American Profile: 8/19/2001 - 8/25/2001: One Man's... -
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Published on: 3/24/2002
Last Visited: 3/31/2002
Robert Allen sits in front of his dream come to life: the J. Howard Bradley Logging Museum.
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Retired logger Robert Allen always valued the old equipment used in the timber industry's early days.So 30 years ago he embarked on a one-man mission to preserve it.Today he's built a lasting tribute to this dying industry and its pioneers, founding the J. Howard Bradbury Memorial Logging Museum in Pierce, Idaho.
"I started packing stuff home thinking I was saving its life," says Allen, who worked as a bulldozer driver and woods foreman for the Potlatch Corp. for close to 40 years.Starting in the early '70s, Allen toted home everything from antique chain saws and misery whips (two-man saws) to a forge and bellows.
In 1978, Allen spied the very thing that could give his dream a firm foundation: a local relic named the Bert Curtis log cabin."Now there is the start of a museum," he thought.
After getting permission from the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association (CTPA), which owned the Curtis cabin, Allen and another Potlatch employee used two fork loaders to move it to the town of Headquarters.Allen started renovations for a museum, but a big slump in the lumber market devastated the town, bringing his project to a standstill.
Determined to keep his dream alive, in 1989, Allen decided to move the cabin to Pierce, where he and his wife Jeanette lived.He approached Potlatch and Pierce officials for permission and the following year formed a nonprofit organization with support from businesses, loggers, and townspeople.
"We stuck out our neck for $20,000 to buy the land," says Allen."Then we poured a new foundation for the cabin."
Pierce, a town of 617 residents that has been crippled by downturns in the timber industry, became the guardian of the region's logging history.
"It's been a great thing for this town.
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Even though Allen admits that his grounds are full, he finds it impossible to turn down donations.
"A while ago we did some horse trading with the CTPA for this 80-foot forest lookout tower that was used as a fire-spotting station.
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The museum, dedicated in 1992, is named after Howard Bradbury, a former logging superintendent, who Allen says "had feelings for the working man." Now one of the biggest tourist draws in the area, the memorial attracts visitors from as far away as Germany and China.
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"One of my sisters turned me in," Allen says.
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