A logger, and the son of a logger. That begins to describe Floyd Clarence Workman, but there is much more. On the afternoon of August 20, 2002, Floyd sat down at his home in Tollhouse for a discussion with the Central Sierra Historical Society. He had just returned from two chemotherapy treatments for cancer in Fresno. Floyd would not be put off. He was prepared and ready to go. Ed Selleck facilitated the discussion. It was recorded and filmed by John Harshman and Karl Michel.
| Ed Selleck and Floyd Workman, August 20,2002 Karl Michel photograph |
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| Family Background: Clement Alva Workman and Rosa Ella Dare-Workman were from Deer Ridge Missouri where they had a ranch. Five children were born there, son, Clement, and daughters, Mabel, Lelia, Ethel and Edna. Clement and Ella became acquainted with California through an uncle who was here during the Gold Rush and related his experiences. Clement needed a healthier place to live, so they packed up their 1914 Reo and headed West. What they couldn’t carry was shipped by rail. The family settled in Parlier. They retained ownership of the ranch in Missouri. In 1920, Clement and Ella bought an existing ranch at what is now 35885 Lodge Road, Tollhouse. It had a nice two story home painted yellow that, thereafter, was called, “yellow house”. The ranch extended north from Lodge Road to the base of “Slick Rock”. The Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company had a flume to carry lumber from several sawmills in the Pine Ridge area to Clovis. It crossed Workman’s property. Water spilling from the flume eroded the soil below marking the route. A trench formed by that erosion can still be seen where the flume crossed Lodge Road. On October 3, 1922, Floyd was born in yellow house. As the only sibling not born in Missouri, he was cast as the black sheep of the family. Clement did a number of things to supplement income from ranching. He took his team of horses up to the Bretz Mill and hauled lumber. He had a long association with Max Yancey who was into logging and ran a sawmill in Tollhouse. Later he became a watchman at Bretz Mill. Floyd would catch a ride up the mountain in a logging truck to spend time with his dad. |
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Clement and Ella Workman
Wedding day, August 8, 1898 |
Yellow House
Ed Selleck Photograph |
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Harvest time at Tollhouse. Clement is in the center. Ranch extended from road in front of yellow house to base of hills in background. Note flume running through hayfield. Floyd remembers lumber floating down the flume. |
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Clement Workman, bottom left, Max Yancey, top left. |
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Yancey Logging: Logging the bottom of Shaver Lake |
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In 1926, Clement hired on with the Fresno County Road Department and moved to Cascada, now known as Big Creek. The family lived in a house at “Old Town”, on the eastside of the powerhouse pond. Four year old, Floyd, got around the powerhouse, not by following the road, but by walking across the SJ&E R/R trestle that spanned the pond. A man in a position of authority scolded Floyd. The man was thought to be an old meanie, but it didn’t take long before the two became good friends. |
| Clement was part of a crew building a rock retaining wall for a road-widening project. A man working up the hill lost control of a rock. It came crashing down, crushing Clement’s left side. Clement was hurt badly and was never again able to do hard physical work. After only six months in Cascada, the family moved back to the ranch. Clement later served as constable in Tollhouse for eight years. In the late 1920’s, Ethel contracted polio. Nobody knew what it was or what to do about it, but Clement and Ella were bound and determined to get her well. They sold the ranches in Missouri and Tollhouse to raise money. It cost them everything. Ethel was an invalid and had the mind of a third grader, just where it was when she was stricken. The parents did their best to care for her, but ultimately had to place her in a rest home in Clovis. Floyd attended grammar school in Tollhouse at the site where Sierra Elementary School now stands. His two-room school was one of about five that have been at that site. It served eight grades and had two teachers. Kids got to school anyway they could. For Floyd it was a one-mile walk. When asked how he earned spending money Floyd just laughed. There was no way to earn money and he never saw any until in high school. When older, and with a little money, kids would pool their resources for entertainment. There were a couple of places along the Kings River where they went; one was at Trimmer Springs. The jukebox would be fired up and they danced the night away. The War Years: In 1941, Floyd graduated from Sierra High School and went straight into the Army. He was assigned to a group of Combat Engineers. Their job was to build landing strips and bases on islands in the Pacific. As the name implies, however, before construction could begin, islands had to be cleared of most of the enemy. Once the enemy was contained, heavy equipment would be brought in for construction. Floyd honed his truck driving and equipment operating skills in the rugged terrain of those islands. He had a natural knack for operating any kind of heavy equipment. After sitting and studying the controls for about 30 minutes he was off and running. One of the islands was Peleliu. Peleliu Island was the site of one of the most fiercely fought battles in the war with Japan. The Marines were having a difficult time. The Combat Engineers were called in. They came onto the island in waves of landing crafts spaced three minutes apart. Floyd was in the wave six minutes behind the