1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:27,440
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome

2
00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:30,720
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always

3
00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:34,479
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in over there on the zoom.

4
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:38,000
Speaker 1: That's the one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams.

5
00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,640
Speaker 1: Give him a hand, folks. Uh, they call me Ben.

6
00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,640
Speaker 1: And oh and who's that clapping? Is that? You KNOWL? Yeah?

7
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:51,280
Speaker 1: That was my patented slow clap for max Um trademark. Yeah,

8
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 1: it's as I KNOWL. And today we're we're talking about

9
00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:01,600
Speaker 1: the underappreciated Angelina Jolie hybrid animation and live action film

10
00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,360
Speaker 1: of the early two thousand Sky Captain in the World

11
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:11,160
Speaker 1: of Tomorrow. Right close, close, close there, dang it. It's

12
00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:13,560
Speaker 1: always always a bridesmaid, never a bride. What are we

13
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:18,560
Speaker 1: talking about today, Ben, We we are talking about lumberjacks.

14
00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:23,080
Speaker 1: We're talking about religion in a way. We're also well,

15
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 1: in a very on the nose way. We're also talking

16
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,760
Speaker 1: about something called sky pilots. Have you ever heard this

17
00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 1: phrase before? No, clearly I confused it deeply with Sky Captain.

18
00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,240
Speaker 1: I thought it was a good film. It was fine, Yeah,

19
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:39,679
Speaker 1: it was, it was he was just once he was

20
00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:42,720
Speaker 1: just the sky Captain. He was not one of many

21
00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 1: sky captains that was like his name, right, he was

22
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,840
Speaker 1: sky captain. You know, he certainly wasn't a sky pilot. No,

23
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,480
Speaker 1: he wasn't, because it turns out a sky pilot was

24
00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:59,120
Speaker 1: a name given by lumberjacks to like traveling clergy who

25
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: sought to convey vert them from their burly and intensely

26
00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:09,240
Speaker 1: manly and potentially sinful ways. Yes, yes, it's a true story.

27
00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 1: So you might be familiar, folks with the idea of

28
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: circuit judges or circuit preachers, people who traveled routinely throughout

29
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,400
Speaker 1: a given region or territory for one purpose or another.

30
00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,240
Speaker 1: In those two examples I just named judges, and the

31
00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 1: clergy there would be you know, they'd be traveling for

32
00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:38,200
Speaker 1: legal purposes or in this case, for spiritual purposes. These folks,

33
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:43,760
Speaker 1: these traveling holy figures, were called sky pilots. And it

34
00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:48,320
Speaker 1: turns out the original sky pilot, as far as lumberjacks

35
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,480
Speaker 1: are concerned, is a man named Frank Higgins who worked

36
00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:57,480
Speaker 1: across northern Minnesota for decades in the US see, I know,

37
00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 1: I was confused because Jude Law also portrayed him and

38
00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 1: the slightly less known and even more underappreciated film Frank

39
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,120
Speaker 1: Higgins and the Lumberjack sky Pilots of Minnesota. Yes, and

40
00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:12,600
Speaker 1: there is a type of very popular pen called a

41
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,400
Speaker 1: sky pilot. I think it's a point oh seven, I

42
00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:17,760
Speaker 1: can't remember. Oh yeah, this is my dad's favorite pens,

43
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,840
Speaker 1: the black ones, like with the nice little point point

44
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:25,360
Speaker 1: e jabby tips yep. And Jude Law is also set

45
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,400
Speaker 1: to play the main character in a Pixar film based

46
00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 1: on those pins. So he is nailing just the sky

47
00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,600
Speaker 1: stuff and the pilot stuff in general. We're having a

48
00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:39,440
Speaker 1: real judaisance. Yes, yes, yes, Jude direction if you know,

49
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,360
Speaker 1: cut that part. Where are we leaving it in? Okay,

50
00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,640
Speaker 1: We're leaving it in Max. Okay, Max is on the fence.

51
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,640
Speaker 1: So travel with us if you would. Back to the

52
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:57,560
Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds, there are an estimated five hundred different

53
00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:02,600
Speaker 1: lumber camps in the rural woods of northern Minnesota, and

54
00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:08,400
Speaker 1: this one guy, this Frank Higgins, is their sky pilot. So,

55
00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,040
Speaker 1: like you said, Noel, the life of a lumberjack Monty

56
00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:16,520
Speaker 1: python a side is a pretty demanding and at times

57
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:21,640
Speaker 1: hazardous existence. How did we how did we get here? What? What?

58
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,960
Speaker 1: Why did all these guys end up being lumberjacks in

59
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,920
Speaker 1: northern Minnesota. Yeah. I mean, you know, if anyone's seen

60
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,840
Speaker 1: the film Fargo, which takes place in North Dakota, and

61
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,640
Speaker 1: yet everyone sounds like they're from Minnesota, I think, to me,

62
00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,800
Speaker 1: it's what it's demonstrating is much more of that kind

63
00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,840
Speaker 1: of Minnesota tradition of logging and the fur trade. You

64
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,400
Speaker 1: got that big Paul Bunyan statue and all of that.

65
00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:47,880
Speaker 1: Not to say this Fargo doesn't have a place in

66
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,760
Speaker 1: this story, but it really is centered and began in

67
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,640
Speaker 1: Minnesota as the fur trade in fact, was beginning to

68
00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:59,320
Speaker 1: become less of a viable industry. And this is around

69
00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,280
Speaker 1: the middle of an eighteenth century. You start to see

70
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,280
Speaker 1: these commercial sawmills around eighteen thirty nine, and this led

71
00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:12,200
Speaker 1: to a real booming industry over the next um, you know,

72
00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:16,160
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty years. Uh, we started to see big

73
00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:20,640
Speaker 1: logging operations in places like still Water and St. Anthony.

74
00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,640
Speaker 1: By around the very very late eighteen hundreds, Uh, it

75
00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,680
Speaker 1: was beginning to move into other parts of the state

76
00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: as well, up north and even out west in Minnesota,

77
00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:33,760
Speaker 1: and you start to see this lumber industry really start

78
00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:36,760
Speaker 1: to boom. Yeah. Part of it is due to this

79
00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:41,839
Speaker 1: thing called the DAWs Act and some associated legislation. Here's

80
00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:46,120
Speaker 1: what these laws did. They allowed lumber companies to buy

81
00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:52,200
Speaker 1: land that originally belonged to Indigenous people. And this DAWs

82
00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:57,159
Speaker 1: Act divided up Indian reservations in the area, giving the

83
00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,719
Speaker 1: families living there individual a lot of land. We're getting

84
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,559
Speaker 1: a lot of this, by the way, from our ELK.

