other's would write letters or have a few pints with comrades. Some turned to their creative side and painted, wrote poetry or carved treen from the wood they harvested.

>> Click here to read logger poetry by Peter Tower

Bus Griffith started logging in the early 30's and with decades of experience learned all aspects of the field from rigging, chasing, loading and booming to his specialty, falling and bucking. From his experiences in the logging camps he began to create comics, the pages illustrated with everyday aspects of life from the camps in the early part of the 19th Century.

In Bus's words his collection of comics "Now You're Logging" is about the "loggers, men of steam and gas donkeys, high-lead logging and the big timber of the rain forests of the fog-shrouded pacific coast . men who took pride in their work and skills, and who were artists in their own right."

Bus Griffith's "Now You're Logging!"