first. A bronze arrowhead was awarded to those in the first three waves. You don’t see many because many of the recipients died. The Japanese were well entrenched. They lived in caves and hid in swamps. Snipers were a persistent problem. Floyd was wading across a swamp when a Japanese soldier threw a grenade at him. He ducked down in the mud: it saved his life, but he suffered a concussion. It had a temporary affect, but Floyd was able to carry on. Not too far in from the beach was an escarpment called the China Wall. It was an obstacle that had to be overcome. All the time the Combat Engineers were under fire. Dump truck after dump truck carried dirt to the wall. As it was dumped, a bulldozer pushed it upward forming a ramp. The dozer was protected with armor; the operator peered out of a small slit never knowing when a bullet would come through. It was eventually rigged with a periscope enhancing protection and enabling the operator to focus more on the job at hand. The operator loading trucks with fill was fast; he could load a truck in no time. That was important because drivers were easy targets. In all, 92 truck drivers lost their lives on Peleliu. After Peleliu Island was secured and construction completed, Floyd went to the Philippines. There he trained for the invasion of Japan. He was to be part of the first invasion forces. The attack was set for Thanksgiving Day, 1945. The war abruptly ended in August. Floyd was discharged on February 6, 1946. At the conclusion of the interview, John Harshman commented: “I’ve known Floyd many, many years and never knew until today he was in the Army”. Back To the Mountains and Logging: Floyd came home, a skilled trucker and heavy equipment operator. He found work in Fresno with Thompson and Ducey Tire Company. It wasn’t long before he was attacked with appendicitis. He came home to Tollhouse to recover from surgery, and decided that was where he wanted to stay. Bud Yancey had taken over the logging and sawmill operation. Floyd was driving down from Bretz Mill where he had been looking for a job when he met Bud driving up the mountain in a logging truck. Bud asked, “ When are you going to work”? Floyd replied, “Just as soon as you hire me”. Bud responded, “You’ve got this truck starting Wednesday”. Without any break in time, and with no one else in the cab, Floyd started hauling logs down the mountain to Yancey’ sawmill in Tollhouse. On a typical day, logging truck drivers would drive up to the job site and stage their trucks. Then they would go about doing whatever was necessary. Cat skinning, felling trees, setting chokers, they did it all. Next, they loaded their trucks and hauled logs to the sawmill. The trees were large. Once laid down, they were cut in 16 feet lenghts starting at the trunk and working towards the top. Many times the first cut was too large to be run through Yancey’s mill. Pine Logging would come buy them from Bud, load them and haul them to their mill near Dinkey Creek. A one-log-load constituted a “good load”. It offered a well-balanced load. It was held in the center of the truck bed by one small log on each side called “bunks” and tied down with cables. One-log-loads came from the second and third cut. The next best load was a three-log-load. Two logs rested on the truck bed and the third one was placed on top. Good loads could be hauled down the mountain expeditiously. A bad load was made up of many smaller logs. Many times it was hard to stack them into a balanced load making it more difficult to haul. These loads were held for drivers that were not part of, or out of sorts with the crew. By late summer, dust in logging areas became intense. In one case, working up on Bald Mountain, the dust was so thick and fine it rolled down the road in front of the trucks like flowing water. Floyd never saw anything like it before or since. Thrills are a dime a dozen in logging. Cat skinning in steep rugged terrain can be exceptionally challenging. It takes a full year of experience to develop confidence and competency. Slick granite rocks, of which there are an abundance, and steel tracks are incompatible. Every effort is made to avoid rocks. Cat skinners cleared a lot of brush to make room for logging operations. Many times the brush was higher than the dozer making it impossible to see what was ahead. Other times pine needles covered rocks concealing them. If a slick rock was driven upon, the steel tracks would just spin driving the dozer backwards. Floyd was clearing brush on an extremely steep hill working the cat carefully back and forth. All of a sudden a rock came flying across right in front of him. It had been thrown by a man on the ground to get his attention. Floyd stopped immediately. The man warned him of a big slick rock about to be driven on. Had Floyd hit it, he would have gone “scootin down the mountain” Loggers worked long, hard hours. The further from home the job site, the longer the day. Family life often had to be put on hold. Floyd married Pat in 1954. She was a schoolteacher. They had a son, Floyd Clement, born in 1958, and a daughter, Ellen, born in 1961. One year, Yancey was logging on Kaiser Ridge. Floyd was up at 4:00 A.M. Three loads each day were made to the sawmill. Sometimes the lead truck hauled four loads. When a driver became fatigued he pulled to the side of the road for a nap. The first driver to come by would honk, the napper would wake up and be on his way. Floyd would stop at the store in Tollhouse for a cold drink. His wife and kids came to see him. Those few minutes together was the way it was all season. He got home at 10:00 P.M., ate, showered and went to bed. Logs were stockpiled at Yancey’s mill. The supply was sufficient to keep the mill running through the winter and early spring to the start of the next season. Many loggers were idle during the off season. Floyd worked at the mill and stayed busy getting all of their