Book Review and Black Bear Attack Excerpt: Handloggers by W. H. Jackson

Handloggers is the biography of Alaskan pioneer W. H. (Handlogger) Jackson and his wife Ruth Jackson, nee Ruth Johnstone. 

Jackson moved into Alaska about 1917-18, prospecting, handlogging, and trapping. He was born about 1883-84 in California, when the fastest transport was a steam engine train. Most of his travels before 1920 were on foot, horseback, or by steamship. He married in 1927, and died in 1970. During his long outdoors career, he developed an outstanding reputation for skill and fair dealing.

On page 225, Handlogger writes of the unprovoked black bear attack he foiled with a stout walking stick. It was in 1960, near Kegan Cove. He was about 76 years old.

He called the stick his "snozzle stick", claiming if he ever needed, he could hit a bear on the "snozzle" with it. Jackson is very good at telling a story. One day, while hiking, he saw a large animal moving the thick brush, coming directly at him. He could not determine what it was. He was standing on top of a log. From Handloggers:

At twenty yards, I still could not see what it was. I hollered some more, but it didn't turn. It was something big, coming deliberately at me. There were no grizzlys around, nothing I'd seen that would bother me in all the years I'd worked there. My snozzle stick looked awfully inadequate, but trying to run would be useless.

At thirty feet it broke into the open, a black bear in full charge. No mistaking its intention. Ears flattened, eyes blazing, teeth bared, huffing and snorting, it lacked only the size, speed, and volume of a big grizzly or Kodiak on the warpath. 

My snozzle stick was water-soaked and heavy from lying in the rain water in the bottom of the boat. I grasped it in a two-handed swing like a ball player and brought it down across the bears nose just as its teeth were snapping half a yard from my shins.  

I must have hit hard. The bear shut its eyes tight, ducked its head, and ran back to the top of the knoll. There it sat down to watch me. When I was sure it was not coming again, I backed off the log and headed for the beach.

I was mad. For more than fifty years I'd been prowling through the brush where black bears were as thick as rabbits, and I'd thought no more of meeting a black empty handed than I'd thought of meeting people on the street. Now to have this fool bear destroy all my trust in the blacks, all my respect for them!

Handlogger Jackson had spent a lifetime as an expert ax man. His livelihood depended on being able to place an ax blade to within a small fraction of an inch where he wanted it to go, while standing on a tiny platform, and expending a full power stroke. It is plausible he could do the same thing with a walking stick while standing on a log. 

Jackson went back to where he had left a rifle. He had thought it was unnecessary in an area where only black bears were common. He returned and killed the black bear, a big sow, as he considered it a threat to any human it came across.

The book is an excellent account of pioneering in Alaska during territorial days, and the transition to a state.

During Jackson's long career, he wrote articles for the Alaskan Sportsman magazine. Some articles were assigned by the editor, who was a friend of Jackson's.  His first article appeared in the fourth edition of Alaskan Sportsman, in April of 1935.

Jackson's most popular article in the Alaskan Sportsman, was a rewrite of the "Old Groaner" story, in 1953, 17 years after the original article. The original article was written only a few weeks after the event which occurred in November of 1935. 

The original story was published in the eighth edition of Alaskan Sportsman in February of 1936, written by F.W. Gabler. 

This correspondent came across "Handloggers" while doing research on the "Old Groaner" mythology, in order to understand the person who wrote the 1953 re-write. The 1953 re-write was re-published in the book "Blood in the Arctic Snow" in 1956. The re-write was re-published in 1986, in Alaskan Sportsman.  The 1953 re-write was re-written in Larry Kanuit's book, Bear Tales for the Ages, published in 2001. The 1953 re-write has been the source of several articles and much myth-making on the Internet. 

Aside from the connection of being written by the same author, there is no mention of Old Groaner in Handlogger Jackson's biography. Handlogger spent considerable time with his in-laws over the 26 years he was married before 1953. There were several mentions of Bruce Johnstone, Ruth's younger brother, in "Handloggers". Bruce Johnstone is the man who shot and killed Old Groaner in November of 1935. 

It is likely Jackson heard the story from Bruce Johnstone more than once.

There are many close calls and adventures in the Jackson's lives. Most of them involved boats and the weather. Some involve animals. Jackson has a flair for storytelling. Some of his stories include his opinions; some probably contain a bit of literary license. If you enjoy reading well written, real life, adventure stories, read "Handloggers". You won't regret it. 

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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