85
00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:09,320
Speaker 1: Cartwright writing over at m n O Pedia Minnesota Pedia.

86
00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:15,120
Speaker 1: It's like a encyclopedia Minnesota. You get it. So this

87
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,719
Speaker 1: opens up what is euphemistically referred to at the time

88
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:24,840
Speaker 1: as quote unquote surplus land, largely for white settlers. And

89
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:31,440
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, this benefits the lumber industry, particularly near the

90
00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:36,240
Speaker 1: reservations Red Lake and White Earth. So another big piece

91
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:39,480
Speaker 1: of this is that railroads have been built in this area,

92
00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,000
Speaker 1: so if you're a logging company, it's super easy to

93
00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:48,080
Speaker 1: transport this timber across the continent. And that's what drew

94
00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:50,800
Speaker 1: people a lot of loggers at this time. A lot

95
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,920
Speaker 1: of lumberjacks were just going where the jobs were, from

96
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,640
Speaker 1: one state to the next, right, right, Yeah, Ben, do

97
00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,520
Speaker 1: you think that the term timber come from the thing

98
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:04,839
Speaker 1: that people yell when the trees fall, or is it

99
00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,760
Speaker 1: the other way around. I think it's I think it's

100
00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:10,520
Speaker 1: the other way around. I think they were just yelling

101
00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,160
Speaker 1: timber the way that you know, if they were if

102
00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 1: they were throwing pianos in the woods, they would have

103
00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:22,440
Speaker 1: yelled piano. I guess you're right, Ben, I guess you're right.

104
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:24,240
Speaker 1: It's a fun thing to do. That's probably the most

105
00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:28,440
Speaker 1: fun part of being a log logsman, uh of woodsman,

106
00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:33,320
Speaker 1: lumberjack is to yell timber. You gotta hold it out

107
00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 1: all the way until the thing hits uh, And if

108
00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:38,880
Speaker 1: you're not there, it definitely doesn't make a sound. That's proven.

109
00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,480
Speaker 1: Doesn't Kesha have a song where she yells timber? You know, Ben,

110
00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,040
Speaker 1: it's certainly possible. It sounds like something she might say.

111
00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:49,000
Speaker 1: You know, Noel, I believe it's actually a pit Bull

112
00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 1: song featuring Kesha. Yes, back in her dollar signed days,

113
00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,920
Speaker 1: but she has pivoted from But Kesha and Pipoli side,

114
00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,440
Speaker 1: there was some problematic treatment of these these First Nations

115
00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,680
Speaker 1: people and this kind of division, and we started to

116
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:09,840
Speaker 1: see these logging camps popping up and loggers were essentially,

117
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,640
Speaker 1: you know what you would call itinerant workers. Like you said, Ben,

118
00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,040
Speaker 1: they would follow the job, you know, from place to place. Uh.

119
00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,080
Speaker 1: Some came from as far as Maine, where there was

120
00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,320
Speaker 1: a logging boom uh and bust before Minnesota started to

121
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,080
Speaker 1: see it's boom um. And then you had folks coming

122
00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,600
Speaker 1: down from Michigan or even Wisconsin. Um. And a lot

123
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,199
Speaker 1: of lumberjacks came from other countries. We started to see

124
00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:38,520
Speaker 1: people of Norwegian, Irish, French, Canadian, English, Canadian, Finnish or

125
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 1: Swedish descent coming. We also started to see members of

126
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,960
Speaker 1: the Ojibwe tribe of the First Nations people. And at

127
00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,120
Speaker 1: this point it was kind of the peak of logging

128
00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:54,960
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. Uh. They essentially cut down enough trees to

129
00:08:55,080 --> 00:09:00,720
Speaker 1: produce more than two billion feet of boards. I guess

130
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,040
Speaker 1: this would be like two by four type situation or

131
00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:07,480
Speaker 1: whatever the kind of standardized measurement was for the time. Yes,

132
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:15,040
Speaker 1: And into this bustling industry come the sky pilots. It's

133
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 1: a it's a cool term. It describes, as we mentioned earlier,

134
00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:25,680
Speaker 1: clergyman who would travel through these often isolated timber towns

135
00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:30,320
Speaker 1: or really just lumberjack camps. They would also visit miners.

136
00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:35,120
Speaker 1: They would speak with members of the armed forces, and

137
00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:39,920
Speaker 1: they would also visit prisoners. The thing is that we

138
00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,440
Speaker 1: know the original sky pilot is this guy Frank Higgins,

139
00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:48,920
Speaker 1: Francis E. Higgins if he's in trouble, but people still

140
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:55,000
Speaker 1: don't agree on the etymology or the origin of the term.

141
00:09:55,080 --> 00:10:00,160
Speaker 1: For his part, Frank Higgins claims that the Lumberjacks themselves

142
00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,480
Speaker 1: started calling him the sky Pilot because they would yeah,

143
00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,319
Speaker 1: they would be living this brutal existence and he would

144
00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:12,320
Speaker 1: come through with religious services, and then lumberjacks would say, well,

145
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,520
Speaker 1: come on, man, life is tough for us. Wait, wait,

146
00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,200
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? Why why are you coming

147
00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,960
Speaker 1: all the way out here? And then Higgins said, I

148
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,040
Speaker 1: want to pilot your souls to the sky. And so

149
00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,040
Speaker 1: they were like, oh, okay, sky pilot over here, sky

150
00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:33,200
Speaker 1: pilot over here. And then somebody yelled timber and everyone

151
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,960
Speaker 1: to the left like and then they kept going with

152
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,240
Speaker 1: a bit yeah, safety first, yeah, and honestly, you definitely

153
00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:41,679
Speaker 1: want to save soul if you're gonna get pancake by

154
00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:44,720
Speaker 1: a giant pine you know there. Oh yeah, it's a

155
00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:48,600
Speaker 1: dangerous existence for sure, super dangerous and like you said,

156
00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,960
Speaker 1: been super stressful and exhausting, which I guess accounts for

157
00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,320
Speaker 1: a lot of the the hard living afterwards, you know,

158
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:57,240
Speaker 1: just to kind of like maybe not not not to

159
00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:00,080
Speaker 1: say that lumberjacks were miserable all the time, but I

160
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,200
Speaker 1: mean I can imagine the stress and anxiety and just

161
00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:06,160
Speaker 1: hard work of that day would certainly lead to wanting

162
00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:09,520
Speaker 1: to unwind in a big way. And these ways were

163
00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:14,400
Speaker 1: considered kind of counter to the teachings of Jesus, and

164
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,960
Speaker 1: so Higgins really was there traveling along with these itinerant

165
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:21,440
Speaker 1: folks from place to place, trying to save their soul.

