Kenny '88' Introduction
Humorous Stories of the 40's and 50's is a compilation of the articles written by Kenny Noble for the West Point News from March 1996 through October 1997. His second book, Volume 2, covers the period from Nov 1997 to July 1999. Kenny was a faithful contributor to the newspaper and often added stories about the Wilseyville Hare Scramble Motorcycle Race or other items of local news. He even conducted an environmental tour for the 4-H members and their parents.
He took them on a tour of local logging operations and visited sites which had been logged 10, 20 and 30 years previously to show how the areas had been reforested. The tour also included a visit to downtown West Point where Kenny pointed out all of the town's historic buildings and told them how the town looked 40 or 50 years previously, including stories about the logging industry and the sites of former lumber mills. Many of these old town photos are shown in his books.
Kenny's first book is a compilation of the complete stories as Kenny wrote them, and was published to help perpetuate the history of his beautiful corner of Calaveras County as seen through the eyes of one 51-year old resident, Kenny Noble. Kenny's books were dedicated to his mom, Dorothy Noble, who inspired him to write down all of the stories that took place in the area between the 40's and 50's; to Suzanne Denison, editor of the West Point News at the time, who published the stories, and to his wife, Jan, "who had the patience to put up with listening to the same stories over and over through the years". The author, Kenny Noble, has lived in the West Point/Wilseyville area since 1946. He worked on a woods crew and as a cat skinner for local lumber companies as a young man. In 1957, he went to work for a Pacific Gas and Electric Company building roads for a new power line. Kenny retired from PG&E as a Tower Building Foreman after 30 years of service.
Kenny and his wife, Jan, owned and operated Silver Mountain Park, a trailer park outside of Wilseyville. One of the unique features of the park was an old west town, complete with a bank, livery stable, and other businesses typical of the late 19th Century California. The Nobles have both been active in the local community, as leaders in the West Point 4-H and Boy Scouts, as well as the West Point Community Covenant Church. Their son, Steve, who graduated from Calaveras High School, attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 1997, an accomplishment of which Jan and Kenny were very proud.
The Gold Country Times is pleased to bring "Humorous Stories of the 40's and 50's" by Kenny Noble to our pages once more, beginning with the first story in the first book. We know you will enjoy them and that they will give you a chuckle or two as you 'tag along' while Kenny weaves this tapestry of life in the mountains with humor and his own unique flourish. These are stories to be shared with family, your children, and friends, a slice of life they will all grow to love reading about, giving them a glimpse of life in the Blue Mountain area in Wilseyville. Life was simple, friends were forever, work was hard, and love endured. At the end of his second and last book, Kenny wrote: "(In 1954) One old timer said, "You folk sure live different than we do". When I asked how, he answered, "You eat outside and potty in the house!" We miss you, Kenny Noble! We know you are up there in heaven giving the Angels a run for their money!
Wilseyville and Mitchell Mill - Part 2
By Kenny Noble
In 1937, the mill at Swiss Ranch was dismantled and hauled to the Mitchell Mill site by trucks. Two of the moving crew were Joe Hensley and Elmer Fuchs. (Elmer and Irene Fuchs still live in the house on the corner of Pine Street and Hwy 26 at the four-way stop across from the school in West Point. The living room of this house was the West Point Library and Irene was the librarian from 1945 to 1950. In future issues you will learn more about Elmer.)
After all of the equipment was moved, they constructed the mill on the Licking Fork of the Mokelumne River and built a dam which created the mill pond. When I first went to work at Mitchell Mill in 1946, I could not believe the antiquated equipment that they were using. The one and only tractor in the woods was a gas model 60 "Cat" and the one and only logging truck was an open "C" cab, chain-drive Bulldog Mack. Both were built in the 1920's. The mill was not any better. It was all boilers and steam engines.
The three huge boilers provided enough steam for the engines that ran the head rig (two 60" circular saws), the carriage, the edger, green chain and sawdust conveyers. There was a "donkey boiler" that provided the steam for the engines that ran the log slip which lifted the logs from the pond to the mill. Our 12-man crew would mill all the logs until the pond was empty and then we would all go to the woods and log until the pond was full and then repeat the operation. The mill owner at this time was Gene Cunningham and the foreman was Otis Andrews.
Mr. Cunningham and his wife had a two story house. They lived upstairs and the downstairs was used as the kitchen and dining hall for the single employees, with Mrs. Cunningham serving as the cook. There was no electricity so everyone would run out of ice each week about Tuesday. We all had canned milk to mix with water and relied on the local deer population for meat. One of the crew kept his rifle at the mill and whenever we had a breakdown, which was quite often, he would go across the dam and bag a doe, dress it out and hang it in the "phony" outhouse. We used this phony outhouse so that the first woman in camp who saw a game warden come through would lock herself in the outhouse with the deer. Then, if the necessity ever arose, the game warden would have to use one of the real outhouses.'
When anyone hired on at Mitchell Mill they wanted employees that were versatile and had experience in both the mill and in the woods. So when they asked me if I could fall timber, I replied "Yes". Now, the pond was empty and we all headed for the woods. I was given the job of falling and bucking the trees with Bill Bosse. Thank God he knew what he was doing.
In those days we had two man, 80 pound, "Mercury" chain saws. The operator would hold the engine by the handlebars and work the throttle, while the other man would be on the "stinger" end (which was an oil bottle at the end of a 6ft. or 8ft. bar). I was the stinger man and when Bill released the clutch, we turned the bar sideways and then I pulled this bar into the tree twice and made the undercut. We then went to the rear of the tree and I pulled the bar into the tree, pumping oil all the time, until I saw that the tree was falling. I dropped the bar and ran up the hill, yelling "Timber!" as I had seen them do in the movies. Poor Bill was left with the whole 80 pounds trying to get the saw clear of the falling tree. It was obvious to the whole crew that I was not a faller and it was months before they ever let me run the saw again.
I wish that we had a VCR in those days to show you how we logged. We would use two logs as an "A" frame, raise it and guy it to some trees. The Cat would drag a log under the "A" frame, release it, then go to the rear and hook onto the load line and raise the log. Then the truck would back under the log and the Cat would back up and drop the log onto the truck. The truck would pull ahead and the Cat would push or pull another log under the "A" frame and repeat the procedure until the truck was loaded.
Kenny Noble's Humorous Stories of the 40's & 50's were originally published in 1996-1997 and his second book in 1997 to 1999 and are now part of two books that can be purchased for $8 at Al's Lumber in West Point, CA while supplies last. Email editor@www.goldcountrytimes.com
Back to Top
Published in Sutter Creek, our paper is a positive example of journalism with an eclectic assortment of articles and reviews ranging from health and wellness to the arts.
