Blackwater Ben
About this book
According to thirteen-year-old Ben Ward’s father, lumberjacks look forward to two things: mealtime and springtime. In the winter of 1898, Ben leaves school for a job as a cook’s assistant to his father at the Blackwater Logging Camp. As Ben spends long hours peeling potatoes and frying flapjacks, he dreams of working in the woods with the other men, felling trees, driving a team, and skidding timber.
While enduring a long, cold winter in a camp filled with outlandish characters, as well as an orphan boy named Nevers, Ben comes to understand himself and his family’s past. Peppered throughout with heart and humor—and including a glossary and afterword with facts about logging—Blackwater Ben paints a vivid picture of the north woods of Minnesota at the end of the nineteenth century.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- Logging Camp Glossary, or Lumberjack Lingo
- 1. Daylight in the Swamp: Blackwater Logging Camp, 1898
- 2. Winter Dreams
- 3. Gosintas
- 4. The Bull Cook's Theories
- 5. A Trip to the Dentist
- 6. Needlenose and the Swingdingle
- 7. The Iron Burner
- 8. Dishes and Devil's Cups
- 9. Early Snow
- 10. Under Tar Paper Again
- 11. The Photograph
- 12. Nevers and the Sissy Sticks
- 13. The Hospital Fund
- 14. Highball Logging
- 15. Charlie's Story, or Punting on the Cherwell
- 16. The Deacon's Bench
- 17. The Sky Hook
- 18. The Norwegian Helper and How One Monkey Got Sent Down the Road
- 19. Jiggers Jumps Again
- 20. Christmas and the Good Sisters, or The Nun and the Blue Butts
- 21. To the Races: Graybacks and Jacks
- 22. Boiling Up
- 23. Love and Lemon Pie
- 24. One-Plug Prince and the Tote-Road Shagamaw
- 25. Weather Boy
- 26. Felled by a Blue Butt
- 27. The Coldest Day
- 28. Snow Snakes and Hodags
- 29. A Soggy Outfit
- 30. The Two-Day Blow
- 31. A Sunday Fling
- 32. The Promise of Town
- Afterword
- Logging History Resources