166
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:25,440
Speaker 1: It's a pretty admirable goal, honestly, I mean, I gotta

167
00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:35,280
Speaker 1: respect the guy for sticking to it in such harsh conditions.

168
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,800
Speaker 1: So let's let's kind of explore this a little bit.

169
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:42,839
Speaker 1: Why do you think that these, uh, these preachers felt

170
00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:47,319
Speaker 1: lumberjacks in particular were in need of soul saving aside

171
00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,720
Speaker 1: from the you know, constant threat of being crushed by trees.

172
00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:56,359
Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety three, uh, Frederick Jackson Turner, who's an historian,

173
00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,640
Speaker 1: gave a speech that kind of summed up, uh, this

174
00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:05,640
Speaker 1: notion that the West might become a godless place, you know,

175
00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,040
Speaker 1: because it was so far removed from the rest of

176
00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:11,400
Speaker 1: the country, and there was a concern that, like the

177
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:15,640
Speaker 1: morals and ideals of America would perhaps kind of vanish.

178
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:19,360
Speaker 1: So he quoted this eighteen fifty editorial from a home

179
00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:25,040
Speaker 1: Missions periodical. Uh and would you like to read that? Ben? Oh? Yes,

180
00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,280
Speaker 1: of course, So Turner says, we scarcely know whether to

181
00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:33,240
Speaker 1: rejoice or more and over this extension of our settlements.

182
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,800
Speaker 1: While we sympathize in whatever tends to increase the physical

183
00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,720
Speaker 1: resources and prosperity of our country, we cannot forget that

184
00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:45,600
Speaker 1: with all these dispersions into remote and still remoter corners

185
00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,280
Speaker 1: of the land, the supply of the means of grace

186
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,640
Speaker 1: interesting phrase, there is becoming relatively less and less remote

187
00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:59,160
Speaker 1: and still remoter corners of the land. So while you know,

188
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:05,120
Speaker 1: I mean, Minnesota isn't exactly the West, it's the Midwest, right,

189
00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:09,800
Speaker 1: but it's certainly on that path to manifest destiny. Um,

190
00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:12,600
Speaker 1: it would would have fallen into this category of being

191
00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:15,880
Speaker 1: remote and wild in the sense of, like you know,

192
00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:18,600
Speaker 1: being a godless land where men could lose themselves in

193
00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:24,040
Speaker 1: that frontier life. So in particular we saw itinerant preachers

194
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,480
Speaker 1: all over in the days of the Old West of

195
00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:31,320
Speaker 1: the frontier days. In particular, we see followers of Wesleyan

196
00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:35,959
Speaker 1: Christianity that was the I guess, the flavor of Christianity

197
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,720
Speaker 1: that was founded by John Wesley. We would see them

198
00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:42,079
Speaker 1: start to pop up around early nineteenth century in the Midwest.

199
00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:45,560
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because Midwesterners it was such a common

200
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,800
Speaker 1: site that Midwesterners actually had almost a little saying that

201
00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,880
Speaker 1: on bad wintry weather days there was something to see

202
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,920
Speaker 1: outside but quote crows and Methodist preachers. Yeah. Yeah. The

203
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,120
Speaker 1: British slang for this, by the way, would be a

204
00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:06,000
Speaker 1: god botherer, someone who's persistently trying to uh to, to proselytize,

205
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,880
Speaker 1: to evangelize, to convert you to their religious beliefs. And

206
00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:13,640
Speaker 1: this is where Frank Higgins really comes in. This is

207
00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:17,679
Speaker 1: the context in which he occurs. He's born in Canada,

208
00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:22,400
Speaker 1: in Toronto in eighteen sixty. His father passes away when

209
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,840
Speaker 1: he's quite young. His mother remarries and they moved to

210
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:30,720
Speaker 1: Ontario and their their idea this new family is to

211
00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:35,400
Speaker 1: homestead this area. It's remote, it's the middle of nowhere

212
00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 1: in Duffering County in the woods. His stepfather is quite

213
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:44,880
Speaker 1: religious and Frank as a result of this. Pretty early

214
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,360
Speaker 1: on in childhood, he decides that he feels called to

215
00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:54,360
Speaker 1: become a preacher. And there's a cute moment here. According

216
00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:57,080
Speaker 1: to the story, he's walking around as a kid again

217
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,280
Speaker 1: in the woods, middle of nowhere, and he's practicing sermons

218
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:06,600
Speaker 1: on trees and tree stumps. He's telling some nearby cattle

219
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:11,000
Speaker 1: about the Joy everlasting. Doesn't this sound something like a

220
00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,360
Speaker 1: mother would say that boys so into Jesus he'd give

221
00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:18,600
Speaker 1: a sermon to a tree stump. Yes, yes, his mom's

222
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,040
Speaker 1: largely supportive of it. Uh. He you know, back in

223
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:26,800
Speaker 1: this time, rural Canada, there's not a ton of opportunity

224
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:31,040
Speaker 1: for formal schooling, right, So he goes to Toronto when

225
00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:33,840
Speaker 1: he's about twenty years old and just by the way, folks,

226
00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,720
Speaker 1: so you can get a sense of his physicality. He's

227
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,680
Speaker 1: not a small dude. He's maybe what you would call

228
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:44,480
Speaker 1: burly today, Like he wouldn't he wouldn't look out of

229
00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 1: place in a lumberjack camp. Well, that suits him fits

230
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,320
Speaker 1: right in until he gets his hooks in. You is

231
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,160
Speaker 1: Jesus looks But no, you're right. After around three years

232
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,920
Speaker 1: in public grade school and then two years in high school,

233
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:02,680
Speaker 1: he left Canada and went to Minnesota, and he was

234
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:05,880
Speaker 1: twenty five at the time. And after a few years

235
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:10,760
Speaker 1: walking around as a an un i guess anointed minister,

236
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:15,640
Speaker 1: a lay preacher in Annandale, he went to seminary. He

237
00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:20,720
Speaker 1: went to Hamlin University and in officially was ordained and

238
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:25,480
Speaker 1: um started service at the Presbyterian Church in Barnum, Minnesota.

