Sahtlam Hillcrest Photos

Courtesy Dick Pollock and Al Stone

Below are a series of rare photographs sent to me by Al Stone who received them from Dick Pollock. Dick is the son of J.D. (Jimmy) Pollock who was a long time friend of Carlton Stone and worked for Hillcrest for many years.

All Hillcrest was saddened October 24, 1936 by the news that their popular sawmill manager J.D. Pollock had passed away at the King's Daughters Hospital in Duncan at the age of 49. Jimmy was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1887 and came to B.C. in 1911. He first worked with Carlton Stone at the Island Lumber Company by Somenos Lake, where he was the bookkeeper and Stone the shipper. Both were still single then, their only responsibility to themselves. They liked each other and shared a vision of the future: so whenStone struck out with Henderson, Jimmy went along for the ride. The two worked together for twenty-four years, Jimmy as bookkeeper with an interest in the company, then as assistant mill manager, and finally as manager. His quiet competence and conciliatory nature made him respectedand liked by all, a fact readily seen at his graveside where over one hundred cars brought mourners to the service. His untimely death was a great loss to the Hillcrest Lumber Company, to his friend Carlton Stone, and to his wife and family of eight children

This rare photo is of J.D.Pollock left and Hillcrest planer mill foreman Adam Dickson.They are seen here standing before a pile of lumber stacked for the dry kiln.

The above photo of Mr Pollock and his biography was excerpted from my friend Ian McInnes wonderful book "Carlton Stone's Hillcrest". Thank you Ian for your permission to put it on the webpage. We appreciate it very much.

I received the below e-mail from Ian:

Those are great photos, especially the one of the whole Pollock family. I spent many hours at Pollock's place when we were kids, Larry, Dick, Helen and I. Lots of fun and laughter then, great memories.

I also received a phone call from Ian Mc Innes letting me know that the man with Mr. Pollock has in fact been identified,and has been corrected in the second publication of his book. He is Adam Dickson. Adam was a long time employee at Hillcrest Sahtlam and also at Hillcrest Mesachie Lake. Adam was the planer mill foreman for over 30 years, and my first foreman at Hillcrest.

Here is an absolutely rare and fascinating photograph of the entire Pollock Family taken about 1935. Pollock road is named after the family in Sahtlam today. Many thanks to Bruce Pollock for giving me permission to show this photograph on our web page.

The family of James and Lilyan Pollock, ca. 1935 Left to right: James, holding Richard, Mary, Stewart, William, Robert, Helen, Jean and Lilyan holding Lawrence (Larry - Bruce's dad).

Note: Richard (or Dick) Pollock and his sister Mary Jolin (Pollock) until recently were regular attendees at our annual Hillcrest Lumber Company Employees Reunion.

Mary Jolin (Pollock) and brother Dick Pollock at a 2008 Hillcrest Lumber Company Employees Reunion

Click below on Mary's memories of Hillcrest

Mary's Memories of Hillcrest

This photograph looks like a planer cyclone and the object sticking up may be the mill whistle.

Stripped lumber drying in the yard.

Another view from a different angle of the stripped lumber drying.

A winter scene showing one of the two ponds and stripped lumber piles.

Of course the bee hive burner. Probably the same one they had at Mesachie Lake years later.

One of the ponds for booming logs.

Might be company housing in the foreground. In the back ground the smoke stack and bee hive burner are visible.

I believe this to be the big mill where they cut large timbers and beams. In the centre of the photo you can see the large timbers and a crane sticking up at an angle probably used for loading the timbers onto flat cars.

A very interesting photo showing box cars and flat cars at the loading dock getting ready to be loaded. Note the railroad stakes on the flatcars. Also a railway spur line on the left.

Loading large beams and timbers onto flatcars. Backbreaking work...

This is a great panorama shot of the mill site. The long building in the upper centre is the gang mill and was largely responsible for Hillcrest's surviving the Great Depression. The mill site stretched three quarters of a mile along the E & N track. On the lower right side is the sawmill where the timber's were produced. Any log under twenty six inches went to the gang or Swede mill. Anything larger was sawn into beams and timbers in the big sawmill. Circa 1934

This photo is probably taken inside the gang mill. This looks like the tracks with the gang saws at the far end.

Another closer up photo of the gang mill. It was 36 feet wide and 204 feet long. It employed seven men and produced 30,000 board feet of lumber in eight hours.