 Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, fighting the many enemies of nature. This is the job of the guardian of the forest, Ranger Bill. Pouring rain, freezing cold, blistering heat, snow, floods, bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions. Yes, all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. Say, would you ever think that a lumberjack fears anything? Now, you take a big strapping bruiser like Frenchie Dussalle. How could that giant of a man fear any living thing? The big fellow has hands like bear paws and muscles made of steel. He stands six feet six in his stocking feet and weighs 240 pounds. Frenchie afraid of something? Well, that's almost a joke, but it's the truth. The big congenial French Canadian has one fear even greater than that of forest fires. You'll find out what it is by listening to the story The Log Jam. This is the sound of a swollen river. A river swollen with spring fall waters from the snow-covered mountains. This is a sound that lumberjacks like. It means that now they can get their sea legs in shape by riding logs down the river. Of all the jobs a lumberjack does, this is one of the most dangerous, but yet it's the most thrilling. Pike pull in hand, he hops and jumps from one racing log to another. He spins the huge pieces of trees with his spike boots. He shouts with joy as he outwits a log trap. Yes, the lumberjack is happy when he can ride log back style. Let's join Frenchie and his men as they get ready to send loose logs and log rafts down-screen. Stay attention now. You take your crew and move the loose logs out so you will be way ahead of the rafts. Yeah, sure boss, they have been doing it right away. We'll be on the spot that we stay one year up ahead of you fellas with them rafts. Come on, let's go boys. Tony, you and your men take the first raft. Give only about three hours start down the river. Sure boss, Tony and his men they push the bigger raft down the river like a robot. Never mind being a robot, that pile of log weigh a hundred tons. I do not want to spill all over the river like toothpicks, understand? Okay Frenchie, we keep a watch out for bigger rocks in the river. Come on man! There's no trouble where you be boss. Right in my private log. Frenchie, he has got his own private log and he beat you all down the river. Frenchie isn't joking about his private log. The big fellows picked a perfectly round log and he uses it to transport himself along the river as he keeps an eye on his men and rafts. With the skill of an Indian and his canoe, Frenchie guides the logs in the midstream and then brings them back to the river bank by making them spin under his racing feet. His men watch him with admiration. Here's a boss who can outdo any and all of his men even though they're experts and specialists in their own fields. This is one way Frenchie keeps his testimony for the Lord alive and real. Yes, he's a Christian in every sense of the word since Bill led him to the Lord. I got spring fever. I sure love the newness of spring. Every spring I can't help but think of the new life the Lord gave me when I accepted him as my savior. I'm not right. Old and dead pastures turn to new and green fields. Trees grow leaves and flowers bloom. It's sign of new life. Yes, nature shows us that what seems to be dead can come to beautiful life. We can compare that to ourselves, once dead in sin, but now through Christ having new life and the new life is eternal. Yeah. How can any man not believe in God? Look at those flowers. How delicate they are. Why, each one is the work of a master creator. Boy, I sure do enjoy the springtime. We all do, pal. Yes, sir. No place in particular. We're heading in the general direction of home. Now work's caught up for the moment and I thought we'd enjoy taking the long trail back to town. Just enjoy yourself. Miss Plenty, good idea. It does man's heart good to be an outdoor country. Yep. It's the best nerve tonic ever heard of. Even famous doctors prescribe it for folks who got the jitters. That's why we need to mosey along and drink in some of this medicine ourselves. Have you got the jitters? No, not right now, anyhow. Sometimes you fellas get me jumping pretty hard. You mean jerky turkey? It seems that everyone's in a gay mood in this fine spring weather. Lumberjacks are taking their logs to the mill and soon they'll have a rest from the tight logging schedules and severe winter weather in which they have to work. The gigantic log rafts are floating rapidly downstream in the swift current. Large wooden rudders, one on each side of the raft, are manned by several men. Frenchie seems pleased as he rides his private log and keeps an eye on the rafts. Suddenly, the big Frenchman comes alert as his eye spots a large rock right in the middle of the river. Lean on those rudders and head for the right side. What do you say, boss? Rock ahead. Get over it. Lean on those rudders and steer her off the turn shore. Dead it over, Tony. Jump for it and swim ashore. Go on, jump! A gigantic pile of logs held together by huge logging chains heads for the large rock in mid-stream. The cumbersome raft can't be steered around the obstacle so it'll crash into it and there'll be logs all over the river. The heavy chains snap like paper straws and the logs sprawl across the river and continue downstream. There are approximately a thousand of the big trees