Historic Hood River
Necessity
6-6-2025
Notes
Ed Wonsyld was foreman at the Dee Mill in the 1930s. In the course of his work he made several innovations to improve operations at the mill. This “Transfer Derrick” earned him US patent 2213540A issued in 1940. It appears his innovation was to achieve with 2 hoists the function of the existing 3 hoist derrick. If you need to move some logs around your yard you might take a close look at this mechanism.
A “transfer derrick” is used to move logs from a pile in the yard to a railcar or another pile. You can learn about all the different kinds of derricks here. You can imagine an improved derrick would have been valuable to an operation like the Dee Mill.
Kalley
I never knew that a Derrick could have so many variations.
I remember Ed Wonsyld as being a very nice man. I don’t remember talking to him about this derrick, just that he worked at the mill. Thanks for this information Arthur!