A Deer Christmas

Marcella Neely

During the 1940s, the Sawyer Stoll Lumber Company set up a logging business just a little North of Cloyne well in on Machesney Lake Road. The camp (known as Massanoga) consisted of a mill, office, bunkhouse, cookhouse/dining hall, store, and six small houses. There were over 300 employees working at Massanoga at times. The men ate and slept at the camp all week and went home Saturday afternoon for the weekend. Sanford and Lily Thompson of Northbrook cooked and lived at the camp with their two young daughters, Etta and Frances. During a recent visit with Etta (Mrs. Tom Perry) at the Pine Meadow Nursing Home in Northbrook, she shared this memory of one Christmas at the camp:

On a snow-covered Christmas Day, the mill is quiet, the chainsaws have been put away, and miles of logs are stacked neatly on the frozen river in the distance. These logs will be added to all winter. During the spring thaw, the logs will start their journey down the river to the jack ladder that will take them to the mill site. Only sounds of nature can be heard as all the workers have gone home for Christmas, except for the cooks. There are no decorations or parcels or holiday tree at the camp.

On Christmas morning, mother and two little girls watch as father puts on his heavy winter coat, toque, scarf, boots, and heavy mitts and heads outside walking toward the woods. He returns much later and urges them to bundle up and go with him. Tired legs followed quite a distance before coming to a clearing. Watching silently, they were entertained by a herd of beautiful deer enjoying the peace and quiet. Some frolicked, while others just relaxed. They had taken back the forest for a day.

The excitement etched deep into their memories as the only Logging Camp Christmas and was remembered well into old age.