Sawyer and Choker Setter

Yesterday, I watch a program on the history of logging. It jolted my memory a bit and confirmed my childhood memories of the names for loggers and lumberjacks jobs. I was pretty sure a Sawyer was the man who set the saw for cutting up the logs as they came into the mill, and I was right. The sawyer decided how to get the most boards out of a given log filling orders for two by fours or other size boards. I also had a dim memory of what a choker setter did out in the woods. Again my memories were correct. A choker setter wrapped a large steel cable around the logs after they were felled and cut up into long pieces. As I remember, it was a very dangerous job and if the logger didn't set it correctly it could come loose when the logs were pulled up the mountain causing the cable to fly in any direction. If the log's cable loosened it could slide helter skelter back down the mountain. A flying iron cable could cut a man in two and a sliding log could flatten any unfortunate fellow who was standing below it. All the men's lives, working in the nearby area, were put in mortal danger. I remember the pride loggers took in praising a man who was a good "choker setter." As with other logging jobs the men depended on each other to safeguard their lives. This brotherhood of men was fashioned by the incredible danger they faced every day. It must have been like the closeness men sometimes develop in war.


Copyright 2009 Sharon Porter Moxley