The timber industry was at its peak when I was a kid in Gopher Valley. Lumber mills were running at capacity. Logging trucks, at first with single axles and gas engines, followed by heavier diesel trucks, poured out of the hills around Sheridan. Sometime after the mid-1930s, Murphy Brothers was the first company to use a fleet of diesel trucks in the Valley. They were sturdy Kenworths, built in Seattle. Here’s a short video about Kenworth, how it got its name, and much more.
Just beyond our small fenced yard, huge log trucks would blast angrily over the crest of the hill, clattering over short-coupled washboard road. The ground shuddered as logs momentarily darkened the sky. I would run screaming toward our house.
A cloud of light brown dust whooshed up into the air then settled back over our yard—and me—dirt, gas or diesel fumes, and the sweet aroma of the freshly disturbed fir tree bark.
“I was appropriately terrified“
At three or four years of age I was appropriately terrified. I learned to always listen carefully whenever I was near the road. Later, as I began riding my first bicycle, I would keep my head turned slightly so I could hear any kind of vehicle approaching. At the first hint of a vehicle sound—truck or car—I would steer for the ditch and hunker down as a truck rushed by.