For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember the origin of organized Loggers Sports in BC you should be aware of one of the original organizers, Bill Moore, of W.D. Moore Logging in Winter Harbour BC.

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Bill was not a competitor but had great interest in all things logging, including the sport. He was proud of the Industry and thought that logger’s sports should become more of a showcase to show the world what was done in a fun way, and show how skilled strong, and talented our loggers were.

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As early as 1966 Bill was involved in things such as fundraising and was called in by the PNE of Vancouver to consult on a new showgrounds just for logger’s sports. From the work of Bill, and others, in the Summer of 1971, the government of BC proclaimed logger’s sports as the “Provincial Industrial Sport of B.C.” This was done by Premier W A C Bennett in his Order in Council Number 712. Throughout the following Winter CANLOG committees organized together to create the rules and schedule upcoming shows.

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Bill believed that CANLOG could help create a healthy and good image for our loggers like cowboys and sailors have. He felt all company managers should allow time off for competitors to attend the shows and that CEOs of larger firms should be in full support including funding, and attending the shows for support.

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During the 1970s and 1980s, Bill along with others promoted logger’s sports to the world, by fundraising and travelling the world with a crew of competitors to Eastern Canada, Norway, Finland and other forest harvesting countries. He felt our competitors were the perfect ambassadors for Canada and the sport. This was proven true by the many accolades the crew received on their travels. In Europe skilled chainsaw competitions, very different from ours, were their “logger’s sport”, and they reveled in our teams unique and much more crowd pleasing style of show. On the Europe tours it was noted by our crew the professionalism of the sportsmen there and this information was brought back to Canada. Bill tried hard to bring the European style competitions to Canada as he felt their focus on safety and professionalism, while not as entertaining, had an educational factor for our public, and our loggers, however, other than a few small tours and the occasional addition to regional shows, it never really took hold. In the 1980s Bill was also instrumental in having the sport showcased at Expo 86 in Vancouver.

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There were many people involved in the sport that helped to build its current form, and many pages could be written of them, Bill was one of them and a true supporter of our Industry, our workers, and our sport.

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Bill was also a prolific writer and wrote monthly for many years for the BC Lumberman and other publications. Many of his articles were on logging sports. They are all available online at www.wdmoore.ca, there is also many other historical articles and pictures.

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 Bill passed away in November 2000.