Hans Knapp of Horseshoe Bay first arrived in Vancouver from Austria in May of 1951 and soon applied for work with The Loggers Agency. With a glossary of logging terms, his memoir Loggers of the BC Coast (Hancock House, 2005, $19.95) is a lively historical and autobiographical account of post-war logging camps in B.C. including fires, fatalities, poker games and rats. After managing to recover from a near-fatal accident, Knapp concludes, "Logging seems to be an impossible task in a land where nothing seems to be impossible." As an unaffected and amusing raconteur, he recalls characters such as Rosie the homosexual logger, Sidewinder Rowley, Springboard Jack, Ha Ha Harry, Whispering Swede, Axel the Scandihoovian, The Grouch, Skookum Joe, Flash Harry, Arne the Bull, Hank the Finn, Big Gustav, Screwy Louis, Gimpy and the Coffee Queen. 0-88839-588-4

[BCBW 2005] "Forestry"