Logging Day in the UI Library Features Artifacts, Lectures, Readings, and Film

 

The University of Idaho Library has designated Tuesday, April 21 as "Logging Day," an exploration and celebration of the Northwest region's logging culture. The event addresses an array of perspectives on logging culture, including gender, personal narrative and primary source research and application.

Logging Day activities will include exhibits of the UI Library's artifacts from the last log drive on the Clearwater River; lectures and readings by three expert speakers in the field of logging history research, Sandy Goffinet, Kim Barnes and Dave Jones; and a documentary film about women in log rolling competitions, an aspect of logging culture still practiced today.

A lecture by logging historian Sandy Goffinet and reading by UI professor and author Kim Barnes is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 21 on the main floor of the library. Goffinet, a Lewiston resident who donated a significant collection of logging artifacts to the UI Library, will discuss the use of primary source materials in her research. Barnes, aLewiston native, will read from her memoir of coming of age in the logging camps of North Idaho.

The film screening of "Queens of the Roleo" will be at 6 p.m. in the Borah Theater on the second floor of the Bruce Pittman Center, followed by commentary from Dave Jones, the film's producer. Jones used many UI Library resources in creating the film, and thanks the special collections and archives staff in the film credits.

"Understanding logging in Idaho is key to understanding the state," said Jordan Wrigley, a Library staff member in special collections and archives who organized the event. "Since the beginning, logging has shaped Idaho's economy, landscape and culture in both big and small ways. The UI Library has many remarkable collections related to logging, loggers, and logging culture, and our intent is that Logging Day will create public awareness and facilitate access to these collections."

The event will highlight the library's digital collections, including Experimental Forest, Potlatch Family Tree Newsletter, and Idaho Forrester, as well as logging, forestry and wilderness materials and other special collections. The information presented will appeal to researchers at all stages, including private community researchers, genealogical and family history researchers, academic forestry and history researchers, and students presently pursuing research in class projects.