239
00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:27,600
Speaker 1: And that's where he first that's where he first kind

240
00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,840
Speaker 1: of ran into this community of loggers. Yeah, because he's

241
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,280
Speaker 1: he's ministering to this church and one of the church

242
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:39,680
Speaker 1: members says, hey, Frank, come visit this logging camp. I

243
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:43,360
Speaker 1: operate a lumberjack concern and let me tell you, these

244
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:48,560
Speaker 1: people need one thing God, seriously, they're going they're going

245
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,640
Speaker 1: wild out there. Uh, Frankie, gotta help me out. And

246
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:57,720
Speaker 1: so Frank goes with this church member and these loggers

247
00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,280
Speaker 1: on what's called a log drive. That's where they go

248
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,400
Speaker 1: and find and harvest timber. And they have a day

249
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,720
Speaker 1: of pretty dangerous work and Frank's there the whole time.

250
00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: It's kind of like he's going on a ride along,

251
00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:12,240
Speaker 1: if you want to think of it that way. And

252
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:17,560
Speaker 1: then he gets training kind of scenario. Yeah, yeah, pretty

253
00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:19,840
Speaker 1: pretty much. Yeah, with a little bit less of a

254
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:26,120
Speaker 1: sinister crime vibe. God, nobody made him smoke PC or anything, right, right, right,

255
00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,439
Speaker 1: And he's hanging out with these guys after doing this

256
00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:34,560
Speaker 1: right along, and he grabs dinner with him, and he

257
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:40,440
Speaker 1: was surprised because while he's eating, one of the slumberjacks says,

258
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,360
Speaker 1: you know, hey, preach, uh, you know what, will you

259
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,800
Speaker 1: provide us the good word? You know, will you have

260
00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:51,639
Speaker 1: a service for us? Will you minister to us? And Higgins,

261
00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:56,280
Speaker 1: you know, in no small part flattered, I'm sure, says Okay, yeah,

262
00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:59,840
Speaker 1: I'll do it, and they hold an impromptu church service.

263
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,880
Speaker 1: He's leading the group and singing some hymns everybody knows,

264
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:08,960
Speaker 1: and he talks with them about faith and about spirituality

265
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:14,600
Speaker 1: and Christianity right as the evening is beginning in the afternoon,

266
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:20,240
Speaker 1: leans lazily into sunset, and it works. These guys are moved.

267
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 1: You know, maybe it's because it's something that breaks the routine.

268
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,359
Speaker 1: Maybe it speaks to them on a deeper spiritual level.

269
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,080
Speaker 1: But the next morning he spends the night there by

270
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:33,400
Speaker 1: the way. The next morning, several of these lumberjacks, who

271
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 1: are also by the way, ridiculous historians known as river

272
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:41,879
Speaker 1: pigs in fight Frank to return River pigs. Did that

273
00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,359
Speaker 1: stick out to you know? It definitely did. I just

274
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,200
Speaker 1: want to point out really quick too, that I think

275
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,520
Speaker 1: they were also just kind of floored by how quickly,

276
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:52,000
Speaker 1: uh and off the cuff he was able to deliver

277
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,080
Speaker 1: this sermon like it was they were just impressed, you know,

278
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:57,359
Speaker 1: like it was, Oh, this guy means business. And he

279
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,920
Speaker 1: did mean business because he followed them around out on many,

280
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,920
Speaker 1: many more of these logging expeditions and in which you know,

281
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:06,960
Speaker 1: he was putting himself in harm's way alongside the people

282
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 1: that he was trying to minister to. So he was

283
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,240
Speaker 1: certainly putting his money where his mouth of of God was.

284
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,280
Speaker 1: That's a thing. But a river pig, Yeah, it's totally

285
00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 1: a thing. Um. There's in fact a competition, the Lumberjack

286
00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:22,560
Speaker 1: World Championship, which I believe it still goes on today. Um.

287
00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,480
Speaker 1: And And in that there is a competition called a

288
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:31,560
Speaker 1: boom run um. And it is where loggers display studying

289
00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:37,000
Speaker 1: feats of speed and endurance and focus and balance, most importantly,

290
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 1: when they run across a small lake by bounding from

291
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,760
Speaker 1: one floating log to another. UM. He may have seen this.

292
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,760
Speaker 1: It's almost like kind of a cliche of like lumberjack life. Well,

293
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,200
Speaker 1: around a hundred years ago, there are these men um

294
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,239
Speaker 1: who were known as river pigs that actually did this

295
00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,000
Speaker 1: as a functional part of the logging trip um there

296
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,919
Speaker 1: us referred to as river rats, river hogs, or caddyman,

297
00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:09,679
Speaker 1: but they actually drove logs down the river to the

298
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,800
Speaker 1: sawmill and sometimes the logs would jam up, and that's

299
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 1: when these guys would would swoop in and save the day, right, yeah,

300
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,560
Speaker 1: and well they would try to save the day. This

301
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 1: was a super dangerous job. We have some arborists in

302
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 1: the audience. We may have some loggers in the audience

303
00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 1: as well. And if you if you have experienced professional logging,

304
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:38,879
Speaker 1: timber harvesting, etcetera, then you know that even with today's

305
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 1: technological advancements, it is an incredibly dangerous gig, so much

306
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,439
Speaker 1: so that back in the eighteen hundreds when this story

307
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 1: takes place, everyone was disappointed when they heard a river

308
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:56,679
Speaker 1: rat or a river boy, a river hog passed away.

309
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:03,160
Speaker 1: But they weren't really surprised and they didn't stop the

310
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: operation because one passed away. No, they're basically like cannon

311
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: fodder in the lumber industry. And just just to reiterate,

312
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,359
Speaker 1: they did do essentially what is done as a fun

313
00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:19,200
Speaker 1: little competition in the Lumberjack World Championship, but they would

314
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,639
Speaker 1: do it for real as they were driving these logs

315
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: down the river. A picture like just you know, back

316
00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,440
Speaker 1: to back logs rolling down the river, downstream towards the sawmill.

317
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,199
Speaker 1: And occasionally one of the logs would get caught up

318
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 1: in a bank or whatever would cause the whole thing

319
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:40,120
Speaker 1: to jam, hence log Jam or the amazing film within

320
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,440
Speaker 1: a film log Jam in in the Big Lebowski. But yeah,

321
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 1: these river rats or hogs or pigs would literally run

322
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 1: across the logs and use this pike or like giant

323
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 1: kind of stick to poke them free. And you know,

324
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,959
Speaker 1: think about it, if that happened too quickly, if they

325
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 1: became just lodged, become unstable, they'd get thrown off or

326
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 1: maybe like crushed between these massive pieces of timber. Right, yes,

327
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:11,800
Speaker 1: And unfortunately in some cases their bodies wouldn't turn up

328
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: for days and days after they disappeared. So there's a

329
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,760
Speaker 1: poetic part of a mental Floss article by Terse O'Neill

330
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 1: called seven jobs were glad or obsolete, and in this

331
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:31,160
Speaker 1: article O'Neill notes that sometimes the only marker for a

332
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:35,959
Speaker 1: river pigs grave would be his boots tossed over a

333
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,480
Speaker 1: tree limb that was hanging somewhere near the part of

334
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,160
Speaker 1: the river where they disappeared. So life here was difficult.

