Southern Loggin’ Times Contributing Editor Jennifer McCary has the opportunity to visit BJ Logging in Summersville, West Virginia. Former Game of Logging (GOL) champion Rick Smith has been ‘timbering’ the West Virginia mountains since his late teens and operating his own business since his mid-20s. Before winning the national award in 1995, he was a two time state GOL champion and had previously placed second in the national competition. Smith also represented the U.S. in the world championship competition held in Germany, courtesy of Husqvarna. It was an exciting and memorable experience. Never shy about trying something different, Smith has grown BJ Logging (named after his first son), from a hand crew to a large mechanized set up and now a lean four-man cable yarder operation. Conventional mechanized tooling didn’t work out very well, Smith reports, primarily because tracts were so inconsistent in size and logging conditions.

Featured Story: “WV Survivor”

Written By: Jennifer McCary
Company: BJ Logging
Location: Summersville, West Virginia
SLT Issue: April 2013

Check out other featured articles in the May 2013 issue of Southern Loggin’ Times magazine.
Southern Loggin’ Times April issue spotlights Alabama’s Wayne Hawkins, who has been in business for 50 years with Hawkins & Rawlinson, Inc. logging insurance company. Steven Gaar and his son Spencer run three crews in Louisiana, and Rick Smith finds his niche as a high lead logger in the Mountain State.