The Survivor Fir

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are many stories of tree hangups, but one of the most colourful comes from Cortes Island. According to local tradition, the Survivor Fir would not be standing if it were not for a steam donkey’s explosion in 1923.

The tree is hundreds of years older, but there are evidences that support this identification. Olsen & Mundigal logged this area back in the era when loggers chopped a notch into the trees they chose to cut. A wooden springboard was inserted into the notch, to stand on. They used a crosscut saw to fall the tree. Look closely in the photo above and you will see both the notch and, above it, where they started to saw. They may have stopped after the explosion, because it was no longer possible to haul trees to the lake.

A second, possibly separate, component to this puzzle is a dead cedar hung up in the Survivor Fir’s branches. This tree has stood there long enough for the bark to become spongy rather than firm.

Has this tree been hung up since 1923?

A steam donkey used to haul the logs out of the bush to the edge of Gunflint Lake.

They were dragged through the narrow channel into Hague Lake, then floated across to the creek that drains this watershed. Another steam donkey dragged them to a ‘Fore & Aft’ chute that emptied into Manson’s Lagoon. At that point they were in the ocean.

A few days before the accident which brought this operation to an end Harry Hazel, the donkey’s engineer, visited a machine shop at Squirrel Cove. He wanted a caulking gun and some advice on how to fix a leak in the boiler.

The explosion took place between 10 am and 11 am. Parts of the boiler were blown out into the middle of Gunflint Lake. Hazel was so badly scalded that he died that night. One of the especially sad parts of this story is that in a week Hazel was supposed to leave for Vancouver, where he was to be married.

The Survivor Fir and remains of the steam donkey are in Cortes Island’s Kw’as Park.