335
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 1: People needed inspiration. You know, you're you're you're literally waking

336
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 1: up with a coworker who may not be there at

337
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And this means that life

338
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 1: on an emotional level as well as a physical level,

339
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: is quite difficult. We should also mention that logging operations

340
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 1: mainly took place in the winter, so logs could be

341
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 1: loaded on frozen rivers and then they could be sent

342
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,960
Speaker 1: downstream when the water thought. These people were miserable. They're

343
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 1: huddled together in these like cold bunk rooms, and of

344
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:24,120
Speaker 1: course there's not a modern heating system, so it's cold.

345
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: Let's add in you know what, No, let's just laundry

346
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 1: list all the miserable things. Another thing, people are pretty dirty, right,

347
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 1: there's lice everywhere. I don't know, Max Noel, you guys

348
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 1: probably had to get checked for lice, maybe in grade

349
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 1: school something like that. Yeah, Well, I mean as as

350
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 1: a dad that's a big thing um with kids. Like

351
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,240
Speaker 1: when kid gets that, they hoped literally from head to

352
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 1: head and we had a life scare or we had

353
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 1: to we had to get that special shampoo and get

354
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,640
Speaker 1: rid of some clothes. It was not fun. But yeah,

355
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,080
Speaker 1: I definitely remember being checked. And I as a kid,

356
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: don't the guy ever got it until I was an adult. Yeah, next,

357
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: did you did you have the life experience where they

358
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 1: like check every kid's head in your school? Oh? Yeah,

359
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: I mean I had life when I was like seven,

360
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:13,159
Speaker 1: maybe eight. Alex and I both had life that like

361
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 1: summer camp. It was not the cleanest place that we

362
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:17,679
Speaker 1: went to. But yeah, like you know, I remember like

363
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,920
Speaker 1: an elementary school, like, oh, I kid had lice. We

364
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: all have doing and Alex and I generally always rocked

365
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 1: her hair really long, so it was not fun to

366
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: having out our heads completely shaved down, and I was

367
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: like pretty tragic for me. That's Alex Williams, by the way,

368
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 1: not fun fact not only Max's brother, actual facts biological brother,

369
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:42,439
Speaker 1: but also the creator of both this show's soundtrack and

370
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 1: the excellent puer podcast of Femeral In fact, Noll, I

371
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:50,359
Speaker 1: think spoiler alert. If we make it through our own

372
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:54,360
Speaker 1: logging camp of podcasts. We might have Alex join us

373
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 1: on an upcoming episode we had Disgusted. I think we're

374
00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,439
Speaker 1: getting that locked in. I really look forward to it.

375
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: That'll be fun. It'll be like a family reunion because

376
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 1: you guys haven't see each other in years, right, Max, Yeah,

377
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 1: we we totally don't work on a femeral together. Strange

378
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,920
Speaker 1: now just just strange. And they definitely definitely do work

379
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,200
Speaker 1: on a femeral. Max is an integral part of that show. Yes,

380
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 1: he is ours, so it totally is a family A

381
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: fair to look forward to that episode. But let's get

382
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 1: back to the sky Pigs, well, the River Pigs, River Pigs,

383
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: Sky Pilots. It's cold. People are dying left and right.

384
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:37,159
Speaker 1: Everybody's got lice. Uh, tons of people have injuries. They

385
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: might be missing fingers. This is brutal. Everybody is sick too,

386
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: by the way, because you know you're in a cold area,

387
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 1: so you have to huddle together, right, for warmth, for shelter,

388
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,360
Speaker 1: which means an illness like lice, gets transmitted more easily

389
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,680
Speaker 1: from one person to the next due to proximity. And

390
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 1: you know, again, these people are moving around, they're traveling

391
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,640
Speaker 1: where the work takes them and they're away from their families.

392
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: These are men who are trying to provide for their families,

393
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 1: so they're constantly missing their wives and their kids, who,

394
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,959
Speaker 1: by the way, most of them were not allowed to

395
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,919
Speaker 1: bring to the logging camps. I think there was an

396
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: exception made occasionally for the foreman and the cook who

397
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 1: were allowed to bring their wives for visits. Like that's

398
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: very very very specific. But regular old loggers, including those

399
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: river pigs, who are putting their life in serious risk

400
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 1: every single day, we're not allowed to have access to

401
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:37,479
Speaker 1: their wives or families. And there was even concern because

402
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 1: of this from the sky pilots that perhaps there would

403
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:46,359
Speaker 1: be some unholy uh sexual relationships forged between these big

404
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: burly men, which is a very specific type of porn.

405
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,399
Speaker 1: Oh heaven forefend. So that's what the one thing the

406
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: sky pilots are worried about. Not amputation, not not crushing

407
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: mental mamma, or the very real danger of death. They're

408
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: worried some people might be sleeping together hot burley lumberjack sex. Um.

409
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 1: It's a it's a concern of the church. It's like

410
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 1: on their list of top concerns. Um they have a

411
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 1: prioritized list and that is weirdly at the top. And

412
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: they're also the sky pilots are also keeping their eyes

413
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: on other forms of sin. So if you are familiar

414
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,760
Speaker 1: with an industry, like working in an oil field, you

415
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 1: know that there can be boom towns that pop up

416
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: around these sorts of activities. And when lumberjacks are done

417
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: with the logging season at this time, they often end

418
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 1: up in nearby towns were cities, and they're kind of

419
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: whiling out there on leave. You know, they haven't really

420
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: been spending their money on anything. They're out in the

421
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere. They haven't really been talking to anybody

422
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: except their colleagues who have survived that season. So they're

423
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 1: often saloons. They're off rolling hot dice, they're visiting brothels,

424
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: of course, and according to Higgins, the original sky pilot

425
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: saloons are the only like social situation around. There's not

426
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: there's not an alternative, you know, there's not really a

427
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: community center or something like that. There's not an Internet cafe,

428
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,719
Speaker 1: so they naturally wash up at the local bar. That's right.

