Literature Available

Bernsohn, Ken. (1981) Cutting Up the North: The History of the Forest Industry in the Northern Interior. North Vancouver: Hancock House Publishers Ltd.

Location: PG Public Library, 338.47 Ber

	Penny Spruce Mills opened by Roy Spurr (p. 26)
	Spanish Flu: reported cases in 1918, lumber camps hit hard, shortage of workers, sawmills and lumber companies ran advertisements in the Citizen. (Upper Fraser Lumber Co. of Dome Creek needed bushmen, teamsters, fallers, swampers; Red Mountain Lumber Co. of Penny wanted bushmen and millmen; British Columbia Express Company wanted woodcutters to cut steamer cordwood (p. 27)
	1920 – dimension lumber selling (rough) at $32 per thousand board feet, (planed at $38 per thousand board feet); all major mills busy: United Grain Growers (the largest), Eagle Lake at Giscome, Upper Fraser Lumber Company, Aleza Lake Mills, Hansard Lake Lumber, Penny Lumber, Gale and Trick at Hansard Lake, and eleven other smaller mills (p. 31)
	Cranbrook Sawmills at Otway closed in 1928 and purchased Red Mountain Lumber Company at Penny (p. 33)
	The Guilford Lumber Co. took over the old Vick Brothers mill east of Penny (p. 51)
	Early 40’s: The larger operations at Penny, Sinclair Mills, Upper Fraser and Giscome milled day and night (p. 51)
	1955: Cornell Sawmills at Dewey selling out to Penny Spruce Mills (p. 79)

Source: Bernsohn, Ken. (1981) Slabs, Scabs and Skidders: A History of the IWA in the Central Interior. Prince George: IWA Local 1-424.Source: Bernsohn, Ken. (1981) Slabs, Scabs and Skidders: A History of the IWA in the Central Interior. Prince George: IWA Local 1-424. Source: Bernsohn, Ken. (1981) Slabs, Scabs and Skidders: A History of the IWA in the Central Interior. Prince George: IWA Local 1-424. Source: Bernsohn, Ken. (1981) Slabs, Scabs and Skidders: A History of the IWA in the Central Interior. Prince George: IWA Local 1-424.

Location: PG Public Library, LOC 331.88 BER

Bernsohn provides a description of camp life (~ 1920’s):

"At Snowshoe, Penny, Dome Creek, Newlands, Sinclair Mills, and 129 other camps along the East Line of the CNR, men continued to get up in the dark, eat in the dark, ride down a plank road in the dark, and then sat around in the dark – waiting for enough light to start work. They had to. The camps started the same time summer and winter, whether it made sense or not. The men usually worked in teams: one man would fall, one would limb, and the third would use the horse to haul to the skidways. They’d break for lunch in the woods. This meant standing around for four hours a day in January since there was only enough light to work for six hours, but you were usually paid by the day and the boss wanted a full day. The money came once a week, once a month or never. If people running the camp went broke, the loggers were left holding the bag" (p. 8).

	Penny: the mill was built on stilts on the river bank (p. 9)
	Logging was declared an essential industry. A law was passed allowing timber to be taken from anywhere necessary (date is not stated in text). The big operators at Penny, Sinclair Mills, Upper Fraser and Giscome milled as long as there was logs to cut, day or night, and still needed more production (p.11)
	November 6, 1953: Strike CN got an injunction to stop pickets from halting shipments Penny Spruce received injunctions that told the union they couldn’t stop shipments or even peacefully pickets (p. 39)
	Early 1960’s (Bernsohn doesn’t specify a date) Northwood bought out Church Sawmills, Cornell Mills, Dewey Logging, Penny Spruce Mills, Sinclair Mills, Eagle Lake and Shelley (p. 54)

Ramsey, Bruce. (1964). John Giscome's Country. Giscome: Eagle Lake Sawmills Limited.

Location: PG Public Library, 971.12 Ram LOC.  Copy in file: Academic Papers

	First post office at Penny – Feb.1, 1916
	Nels Pedersen opened the office
	The origin of the name "Penny" has been lost (p. 51)

Drushka, Ken (1998) Tie Hackers to Timber Harvesters: The History of Logging in British Columbia’s Interior. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing.

Approx. 1915-1917: Roy Spurr built Penny Spruce Mills at Penny – it later became Red Mountain Spruce Lumber (p. 83)

A Penny for your Thoughts: A History of Penny, British Columbia. Prince George: The Penny Reunion Committee, 1995.

LOCATION:  PRINCE GEORGE PUBLIC LIBRARY 971.182 PEN

Overview

Introduction (by Bob Harkins):

Reasons for the demise of Penny Sawmill:

1. large timber declined in Upper Fraser River Valley

2. centralization/consolidation of pulp and lumber industries in P. G.

Beginnings of Penny (p.1-2)

1. early 1900’s = trappers

2. c. 1914 the GTPR construction camps; hospital built

3. 1916 "Penny" is put on a map; postmaster assigned

4. GTPR brought lumber industry

• Penny Lumber Co., 1917 (Roy Spurr, T. B. Wall, Hugh McKenzie)

• Penny’s first forester, 1922 (Mr. Langmuir)

	Farming, lumbering, railroad maintenance are the main employers
	School opens, 1921
	The "Hungry Thirties" and on… (p. 3)

1. Sawmills shut down due to depressed lumber markets

2. Farming, road building (gov’t relief) replaces lumber work

Post WWII Boom! (p. 3)

1. Lumber in high demand because of the building boom

2. Many communities along CN’s eastline flourish

3. Influx of European immigrants

4. High employment rate in lumber industry draws people to Penny

5. Population of Penny peaked in 1958 at apprx. 675 people

6. Sawmill closed at the peak in 1958; population plummets

1960’s

1. mill reopened under new management and runs until 1965

The "Back to the Land" Movement, 1970’s (p. 4)

1. Two tree planting companies

2. Fire suppression crews

1980’s

1. Penny Salmon Hatchery

2. Penny schoolhouse had opened, closed and re-opened over the years; in the 1980’s it closed for good