Henry Lundgren hired on at Hillcrest as a faller in 1949 and remained as a faller there until the camp closed. However, it was not the easiest start for him.

 

In 1948 the union was split into two factions with many of the original IWA charter members and executive forming the Woodworkers Industrial Union of Canada to break away from the international union and the American anti-Communist Taft/Hartly Act that was impacting on the leadership. When this failed, many of the original IWA members were black listed out of the union and this included Henry.

 

When Henry applied at Hillcrest, the IWA immediately contacted the camp committee and company to notify them that they had a non-union worker on the sight. However both the crew and Hillcrest management stood beside Henry and insisted that he was a victim of the union purge and should be allowed to remain working.

 

In 1962 when Joe Morris left the IWA to become president of the CLC, Henry finally received his union card.

 

During this period, Henry was chairman of the 1958, 66, 67 and 1971 Centennial Celebrations in Lake Cowichan, along with being very active in many other community projects, groups and organizations.

 

Allan hired on following the 1962 fire following the Hillcrest Bus Dispute. It was a warm, dry spring and the tinder dry timber ignited. The regular crews were able to get a reprieve from building fire breaks with the hiring of so many post high school kids.

 

Allan worked through the winter of 1962-63 building funds before going off to the Vancouver School of Art. During the next number of years Hillcrest ensured there was always a rigging job of some sort for Allan with spring and summer breaks.  

 

Those early years of working at Hillcrest with such a vibrant crew of excellent loggers was an amazing experience. It took great skill to log so productively with such antiquated machinery and the old timers taught the young ones how to do it.