429
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,679
Speaker 1: They even get their haircut there. Oftentimes. You know, if

430
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: you've seen the show Deadwood. Uh. That is also where

431
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: brothels would would be as well. Like in some of

432
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: these saloons there would be lodging that often would come

433
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: with company, and you know, any of the other needs

434
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: that they had met in terms of washing, getting haircuts,

435
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: and obviously gambling and drinking. Um. So, Higgins tried to

436
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 1: address the men in in terms that they could understand

437
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: without walking down to them. Fellow kids, Hello, fellow kids,

438
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: it is I Frank Higgins. I know your pain. I

439
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: know the plight of the lumberman, and I know that

440
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: it seems like an easy fix to turn to the

441
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: drink and and and the gambling and the loose women

442
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: of the evening. But it's not so good fellas. Think

443
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: of your everlasting souls, think about your the reward that

444
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: lies for you in the great beyond. Don't get your

445
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: pleasure now, my friends, suffer now so you can have

446
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: your pleasure later. It reminds me a little bit of

447
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 1: that song you Got Trouble, you know, right here in

448
00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: River City over they're like, look, guys, I'm gonna be

449
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: honest with you. It's me, your buddy, Frank. Now I've

450
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: been tempted before, I've walked by a deck of cards.

451
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 1: I knew what a jack of diamonds is. And I

452
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: know that some of you are maybe making out, whether

453
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: in a rothel or in a lonely night at the

454
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,719
Speaker 1: bunk house, and that's a big deal to be let me.

455
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: Let me tell you I've been through similar things. My

456
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: mom watches me leave home to come here and hang

457
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: out with you in this miserable environment. But her prayers,

458
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: he says, have followed me throughout my life. And my

459
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 1: story is just like yours. It's just a mad lib.

460
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: He didn't say mad lib. That wasn't invented yet, but

461
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: he's like, my story is just like yours. All you

462
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: have to do is change the names. I know we're

463
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: in a crazy situation, but I guarantee you that somebody

464
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: out there away from this camp still wants to know

465
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 1: that you're alive. So write him a letter. You know.

466
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: It makes me think of like Tracy Morgan, the comedian

467
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 1: and actor from Dirty Rock and and all that I

468
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: love him. You know, he was in a very bad accident,

469
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: uh that he survived. But I saw him due the

470
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: speech or I think is on a radio show or

471
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: something like that, but he said something to the effect

472
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: of true happiness is having something to look forward to.

473
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: True happiness is knowing that you have someone that cares

474
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: whether you live or die. And I think he was trying.

475
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: Higgins was trying to appeal to that sense where he

476
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 1: was saying, somebody out there cares about you, somebody out

477
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,959
Speaker 1: there loves you. Go home right now and reconnect with

478
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: that part of your soul, with that part of why

479
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: are you living in the first place, Why are you

480
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: out here, you know, doing this work, putting in all

481
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: this hard work, if you're just going to gamble and

482
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: drink yourself into an early grave. And he's referring to

483
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: I think friends and family says, go home, write a

484
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 1: letter tonight. Yeah. Yeah, So that's that's what's happening. This

485
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 1: guy is saying, Hey, don't get don't get lost in

486
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: the timber game. Don't feel hopeless. People do care about you,

487
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: you know, even if you can't talk to them right now.

488
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: You can write a letter. You can be connected to

489
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 1: the larger world and to the people you care about

490
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 1: most because they care about you too. That seems like

491
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 1: a pretty easy thing to agree to, but it might

492
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: surprise some of us to know that these sky pilots

493
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 1: didn't always get unanimous acclaim. True, some big lumber interests

494
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: loved them and supported them. People like Thomas B. Walker

495
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: thought these ministers were not just good for the camp,

496
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: but so important to the camp that they should be paid.

497
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 1: So in some cases it was not just a labor

498
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: of love or spiritual duty. It was their job. And

499
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: they thought, you know, if these workers have religion, they'll

500
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 1: also conform and they'll they'll work more predictably, they'll be

501
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 1: more efficient, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And surprisingly, labor unions or

502
00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 1: labor activists at least who wanted to unionize logging camps.

503
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: I thought this was a BS diversionary tactic for management.

504
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: They said, you know what's really going to improve worker

505
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 1: morale if we have better employment conditions, if these people

506
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: can go out and know that they are not going

507
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 1: to die between two logs on a swift moving river,

508
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: which is a fair point, right right. There was a

509
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: group called the Industrial Workers of the World i w W,

510
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: or Wobblies. They were super against the sky pilots for

511
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: that same exact reason. Um The Wobblies were one of

512
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,320
Speaker 1: the only early unions that wanted to organize lumberjacks, and

513
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 1: they used the term skypilot as kind of a disc

514
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: as a day on these folks. They believe that the

515
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: working conditions of lubbage Dave could only be changed by

516
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 1: improving conditions. Not with this whole again, suffer now get

517
00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 1: your kicks in the afterlife mentality, because it's the counterproductive

518
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. Yeah, I see, I see where they're

519
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 1: coming from. Right, right, exactly. I think we're all on

520
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 1: the same page. There still some lumberjacks found solace in

521
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: the sky pilots, and a few even went on to

522
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 1: become preachers or sky pilots themselves. One of the most

523
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: famous examples of this is a guy named John Sornberger

524
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: who was a murderer. It was it was a rude dude,

525
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: a wanted killer, who with the help of Frank Higgins,

526
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 1: turned his life around. Uh there's another guy. Andrew Stenstrom

527
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:43,880
Speaker 1: is also mentioned that min opedia article. Andrew Stenstrom was

528
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: a lumberjack who converted to Christianity in seven he became

529
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 1: super super devout. He left the logging game entirely, but

530
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 1: a number of years later he came back, not as

531
00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: lumberjack but as a preacher. Uh think if you look

532
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 1: into his biography, he's better known nowadays as a painter.

533
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,839
Speaker 1: But if you met him while he was alive, he

534
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 1: was a lumberjack and then a sky pilot, not just

535
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: any kind of painter, been a primitive painter, which would

536
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:18,719
Speaker 1: have referred to kind of that more rustic approach to

537
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:22,879
Speaker 1: UM creating kind of scenes at the lumber camps, which

538
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: is an important way of documenting that stuff around the

539
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 1: Minnesota's uh on the Pacific coast from you know, Oregon

540
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 1: and all that, and uh in the dakotas of course.

541
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:33,880
Speaker 1: But what's interesting is where we focused a lot on

542
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: maybe what could have been considered a bit of a

543
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: cloying aspect of the sky pilots and the I'm just

544
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,759
Speaker 1: kind of saying, hey, you know, uh, cast off your

545
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 1: sinful ways so that you can, you know, guard your

546
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: soul against damn nation, but without actually addressing the problem.

