Larry Weirather

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Never Outta the Woods:  Logging the Upper Mississippi

Larry Weirather gives a rollicking account of the blue-collar adventures, and particularly misadventures, of Helle Lumber Company, once the biggest logging operation in the Midwest.  The book features the last log raft to come down the Mississippi River, portrait stories of “characters” who worked in the woods and at the mills, and the clearing of timber to make way for the damming of the Mississippi in the 1930s to the demise of the Savanna mill in 1989.

This humorous book is a tribute to the author's father, who worked most of his life for Helle Lumber Company both in the woods and at the sawmill.  At one time the company ran mills in Iowa, Illinois, and Hawaii.  The author and his brother also served time at the mill, a mis-cut slice of Americana.

In many ways, the book is an answer to the spate of television reality programs, such as "Ax Men" and "American Loggers" on the History and Discovery channels, which tend to glorify and sensationalize the industry.  Never Outta the Woods:  Logging the Upper Mississippi covers an overlooked chapter in the history of North American logging.  It also covers a period when the advent of the chainsaw revolutionized logging.  As you will see, this company and its employees were "never outta the woods."

Order from Amazon.com or from eStore at https://www.createspace.com/335774                                            ISBN-10:  1434841804, ISBN-13  978-143841803                        284 pages with illustrations, 2008, paperback