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Where tales of logging, trapping and drinking are still served up Mail Tribune photos / Jim Craven Jim Collier stands outside the former Trail Creek Tavern, which is now a museum reflecting the region's logging history. By PAUL FATTIG Some folks visiting the Trail Creek Tavern Museum still like to belly up to the bar. "They'll come in and say, 'That was my stool - I always sat right there,'" said Jim Collier, chair of the Upper Rogue Historical Society, which operates the museum. But Collier and other volunteers serve only stories - no drinks - at the museum that focuses on the early days of logging and touches on other aspects of life from that era. The stools are long gone. Collier will tell you the history is as intoxicating as the brews once served at the old watering hole. "This was the original bar built in 1934," Collier said during a recent tour. "It was built right after Prohibition ended." Over the years, the colorful tavern developed a reputation in which the wild West periodically erupted on a Friday or Saturday night. When the Oregon Liquor Control Commission reviewed the tavern license in 1996, neighbors balked. They told of a fatal brawl in the 1960s, as well as a shooting, stabbing and countless fistfights over the years. The license was not renewed, and the tavern went into permanent prohibition. It was turned into a museum reflecting the region's logging past in spring 1997. Collier, 71, a retired teacher and former mayor of Shady Cove, worked in local sawmills and in the logging woods in his younger years. He was raised on land that is now at the bottom of nearby Lost Creek Lake. His ancestors arrived in the Upper Rogue region in 1891. "My dad was a timber faller," he said, moving over to a display of axes and wedges. "Those were some of his last tools. "He insisted my brother and I learn to fall timber when we were quite young," he said. "By the time we grew up, hand logging - fortunately - had died. The chainsaw and other power equipment had replaced it." The glass-covered case contains old double-bitted axes and a display of wedges that Clifford Collier used before retiring from the logging woods shortly after World War II. A timber faller would use the variety of wedges, including lifting and holding wedges, in the back of the undercut tree, Collier explained. "It was kind of like playing a marimba - you would hit the wedges all the way around," he said. "And you could tell by the sound of it whether it was lifting or you had to do more sawing." Sawing was done by the crosscut saws hanging on a nearby wall. They were charitably dubbed misery whips because of the backbreaking labor required. "If this was a big tree, six feet across or so, you'd try to get the undercut the first day," he said. "Then you would start on the back cut the next day. You wanted that tree on the ground no later than 1 o'clock." The reason, he noted, is that fallers wanted to get their work done before the afternoon winds kicked up, creating dangerous conditions in the woods. When Mother Nature drove loggers out of the woods, they turned to other activities to survive, Collier noted. The museum displays several animal traps that, although the traps may not be politically correct today, reflect historical life in the region. "In the winter, particularly during the Great Depression, Dad trapped," Collier said. "He trapped bobcats occasionally. But the most important one, believe it or not, was skunk." A skunk hide in the 1930s was worth 25 cents, Collier said. "Two skunks and you had a week's wages," he said. "And there were plenty of skunks around." The old telephone exchange that came from Klamath Falls is the same kind that Collier recalled at the old Trail general store. "When you called up, you had to plan on visiting with the operator for at least five minutes before she would think about connecting you to someone else," he said. "In fact, Mom would do her morning chores, then call the operator to see what had happened overnight." But much of the museum is dedicated to working with wood. There are froes for making wood shakes. There are peaveys and cant hooks for turning logs. There is an old adz for trimming wood. Out back is a logging truck more than half a century old. Next to it is a yellow log loader, circa 1938. The 5.9-ton logging arch made in 1933 was used in the southern Cascade Range. The 50-foot logging wagon built in 1890 was used to haul logs to a mill located at what is now the marina at Lost Creek Lake. Both were donated to the museum by the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Collier and other volunteers are now building a blacksmith shop, using donated timber from a hand-hewn cabin that once stood near Talent. "Quite a few people have moved in who have no idea what occurred here in the early days of logging," he said. "But they want to know how it was. We want to be able to show them." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] How to get there The Trail Creek Tavern Museum is located at 144 Old Highway 62. In addition to early-day logging, the museum reflects trapping, mining and ranching activities in the Upper Rogue region. The museum is currently open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. After Oct. 1, the museum will only be open weekends until mid-April. There is no admission charge, but donations are accepted. For additional information, call 878-2259 or 878-4087. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.