Searching for the Evergreen Man
 Dean Barton
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 2003 Llumina Press
 ISBN: 1932047239

Tall tales of the last timberjacks in the Oregon forest.

Get ready for a total immersion into another time & place, where loggers fall & buck, peel & snip, hook & whittle the tall trees of the Pacific Northwest rainforest, readying them for the skid road & the riverhogs who will send the giant toothpicks hurtling down river, millward.

Searching for the Evergreen Man is both a historical portrait of a species of men who walked & talked their way West across the great prairies to the mountain land of the Forest Queen, where her Timberbeasts & Woodland Spirits, flit from shadow to shadow, while mere mortals hew into the cathedrals of firs & pines; & a collection of stories about their adventures in Oregon territory, circa 1923, where tall tales abound.

On the way to Crater Lake, (one of the most awesome places on this earth) near Lava Lake, setting up logging camps, near communities with names like Sweet Home. Here everything is bigger, taller, stronger, longer than flatland life.

Owing much to the legacy of Scandinavian sagas, Searching for the Evergreen Man takes you into the vast evergreen forest to meet the timberjacks, whose exaggeration is dwarfed only by the trees & Dean Barton's poetic, engaging & richly textured writing.

These mythic men, Woody & the Professor, Abe & Whitey, embody all that was mighty & muscular, feral & funny about these sons of Paul Bunyan. You will catch their timber fever, meander through the stories of outrageous & daring deeds in the logging camps, local towns & always among the trees. You will sweat with awe & dread as you stand beside Abe when the Red Wolf rears its fiery head, & shiver in the river along with Whitey when the conflagration explodes upon the summer-fried, forested mountain tops.

If you have ever wondered where the wood came from that made your tables, chairs & floors
• if you have ever dreamed of life around a campfire, deep, deep beneath the forested canopy
• if you have ever found yourself entranced by the Lumberjack Championships on OLN (Outdoor Living Network television);
• if you have ever mourned the demise of an immense natural wonder, & wondered what clear cutting was, then Dean Barton's Searching for the Evergreen Man will fill you with the sights & sounds, the language & the life of the men of this fabled land & their doubled-headed, ruby-lipped axes.

So sit back & listen as this author lights the campfire of a much revered & enjoyed tradition to tell of these legendary men & the tall tales they told.

The difference between legends & tall stories is one of provenance. Living among the tall trees & having listened to my share of old loggers' tales, I can vouch for Dean Barton's authenticity. He offers Searching for the Evergreen Man as homage to his forefathers. His skill, in listening & translating the stories he has heard all his life, is mesmerizing.

Very well done!
(10/05/03)

Rebecca