“The Chucks” in 20th century S Central BC
Suzanne Simard’s book “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest” (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2021) is a very good read if you’re interested in forest ecology and such.
It also draws on the author’s family history in south-central BC, going back to Chinook Jargon times in fact.
In that connection, page 32 has a photo caption that arrested my attention:
Grampa Henry (in white hat), brother Wilfred Simard, and son Odie driving logs
through the Skookumchuck Rapids, “the Chucks,” at Kingfisher, ca. 1950. The
men had to walk, roll, and jump the logs to move them downriver, which was
extremely dangerous. Once the logs jammed up in the Chucks, the men had to
break them up with dynamite. When he was old and suffering from memory loss,
Grampa Henry almost drowned in the Chucks because his outboard motor had
quit as he was traveling downriver, and he’d forgotten how to pull the cord to
restart the engine. Grannie Martha shouted from the shore until he remembered
what to do, just as he was about to hit the rapids.
I hadn’t heard of “the Chucks”, nor of these Skookumchuck Rapids.
Seems like more Chinook Jargon place names keep popping up all of the time!
