Customer Reviews

Big Sam

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Big Sam, by Sam Churchill is like living out in the woods in Oregon, where every thing is primitive as far as living conditions are concerned, but being close to nature is spiritual.
Big Sam was a logger in Maine until his brother came West and convinced him he should come out where there were enough trees to last forever. He tried it, liked it and went back to Boston to talk his girl into making the change. Caroline Snow became Caroline Churchill, traded in her proper Bostonian life for a life in a shack along a railroad track miles away from everything except loggers and trees. Sam Churchill, their son, is the author of this book, sharing his adventures of growing up in the logging camp. Readers who know about that life have proclaimed it TRUE! Sam Churchill, the author loved it.

There's probably only a handful of books available that talk about early logging in the Pacific Northwest. This is one of them. Sam Churchill is referring to his dad, Big Sam, in the title. The area is inland a short distance from Astoria in Northwest Oregon. It talks about the reality of opening that area to logging and then follows the transition of methods and means into more modern times. There's a nice number of photos with great material. Unfortunately there's two or three to a page and sometimes it's hard to really enjoy the full composition.

In addition to the stories about how logging was done in those times there's a number of great family stories that are only found in books such as these. By the time you finish you'll feel the dampness in the air as you drive through the back country of the Coast Slope.