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Where"s the Logger?

The Pacific Logging Congress (PLC) is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary. To help commemorate the event, the PLC would like to include The Logger, a statue that was presented at the 25th anniversary and last seen at the 75th anniversary celebration.

Report the Whereabouts

The PLC is asking people to join the search for The Logger. If you have any clues or information, report them right away to Rikki Wellman at
425-413-2808 or rikki@pacificloggingcongress.com

Your help could bring this logger home and help us celebrate the 100th anniversary in style!

History of the Statue

The artist behind The Logger, was Adrien Voisin, a well known Portland sculpture. He unveiled the statute, which he hoped "would faithfully portray the hardy race of men who did battle with the big trees along the Pacific", at the PLC"s silver anniversary in 1935.

For his model, Voisin used Gus Wiest, a fourth generation logger who was woods boss for the Willamette Valley Lumber Co. at the time. He wasn"t part of the "new" logging industry, which an article in the PLC Loggers Handbook Vol. XIX 1959 described as:

". . . traveling toward gas and diesel equipment, and "power-this" and "power-that", the industry is likely to wake up some fine morning and find itself with a gang of loggers dressed up like filling station attendants."

The statue wasn"t quite finished for the 25th anniversary. In fact, what people got to see was a small clay study, with the bronze statue soon too follow.

According to a 1984 issue of the Loggers Handbook, the statue disappeared for a time, and when the PLC"s 50th anniversary rolled around, Voisins"s cousin reported that the statue was broken and beyond repair. A schoolmate of Voisin, timber executive Thomas A. Leddy, paid at his own expense to have a mold made.

The statue moved around after that -- from the Georgia-Pacific Corp. museum in Portland to the Western Forestry Center, and was last seen on exhibit at the 75th PLC anniversary in 1985.

If you know of the whereabouts of the logger and can help bring him home to the PLC, speak up. By doing so, you"ll become a piece of its history as well.