Out of the Storm

The Galford Lumber Company Documentary

On September 21, 1938, one of the most destructive hurricanes in American history plowed its way up the East Coast and wreaked havoc on New England.  In addition to claiming a startling 682 lives, the storm’s casualties included more than a billion trees with an aggregate value of nearly 100 million dollars.

In the midst of the Great Depression, the disaster proved serendipitous for those in the timber industry when the Federal Government summoned lumbermen from across the country to assist in a massive salvage effort.

The Galford Lumber Company of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, was but one of many companies who responded to the call.

A tale of imagination, ingenuity and plain hard work, this film documents the odyssey of approximately forty loggers who left their homes in the southern West Virginia mountains to join the rural community of Northfield, Massachusetts, for up to two years.  Seeking little more than an honest day’s pay, some would find wives as well as wages, and all would experience the adventure of a lifetime.

a B. J. Gudmundsson – Doug Chadwick film

Experience the Odyssey!

This project is sponsored by the Pocahontas County Historical Society

with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council,

a state program of the National Endowment of the Humanities.