Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1918-07-31
PACIFIC COAST.
Interesting Letter From Stan
ton Lott, Johnston Young
n Man in Military
a Service.
Sitka Spruce Co.,
Coquille, Oregon,
July 10, 1918.

lily dear Mr.. Minis:
E On the night of the fifth of July
ssIIfty and three boys out of our COM
lpany were ousted from their beds at
1.-TWO o'clock A. NJ, told to get our
lGothes packed and our blankets roll
ta4 We had no idea what was going
10 happen or when it would happen.
had never got up so early unless
lsomeone was sick or fire was in
|ssown. We rode all day long on Satur-
jaay, and could tell by the sun that
1s%e were going south. About night
1--we reached Coquille, Oregon, a little
l49wn in southwestern Oregon, just
d few miles from the Pacific coast.
lThen it was that we found out what
we were to do, and also where we
lwere.
+ There's big saw mill here at Co.
Iquille that saws spruce, fir and cedar.
land it is finishing thousands of feet
tof spruce for the aviation work of
EAmerica and the Allies. So we were
lsent here for the purpose of helping
Eget out the spruce. A man from New
lYork recently said that our work
There was equally as important as the
Jwork on the battle front in France.
ICarload after carload of material
Igoes out each week toward the fac
tories, and is put into flying machines
;tfor war service. Without the help of
1.-THE soldiers the work would not be
The logs cut up here
Elm this mill are not very large in COM
ls3arison with those of the western
Id cast. We cut up logs about four or
five feet in diameter. Today two were
drawn up out of the river that were
labcSut eight feet in diameter. They
IAN ;are cut down the river, tied in
Icluster and pushed up by a steam
ssSoats Then they are, dragged up to
fttnsa & i'll by chain. Spruce is soft,
and light, but it is flexible and very
tough. It is almost impossible to
break a small splinter of it. The parts
selected for the airplanes must meet
certain requirements. One of them
| is that there cannot be one knot in
the piece of wood, and in the first
grade of it not single pitch pocket
| is allowed. Pitch pockets are little
pitch spots on the lumber. 1t would
be lust about; impossible for US OF
the East to ge,; very large piece of
lumber that W ould meet these re-
ouirements. But here and elsewhere
through the Northwest and Canada
millions of feet ar e turned out daily
without a single f,aw. The mill runs
all of the time, day and night, three
shifts of men at eight hours each.
This little town is an interesting
little western village. 1t is about as
big as Edgefeld. 1t is right down IN
a fertile valley with mountains all
around. Just beyond the mountains
on the west is the Pacific Ocean. 1t
is only few miles from here.
In the mornings and evenings here
it is cool. All of US wear owe rcoats
then. In the middle of the day the
temperature runs very high.
The people are as congenial as can
be. They have been real nice to US,
and we are going down and spend
one day this week on the Pacific
coast to find rough agates and jas
per-. They get boxes full of them.
Everybody laughs at the way l
talk and wants to know where I'm
from and when 1 say, "South Caro-
lima" they want to know of the cot
ton that we raise. They laugh at my
eating gravy on my rice. They all use
sugar and cream. They don't know
what corn-bread is, and evidently
never heard of grits. They cook meal
into mush for breakfast food, and
the funny part is that they like 1T.
1 told them that over home sick peo-
pie and chickens ate mush.
Here they have berries of every
sort: raspberries, blackberries, sal
mon berries and logan berries. The
blackberries grow by the ton, just
all over the surface of the earth.
You can take walk and get all that
you want in a minute or two. The
salmon berries are yellow and are
real good. Often you have to kill
bear out of the blackberry bushes
before you can get your berries. The
woods around here have plenty of
deer and wild cats as well as smaller
game like grouse. I've had several in
vitations to 60 bear and deer hunt
ing but as yet haven't had a chance.