running a muck on the river and this could mean trouble for Frenchie and his men. I'm sorry, Frenchie. I had to skive the raft around the rock. It should come on too soon. Oh, forget it. What is done is done. You fellows, get dry clothes on. Grab your pike poles and get to work. We have lots of logs that need watching. They must be brought under control or we have logs on when they get to narrow spot in the river. Joe, you and your boys go up the river. Stop other rafts. Tie them up, keep them tied up till you hear from me. Okay, Frenchie. Right away. Let's go, man. There's anyone busier than a lumberjack and a floating log. He's got to maneuver the logs around him so they won't cross and jam. He's got to keep his balance because one slip in the fall between two of the giant sticks of wood and he'd be a goner. Tony and his men have caught up with Frenchie and they work feverishly to keep all of the logs heading straight into the current. The narrow spot in the river is just ahead. Frenchie keeps the men alert and going full blast. He keeps right on working as he directs his lumberjacks. Hey, Pedro! Look behind you or we'll wish you hard! Ole, what you do up here? I think maybe you need help. Our logs got through the narrow so can't. Stick with your logs to see that they get to the mill pond. Frenchie, he's got enough help. Hey, Tony! You've got cross log in back of you. Make it straight or we have jam. Okay, boss! Hey, do now let those logs right on top of the other airs. They can't help it. There's three cross logs here. Straightens them all. We can. Oh, what you tell Frenchie? Here, I show you. We can't budge them, boss. Hey, boss! Look up at the river. What you see? The river's covered with logs. Where did they come from? They're not ours. Oh, now Frenchie see everything. Those logs, they are wild. Everybody, get to Riverbank County double or you'll get killed. That's the one thing for sure. The log jibber. This is the one thing above all others that the lumberjacks fear. The jacks watch as the huge logs slam into each other and pile up across the river making a great dam. Thousands of tons of timber grind to a stop. The pressure within the jam builds to terrific intensity as it grows bigger. The logs wrestle each other and the smaller ones are splintered like balsa wood. The great fear the lumberjacks have is of finding the key logs. These are the logs that cause the jam. While the men are looking for them, they are intensely alert for a cracking sound or any indication that the key logs are giving way. Right now, Frenchie's more concerned with a mass of strange logs that descended on them than he is with the jam itself. This is a finite kettle of fish. What a mess. You tell Frenchie nothing he do not know. Then I find out whose logs those are. Frenchie put him in the kettle and bore him with the fish. Orly, he's coming now. Maybe he's able to tell us who is the brand on the logs. What do you find, Orly? Those logs belong to Ben Larson by Yamp and Youmini. Ben Larson? Wait until Frenchie get his hands on that dumbbell. I make him wish he had not done this. Don't go and cool off, boss. You're too mad to talk to anybody. Orly, Orly, you are right. Frenchie almost forgets a Christian anger. She is not for Christians. Hey, here comes Ben Larson and his voice. Oh, Frenchie? Hello, Ben. Why the long face? You're not angry? I was. But when Frenchie remembers a Christian, Frenchie also remembers he makes mistake too. Sometimes very bad. You mean you're not going to start a fight about the log jam? Ben, we got enough trouble without starting a fight. A fight only make our problem bigger, not clear them up. Frenchie, for a long time, a lot of us have looked at your change to religion as sort of a softening up in your part. But I have just changed my mind. Religion hasn't softened you up. It's given you a change of thinking. It's made a real man out of you. That stuff might be good for all of us. How about it, man? I try to leave a Christian testimony in front of all you men. At time, I do not think I do very well. Thank you for those fine words. Look, I guess we better take a look at the jam, huh? I'm sorry it happened. I got my dates mixed up and I realized it after the logs had started down the river. It was too late then to do anything about it. A Frenchie has had worse ones than this. Let's take a look and see what we do, huh? Don't fall asleep in the saddle. Mind fall off, really hurt yourself. I'll be all right. There, big rattlesnake. Where? I don't see it. All right, you guys have fallen my leg. It's better than if you fell off and broke it, Johnny. Yeah, I guess so. It's really a day for sleeping out of the old apple tree. We not sleep anymore today. Look what come toward us. Jumping tadpoles. The river's overflowing its banks. You're not just joking, sonny. We got a flood on your hands. It's only a mile to the river. Let's get over there and take a look. Come on, come on. Cops don't like that high water. No, sir, they don't. They smell of the danger. I wonder about high water. Yeah, so do I. Water not this high three days back. I'll say it wasn't. The river had a good flow to it, but not floodwaters. And what do you think about it? I was going to ask the same question. Hey, the ideal lights are going on in your eyes, Bill. This is log-floating time, fellas. All the lumbercams take their logs to the mill during the next couple