Published: October 11, 2008 11:31 pm      

Lumberjack event packs Twin Falls

MULLENS — Most artists use a delicate brush, a sharp pencil or maybe their bare hands as their tools for the trade.

Don Blanchard fires up his Husqvarna 345 chainsaw.

A crowd estimated to be in the thousands gathered at Twin Falls Resort State Park in Wyoming County Saturday for the 26th annual Lumberjackin’ Bluegrassin’ Jamboree. Joseph A. Swiney, activities coordinator for the park, said all the park’s rooms were booked.

The three-day festival, which concludes today, featured a Saturday morning lumberjack contest in which teams raced to split logs, cut poles and work with both cross-cut and chainsaws, Swiney said. This year, though, only one lumberjack team, from West Virginia University, came and performed an exhibition.

“The crowd really gets into it,” Swiney said.

Bluegrass music, clogging dancers, arts and crafts exhibits/sales and hay rides for children are also parts of the festival.

“It’s a real family affair. There’s a little bit of something for everyone,” Swiney said.

Blanchard, a Bath County, Va., resident, has been a mainstay at the festival for 19 years. Armed with either his Husqvarna or a Steele 210, he turns a simple pine, hemlock or poplar log into a work of art as awestruck crowds gather. He sold spectators carvings of “mountain men,” deer, bears, eagles and Native American chiefs.

He has called himself the “chainsaw artist” the past 25 years and travels throughout West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania practicing his craft. As a younger man, he drew cartoons and made clay sculptures. He later moved into his boyhood home, where the oil furnace did not work well. He decided to cut firewood, but with his chainsaw, he carved a statue of a man holding a bowl instead.

“I don’t know how that happened,” he said.

The reason chainsaws are the tools of his trade is simply time.

“It’s a 100 percent time factor,” he said. “I’m not in love with a chainsaw, but (time-saving) is the main idea. I’m done with chiseling. It takes forever.

“I can carve anything. I made a Scottish bagpiper. That was tough. I’ve done a motorcycle and a backbone for a chiropractor’s office.”

Blanchard noted he has never been injured doing his work, but safety is always at the forefront when dealing with chainsaws.

Emory Webb of Dameron was amazed by Blanchard’s work.

“This is a man’s idea of crafts,” Webb declared. “When we heard the chainsaw start up, we had to come and watch. This man is a craftsman.

“And nothing is wasted. You’ve got firewood when everything is done.”

Bobby and Judy Hoover of Alderson brought their woodworking and cross-stitch crafts to the festival for a third year. Their work includes several animal carvings, like cats licking their paws clean or a bear that appears to be seated on a toilet — complete with a toilet paper roll on one side and a magazine rack on the other.

“We met a man selling pork rinds at the flea market and he said he believed our crafts would do well at Twin Falls,” Judy Hoover said. “We enjoyed it our first year, and we continue to go. We don’t make a lot of money, but we meet some nice people.”

Today’s hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The day will feature crafts, food, clog dancing, bluegrass music and hay rides.

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com