Benjamin “Benny” Remedies has been named the Oldest Logger by the Zwolle Loggers and Forestry Festival.
He was born on Sept. 30, 1944 to Robert “Bob” and Gladys Bebee Remedies as oen of 11 children. He attended St. Joseph Catholic School for six years, then moved on to public school. He graduated from Zwolle High School in 1962. During his senior year in high school, he met the love of his life, Mary Rivers. They married in 1963 and had one son, Dale. They have three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Sadly, Mary passed away in 2017 after 52 years of marriage.
Benny started working in the woods when he was 12-years-old during school holidays and summer breaks. His jobs included feeding the mules, marking the log lengths, and unhooking grabs at the log set as the logs were skidded in. Later on, he drove tractors and loaded log trucks with a cable loader. He went to work with his father right after graduation and remembers the evolution of logging well. By the early 1960s, things improved and mules were replaced with gas burning tractors before switching over to diesel. Cable loaders were upgraded to hydraulic loaders. Crosscut saws were upgraded to power saws. He recalls equipment not having any air or heat. He made $40 per week and remembers saving up $300 for a down payment on a new 1963 Ford truck.
In 1964, he decided to move to Henderson, Nevada to work at Titanium Metals. The bright lights and city life weren’t for him, so in 1967 he came back home to Zwolle and began working for his father again. The first log truck he ever drove was a 1967 750 gas burner single axle. He has been working in the logging industry for the past 56 years now, at one time owning his own logging job. He has worked for other logging contractors such as Jimmy Colston, Stanley Sattler, Calvin Jones, AT Martinez and Sons, Sam A. Rivers, Bo Ezernack, and presently he is employed with Garcie Logging.
“I never got rich working in the woods, but I made a comfortable living,” he said.
Benny is honored to be chosen as this year’s oldest logger and is following in his father’s footsteps, as Bob was the festival’s very first oldest logger in 1995. He invites everyone to this year’s festival, which will be held on April 21-22 in Zwolle.
For more information please contact Lela Malmay at 318-471-2354.