A Life in the Woods: George Lambert<

Born in Rossland, February 2, 1902. Father worked for the Puerto Rico Lumber Company at Ymir, who were going to establish retail yard in Rossland, but plans changed because of financial panic. Family returned to Ymir. Then six months later moved to Nelson. Lambert family bought retail lumber yard of Puerto Rico Lumber Company in Nelson at the corner of Hall and Vernon Streets where the parking lot for the Super Valu store is.

Father was a carpenter. Came to Nelson from Ontario in 1896 or 1897 on way to Portland. Changed plans and stayed. Father was born in Newmarket, but moved to Nelson from Thornbury, near Meaford on the eastern shore of Lake Huron.

George Lambert established mill at Kaslo during World War Two. He was attracted to the site because of the proximity to 1200 Japanese removed from coast during war, who provided experienced sawmill labour. The Sproule Creek mill closed in 1933 and the Kaslo mill opened in 1943. It was a wartime effort on my part. See, we were right in the middle of the war then, 1943, and I was determined that that bugger Hitler wasn't going to win that war if I could stop him.

Operated in Kaslo Bay for ten years. 1943-1953. One building that had been an office building [was left from the days when G.O. Buchanan operated a sawmill on that site] when they took it over. [..] These logs were logs that came both from across from Kaslo and from the Lardeau.

Kaslo mill cut twenty-five thousand feet per day in an eight hour shift. Built planing mill, which went into operation in nineteen-forty-eight or nine --- most lumber went to Burlington, Ont. company Nicholson and Cates. James Nicholson and Sons was largest sash and door factory in eastern Canada at that time. Nicholson was timber controller at one time during the war. Ours was a small operation. They had two or three operations going. Shipped everything that [...] and we shipped most of it in the rough. Took everything that we produced, sawed to their order and specifications. They were near Hamilton, Ontario. Loaded onto railcars in Kaslo. Mostly on flatcars. Sometimes it was loaded on the car and on its way to eastern Canada three hours from the time it was standing timber. It was a hurry up job because there was just one job to win and that was the World War. Closed the mill in 1953 because or bankruptcy. Squeezed into a corner by three big outfits. One in Chicago, the Kootenay Forest here in Nelson and a pole company in Chicago.

In 1949 we had fifty men on the pay roll and three logging camps, sawmill, planing mill, yard crew, and I didn't work very hard, I only worked 14 hours a day. It was a family company. Private stock company.

Father first engaged in sawmilling in 1905. Bought little mill from Willow Point and moved it to Taghum, logging on horses. Seven sawmill sites were built from Tagham up to the head of Sproule Creek. The main fork was eight miles back from Taghum. George worked most in the top mill, at this fork.

Mill moved up the creek as the timber was cut, finally cutting its way out of timber eight miles up. Could look down into the Slocan Valley, down Lebahdo Creek.

Sixty-two million board feet were sawn there. Not one foot of it was brought out on wheels. It was all flumed out in the water from Sproule Creek. It was a successful fluming operation. Under the best conditions we could flume 40,000 feet of lumber in a nine hour day down that eight miles. That's a history in itself. The fluming of lumber and logs. We skidded what was close and then as the timber got further from the mill --- the mill was a steam mill and once put in place, you built the flumes to suit the position of the flume. With a mill dam. There was eleven men in the mill.

Bought stocks of lumber that were up for sale at a bargain or bankruptcy prices on the part of the other fellow. At that time, way back in 1920 there were 150 sawmills between Grand Forks and Crowsnest. One hundred and fifty working sawmills. The most the Sproule Creek mill cut in a day was thirty-seven or thirty-eight thousand feet. It was built to cut forty thousand and would have, under the right conditions of water supply and wood supply. That wasn't a bad factor. You were always grabbing for that next one or two feet more on the tally board at the end of the day.