equipment in shape for the next year. One winter, he drove to Oregon and returned with a large band saw. It enabled the sawmill to be upgraded to producing 100,000 board feet of lumber per day. Logging is hazardous work. A logger’s biggest protection against accidents is knowing his equipment and knowing it well. Many do their own maintenance to assure it is done properly. For example, drivers made trip after trip down Tollhouse grade running 22-25 miles per hour, equipped with water cooled brakes. Those men checked and double-checked their trucks before heading out in the morning. If brakes needed changing they would work all night to get the job done. A big advantage of working year around is it kept Floyd in shape. In the woods, round logs and steep hills is a dangerous combination. Rigging is another factor. Steel cables up to one and a half inches in diameter, ropes booms, slings and snatchblocks [pulleys] used in variable conditions can fill the day with safety concerns. Loggers have to be alert, strong and agile to deal with the many hazards. |
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One-Log Loads
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Above: Floyd Workman
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Yancey's Crew |
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A lesser recognized hazard is co-existing with rattlesnakes and yellowjackets. Rattlesnakes we know about. Yellowjackets are called “meat bees” which describes their choice of diet. Unknowing humans get a lesson on yellowjackets when they sit down in the woods to eat, or if they disturb a nest. If meat bees are present when a logger wants to eat, he will set a piece of meat on a stump some distance away. It acts as a distraction for the meat bees and enables the logger to eat in peace. Floyd was cat skinning one day when a helper led him right into a big nest of yellowjackets. “I would have run over that #*^%# had the cat gone fast enough”. Bud Yancey was a wonderful boss. He had expectations on how things were to be done, and those who met them had good jobs. He trusted his men, allowed them to keep their own time, treated them fairly, and gave them recognition for a job well done. Floyd had a lot of respect for Bud. When Bud passed away, many of those positive qualities went with him. Morale was affected. Back To School: Ralph Davis, an old friend who worked at Sierra High School, knew Floyd wasn’t very happy. Ralph suggested the school was always looking for good people and urged Floyd to check into it. In 1962, Floyd left logging and went to work at Sierra High as a bus driver. The school district has some of the most challenging bus routes to be found anywhere. Several of them go into far away canyons and steep mountains on narrow, twisting roads. Two of the longest and most challenging were to the powerhouse communities of Balch Camp on the Kings River, and up the San Joaquin River along the Million Dollar Mile. Floyd’s driving experience served him well. His approach was take no chances, stay focused and drive safely. He had an understanding with parents and students. Students would advise parents of days they would be late because of a game, dance, etc. Otherwise, if the bus was an hour late, parents were to come looking for him. It happened twice. Once the kids failed to tell parents they would be late triggering a false alarm. The second time, however, it saved the day when the bus was stuck due to a rockslide. The bus was staged overnight at PG&E’s Balch Camp for that run. Floyd drove a car over in the morning. Loaded the kids and bused them to school. One day, driving up he encountered a rockslide. The car got through fine, but when he returned with the bus, it was too wide to maneuver through. Drawing on his cat skinning skills, he pushed rocks around with his bumper. Some were too big so PG&E sent equipment down to clear the road. Floyd spent the next two days straightening out the fender on the bus. School dances were held on Friday nights. On those occasions it would be around 3:00 A.M. before the kids were delivered to their parents and Floyd got home. Along with bus driving, Floyd worked on school maintenance and in purchasing. |
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In 1984, retirement was attempted at age 62. Floyd soon returned to Sierra and worked another seven years finally retiring in 1991. |
| Reflections: Clement and Ella lived out their lives at Tollhouse. Floyd learned at an early age not to sass his mother. She once asked him to fetch firewood, he responded with a wise remark. She popped him on the head with a piece of wood teaching him a lesson never to be forgotten. Ella’s later years were very painful caused by a bad back. Something snapped one day when she was letting chickens out of their coop and it never got better. She never complained though it was obvious she was in pain. Ella died while Floyd was overseas fighting the war. It saddened him to lose his mother and not be there for the funeral. “Dad was a working devil”. Soon after Floyd returned home from the Army, Clement died at age 80 in 1946. Son, Floyd, is now 45, and daughter, Ellen, is 41. They both live in Fresno. Floyd has sage advice for young people: • “Education, regardless what you do in life, is needed”. • “When you find a job you like, learn all you can about it. If you are good at your job you will always have one”. • “Watch your back. Think safety. If you’re a logger watch the logs because they roll and you can’t trust them”. |
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Clement and Ella Workman |
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Ella's organ, acquired when she was a child
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| John Harshman CSHS Cameraman |
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Karl Michael photograph
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