I moved to Oregon from Illinois in 1964. The father of one of my first friends in the then small town of Bend was a logger. Actually a faller, at that time. Now they are a cutter. Ever since my introduction to this new life I have felt that anyone who describes a logger as a lumberjack, has no actually experience with either. Recently I had a thought that maybe in some parts of the country loggers where commonly called lumberjacks. Is that true. This group certainly covers the country from one end to the other, with more than a few loggers too. My personal experience as a choker setter lasted about three weeks, between college semesters.

Cutters is the common term here. Seem to come in about the time feller/bunchers came into use.

Used to be pulpwooders and loggers, the terms being self evident. That was back when pulp was bucked into four foot lengths with a bow chain saw and loaded mostly by hand.

Logging is a bad word here now


It went from logging to anti logging and shutting down all the Mills to forest fires to thinning to prevent forest fires using the same logging trucks

Cutter hand or Ax hand is what we call the feller-buncher operators. Skidder driver, delimber hand and loader hand for the rest of the crew.

Grew up in Klamath it was always fallers and knot bumpers, with chain saws. Cutters were the ones that drove machines that had a saw on them

Around here fallers fall trees and on some jobs limb them and cut to length where they were dropped. Deck workers limbed and cut to length where they were stacked if not already done. Very few of either is left as everything is done by machine now. If you even see a chainsaw anymore it is on 1 or 2 man jobs or where the hillside is so steep a machine isn't practical and they use high leads to skid the logs to the road.

There's a place for Lumberjacks...after all, we can't have Monty Python singing the "Logger song" now can we?

Bear guy ,the correct term as per my kin is "Choking Hookers " he was working as a line logger

In western Canada the general term for anyone working in the logging industry is just "logger." Back in the 80s when I was logging I started out as a "bucker." That job entailed bucking logs to length on the landings. Later I started falling timber with a saw. The guys who did that were called "fallers", or "hand fallers". Later I fell timber in the mountains around Del Norte Colorado, and we were called "cutters" there.

You anywhere near Burns ?? This ^ sounds like a Harney County story !

Lumberjacks here,Or Boucherons.
Big festival in Kap every summer.

Years ago in my area it was always Lumberjacks, they hand felled with crosscut saws, skidded with horses and had river drives. Then the term went to loggers, hand felled with chainsaws, skidded with dozers then rubber tired skidders and no more river drives, timber moved by truck. Today still called loggers but around here most every logging company is fully mechanized. There are few loggers in my area left hand felling, and pulling cable.

Call it what you want it was darn hard work.

And very little pay.

People ask “what’s the most dangerous thing a power lineman will do in his job?”. Answer…
Run a chainsaw.

Lumberjack was an early eastern US term. for timber fellers. What else could it mean?

Not here. When I first started falling timber the going rate was 25 cents a tree. Later they started paying by the load, but a decent faller could make $400 -$600 in a 6 hour day real easy. I worked with fallers who made double that. Keep in mind that was in the late 70s early 80s. Dont think there is any hand fallers anymore though. Its all done by machines except down on the coast.

Lumberjack seems to be the term folks use nowadays when describing the old timey fellas that first stripped this area of White Pine. Back then, those guys didn't use the term "Lumberjack", they called themselves "Shanty Boys". My Great Grandad worked in logging camps each winter for decades, and his older boys also, when old enough. He spoke of that era, and their profession then, as being "Lumbermen". He's the guy second from the right in front of the sleigh. My Grandad is at the far left, behind the sleigh. His older brother is the guy in the middle of the three standing low on the load. This photo was taken approximately 1910-1912, in what was known as the Deward Tract, in Crawford County, Michigan.

After reading through all the comments, it seems that lumberjack is still used in some parts of Canada, eastern Canada mostly. Also in some parts of Pennsylvania, and in the old days nearly everywhere. It is still used by newspaper reporters and TV reporters. My choker setter experience was behind a D6 cat, operated by a catskinner. Each job seemed to have its own name, but I think the crummy was still full of "Loggers", on their way to work.

timber man was or is a term used for about anyone who works in the timber. The log truck drivers are loggers, the fellas cutting the trees and bucking them were fellers, and the sawmill operator was a sawyer. The ones who skidded the logs out, rather by horse, mule, or machine are skidders. All the rest were hired hands.

In the part of Tn. I lived logging was a pretty big deal. It has been for many many years. A lot of my kin were involved in most everyway they could be. Loggers, fellers, sawyers, skidders, and hired hands. Some even worked in the timber when they were floating the logs down the Tn. and cumberland rivers. My 2nd cousins had the very first gas power saw in Houston county from what I have been told.