547
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,360
Speaker 1: But they in fact did address the problem as well.

548
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,240
Speaker 1: A lot of these sky pilots provided more than just um,

549
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 1: you know, absolute Lucian uh and and religion. There's certainly

550
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: worse than lumberjacks that did not care for the presence

551
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: of the sky pilots and that treated them like interlopers.

552
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 1: But most of the people that lived in these camps

553
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: lived the north in these camps appreciated the kind of

554
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 1: i don't know, community building that the that the ministers

555
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: did the sky pilots coming into town certainly broke up

556
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: the kind of humdrum day to day of of the

557
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:29,640
Speaker 1: logging camps. And they would often bring you know, musical instruments, uh,

558
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: and they would you know, lead uh the lumberjacks in

559
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: singalongs of course, you know, gospel hymns and the like. Um.

560
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 1: But it definitely was something that felt festive, you know.

561
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 1: And the ministers would also bring a lot of books

562
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 1: and magazines and things for them to read. I mean

563
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: because again, you know, with the conditions and the close quarters,

564
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 1: I mean, this is not that far off from a

565
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: prison type situation. So you know, the library is is

566
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:57,399
Speaker 1: a really important part of any prison if you've seen

567
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,439
Speaker 1: like OZ or any TV show based in prison. But yeah,

568
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 1: so they appreciate they were really appreciated for that, for

569
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: bringing them stuff to entertain themselves and break up them anony. Heck, yeah,

570
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: it's a show I mean for for a terrible comparison,

571
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 1: if you've been to grade school, you remember those milestone

572
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: exciting days. There was field day, there were field trips.

573
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 1: You know, you might have career day. It breaks the

574
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: two teachers. Always was was a big deal. Oh yeah,

575
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 1: it might be um. You know, it's like you said,

576
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:32,280
Speaker 1: it's a relief from monotony. It's a break from routine.

577
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:38,720
Speaker 1: And sky pilots also provided some social services, the things

578
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: that logging companies didn't really bother with because of labor

579
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 1: laws at the time or lack thereof. So, for instance,

580
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: let's say lumberjack is injured but they're not dying. It

581
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,080
Speaker 1: would fall on the sky pilot often to take this

582
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: person to the hospital, and Frank Higgins established this precedent

583
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:03,839
Speaker 1: using a dog sled. The dog sled became an ambulance

584
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: functionally when people were hurt, or when they were sick,

585
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 1: or in the rare case where a woman in the

586
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 1: area was pregnant and needed to be rushed to a hospital,

587
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 1: it would be a sky pilot with the dog sled.

588
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to make that sound like a turn

589
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 1: in the board game Clue. It was the sky pilot

590
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: in northern Minnesota with the dog sled with the dogs slab.

591
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 1: You could definitely beat some of the death front of those,

592
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 1: but that's not what they were doing at all. Then

593
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 1: they were doing the opposite of beating people to death.

594
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:34,520
Speaker 1: They were saving their lives. Uh. And it's certainly admirable,

595
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: and it's something that you see in ministerial outreach, you know,

596
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: throughout history oftentimes. You know, a lot of times you

597
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: could argue that it's a way of getting people trust

598
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:49,359
Speaker 1: and earning people's trust in the community and saying, you know,

599
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 1: getting being more likely to make conversions, which just an

600
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: inherently a bad thing, I don't think. But it's certainly

601
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: not like all altruistic, right, But it is their job

602
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,759
Speaker 1: to help people, and I think help people. They absolutely

603
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 1: did h both you know, in this earth and maybe

604
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: the next, depending on what you believe. Um, So what

605
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 1: happened to Frank Higgins? And why have we never heard

606
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: the term sky pilots before? Uh? It seems to have

607
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: faded out of of the history books to a large extent. Yeah, yeah,

608
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 1: I first heard the term sky pilots in a song

609
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: by the group called The Animals, which features Frank Burton

610
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,399
Speaker 1: I believe as the leader singer. Uh, They're they're most

611
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 1: famous for covers of songs like Please Don't let Me

612
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 1: Be Misunderstood or House of the Rising Sun. But yes,

613
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: sky Pilot confused me because without knowing this background, it

614
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 1: sounds like a very redundant title, does it not sky Pilot? Like?

615
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 1: What what do you? What is there lands pilot? This

616
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 1: necessitates the existence of a pilot for every kind of known,

617
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: conceived of all thing. What is it? Is there a

618
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 1: plateau pilot? That's that's that's a good point, Ben, And

619
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,239
Speaker 1: it's it's it's less, it's it's much more irritating than

620
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: sky Captain. Again, not to not to harp too much

621
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,600
Speaker 1: on this, but you know he's the captain of the skies.

622
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:20,040
Speaker 1: Is this guy the pilot of the skies? He's piloting

623
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: the whole thing? Come on, man, I don't understand. It

624
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 1: doesn't make anything. But although it would be hard to

625
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 1: captain an entire you know, where does the sky? Where

626
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: does his jurisdiction end? Right? At what point space? Exactly? What?

627
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 1: We need more specifics I think we need. Yes, we

628
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: need more specifics. We need some more stats on this

629
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:44,320
Speaker 1: before we can make a determination. Sky Captain, Cloud Commander. Yeah, okay,

630
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:49,200
Speaker 1: So here's what happens with Frank. Frank is uh, Frank

631
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 1: is living his best life in the spring of eighteen

632
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:58,399
Speaker 1: nine when he and his spouse Ever go to work

633
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 1: at the Presbyterian church in a town called the Midge,

634
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 1: which Noel I believe fellow Fargo fans will recognize. It's

635
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: the first, specifically pioneer church in the town. And while

636
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: Frank is getting ready for this, he still makes time

637
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 1: to go speak and as I would say, share the

638
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 1: good word with the lumberjacks. Sometimes his wife even comes

639
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 1: with him and provides music. Again, this is a show

640
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, you know, whether regardless of

641
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 1: their own spiritual beliefs, this is something they enjoy doing

642
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,479
Speaker 1: on a social level. Yeah, they had a cool little

643
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,919
Speaker 1: portable organ that's always seen described as but I gotta

644
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: wonder if that means it's like a harmonium kind of

645
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: situation where you pump it by hand while you're playing

646
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: chords with the other hand, Because I mean, a true

647
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: organ in these days there would be nothing portable about it,

648
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 1: so it has to be something really clever. Um. I'm

649
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:54,759
Speaker 1: interested to do a little more digging on that, And

650
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 1: you know, Higgins spent a good bit of time there

651
00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 1: in the Midgey Um. After he initially rely was denied ordination. Uh,

652
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: he finally got his stripes or his what do you

653
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: call it? What's that collar thing. There's a name for it,

654
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,040
Speaker 1: the caller. I think he's just called the collar anyway,

655
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 1: that's more for a priest. He was a Presbyterian minister.

656
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:15,440
Speaker 1: I don't think they would have worn the collar. But

657
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 1: he leads this effort to remodel the first Presbyterian church building.

658
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: They want to make it bigger because he's like attracting

659
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: more congregants. And in doing this he did it not

660
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:32,040
Speaker 1: by getting donations, not only rather by getting donations for

661
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 1: you know, the stuff that would be required to build it. Um.

662
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,959
Speaker 1: He actually once again put his money where his mouth

663
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:42,479
Speaker 1: was and and participated in the work himself. This guy

664
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,240
Speaker 1: was was the real deal. And he would travel around

665
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: all the while. He'd go and visit all these other

666
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: lumber camps, nine in total. He'd visit three each week

667
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 1: and then come back to his home base where he'd

668
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 1: continue the work of renovating the church. Yeah, exactly. And

669
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: this hard work pays off. By the early twenty century,

670
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,919
Speaker 1: nineteen o nine or so, Higgins has earned a reputation

671
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 1: beyond the borders of Minnesota. Harper's Magazine writes about him,

672
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 1: people are seeking him out for speaking engagements. Unfortunately, time

673
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: takes its toll on us all. In nineteen fourteen, Higgins

674
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 1: is diagnosed with cancer and he dies in January of

675
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:30,279
Speaker 1: the next year. And he's only forty nine years old

676
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 1: at this point, but still he's had a profound influence

677
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:36,839
Speaker 1: on thousands and thousands of people. In fact, The New

678
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 1: York Times in their obituary on Frank Higgins said he

679
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: had quote taken the Gospel to more than thirty thousand

680
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: of the roughest men in the world, and with that

681
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 1: the legacy ends. So no, we went on a journey

682
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:56,400
Speaker 1: to figure out the origin of a term that I

683
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: think really stuck out to both of us, and we

684
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 1: found this amazing story within that. It is inspiring, I

685
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: would say, whether regardless of anybody's own particular spiritual beliefs

686
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,360
Speaker 1: or lack thereof, it's it's a very human story, it is,

687
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,799
Speaker 1: And I think Higgins comes out looking kind of like

688
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: an awesome dude through all of this, especially since he actually,

689
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: you know, labored physically. He put himself in harm's way

690
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 1: constantly for the benefit at least in his mind of

691
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: of these loggers, and he and the folks that came

692
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,479
Speaker 1: after him or that he inspired, did things to try

693
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:37,279
Speaker 1: to help improve conditions in the logging camps, if not

694
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 1: conditions in the logging industry. But I mean, what were

695
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,360
Speaker 1: they gonna do. I mean, that really is kind of

696
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 1: best left to unions and in the government. There's only

697
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 1: so much you can do, and the workers have to

698
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,920
Speaker 1: demand that. Um And eventually, uh they did technolog technology

699
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 1: kind of caught up, and you know, Uh, it's still

700
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: dangerous work, but I don't think we have nearly as

701
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: many deaths as we once did. Yeah, agreed, And we

702
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: wanted to end on some uh who want to end

703
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 1: on a on a on a lighter note, right, So

704
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:12,920
Speaker 1: we found some lumberjack jokes. I think we'll share a

705
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: few of those. No, Max Nolan, I were chatting offline

706
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:20,920
Speaker 1: and there is one lumberjack joke I love, but it

707
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:25,440
Speaker 1: is not safe for work. No, you and Max asked

708
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: me to tell the joke, but we it would take

709
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 1: so much editing and be being I'm really I don't

710
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 1: want to hype it up. I just I think because

711
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:37,240
Speaker 1: of the premise, it's maybe not the best for this show.

712
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:40,759
Speaker 1: So here are some short jokes we can we can

713
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:42,480
Speaker 1: share together if you want to. If you want to

714
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: hear the full dirty lumberjack joke just right to us

715
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 1: on Ridiculous Historians or at our email. Is it the

716
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: one about the lemon and the glass in the bar? No, No,

717
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,680
Speaker 1: that's a good one. That was filthy to um, what

718
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: do we guys, Let's see? Uh oh, let's see. Lumberjack

719
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:04,280
Speaker 1: wants old me he's cut down two trees. I asked,

720
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 1: how do you how do you know exactly how many? Uh?

721
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 1: And then he says, easy, I keep a log. Or

722
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:18,239
Speaker 1: a lumberjack went into a magic forest in Canada to

723
00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: cut a tree. Bought arrival, he started to swing at

724
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,480
Speaker 1: the tree and it shouted, wait, I'm a talking tree.

725
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: And the lumberjack said, and you will dialogue. Oh oh boy,

726
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 1: a lumberjack says. One lumberjack says to another, you know

727
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:40,880
Speaker 1: I can cut a log just by looking at it.

728
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:44,279
Speaker 1: The other lumberjack says, that's not possible. The lumberjack then says,

729
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 1: it may seem impossible, but I saw it with my

730
00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: own two eyes. Bum bump bump. So we're going to

731
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 1: with much appreciation, called it a day. We would love

732
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 1: to hear you were jokes about lumberjacks. We would love

733
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: to hear your experience. If you have worked in a

734
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 1: logging camp, or if you had someone in your family

735
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:12,880
Speaker 1: who worked in the logging industry, we can't wait to

736
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 1: hear from you. We always like to round out the

737
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 1: show by thanking our own logging camp of ridiculous historians,

738
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 1: Uh super producer, Max Williams, Casey Pegram, Gabe Bluesier, our

739
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,799
Speaker 1: research associate. And let's see who else do we have

740
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: on the docket today? No oh Man even in the family,

741
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:36,840
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, who composed our theme research or Extraordinaire Gabe Louisier.

742
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 1: I only pronounce it that way because it rhymes with extraordinaire.

743
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 1: And of course Jonathan Strickland a k. The quister nol

744
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,200
Speaker 1: wet better way to end today's episode with a hearty

745
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:49,799
Speaker 1: yell of Timber, I took the first one. You want

746
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 1: to take us home, Timber. We'll see a nice time

747
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:08,719
Speaker 1: books m HM. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,

748
00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:11,440
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

749
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,