of weeks. Yeah, that's right. Frenchy is the first man down the river every spring. I wonder if he's got a log jam downstream. Man alive. If he hasn't, he's really got trouble. Tons of it. Boss, she's a bigger beauty of a log jam. I can't define the key logs. Frenchy, not fine either. Buried down under the pile. The river's flooding behind the jam. If we don't break this up soon, we're going to have a real mess. How about dynamite? Yeah, that is what we use. Tony, Oley, get the dynamite charges ready quickly. I'll help you set them. Maybe we blow the top logs off then find the key logs underneath, huh? Okay, boss. We get them ready quickly like a rap. We have to go before we know if there's a log jam. I don't know, pal. All depends what caused the jam. Rock and river could start key logs turning sideways and start jamming. Hey, Jay, look! Oh, yes, Sherry! Come on, now. I'd still like to know where the jam is. Well, my guess is that it's at the Narrows. Yeah, they're made! They have jam in Narrows, and they have real problems. Yeah. So do all the people in the valleys around. The river running over its banks. The good yard was setting them sticks. They ought to blow the top logs all the way to the mill. If that happened, Oley, then we quit trying to float them down the river and just blow them to the mill. That way we'll stop the log jams. She's ready to blow, Frenchy. Oley, everybody, run for cover. I will set timer for ten seconds. Blow the warning whistle to the ears. Hey, boss, we're just to waste our time. Yeah. All we did was blow a few of them top logs off the pile. Boy, I sure made a mess out of things. We might have had to sneak the logs off with cats one at a time now. Do not discourage yet, pal. Frenchy has set these sticks deep this time. Bring the dynamite to follow me. Chisel no good, boss. The logs, they stick alike and they nail together. And how they do? We better send for our cats and chains and start sneaking the logs off the pile. We'll be here until the end of summer. No, no, no, take it easy, boss. Take three days to get the car and sneaking it down here. Frenchy, not give up so easy. Frenchy scrotches it a while. Maybe he'll come up with a good idea, no? I sure hope so. My boss will hang my hind to the highest tree for this if we can't break it up. Like he said! Brother, that's a big one! Hold it up here, fellas! You fellas take off down the valley from here and spread the word. Tell the people not to get excited. As soon as the jam has broken the water will stop overflowing right away. I'm going out of the jam and see if I can help. Mike Bell. After you're through, come on back to the jam. I hope by that time it'll be undone and everything back to normal. The whole story will be a friendship. He'd be glad to see you. Maybe your idea how we break up logs, eh? Yeah, Tony, see you do many things. Maybe you can help us. I'm not a lumberjack, fellas, but I'll be glad to take a look at the logs. That's very dangerous. We never know what when key logs give way and then the whole jam will move down the river in a hurry. Nobody ever lived through that. Yes, I understand, Oli, but I think Frenchie's idea is the best. Try to get up under and inside the center of the pile and set the dynamite there. Oli, if key logs not break loose, then, well, we'll be here week and week working night and day to pull these apart log by log. Right. Well, the other lumbering outfits will be in matter than hornets because the river will be tied up and they can't get their logs to the mill before the river level is way down. Well, we won't get anything done standing here. Let's get under the log pile. Tony, Ben, Oli, you men stay here. Give us the dynamite and gear. No sense in all of us risking our lives. Frenchie got big problem to squeeze between logs. Not much room, man. I'm having the same difficulty, Frenchie. Yes, it's almost like a small cave in here where the under logs held flat and the middle logs jammed up. The middle logs are the trouble maker, Spill. I can believe that. Now we've got to find out which of these overgrown rolling pins is the tree jammer upper. Well, the big problem is that there is always more than one. This time, there may be dozen. If we knocked out a few, wouldn't that start the ball rolling? The explosion would build up terrific pressure underneath here. How about these six? Frenchie, think if we knocked them out, maybe we'd start something, eh? Yeah, they're in the center. I think they're the most likely to work on. Frenchie, agree. We get dynamite ready. Right. Instead of tying bundles of the staff to the logs, stringing the bundles around several of them, why don't we wedge the sticks in between the logs carefully? Then wire them in series, and when they blow, I think they'll create a much more powerful pressure wedged in between the logs length. Oh, Frenchie, you think you've got a good idea. Maybe that's what we should do before, eh? Here are sticks of cups in my pocket. I'll give you some. What's the matter, Frenchie? The cups Frenchie run out of. No, get new supply. What a memory I have. Well, we both better go back out while I get dynamite cups. I'll be all right here, Frenchie. You'll make faster time alone. You're not afraid, logs, my chief. If they do, it won't make much difference. They couldn't get out anyhow. No, we can. Frenchie, hurry, so we get out of this dead trap. You all set the now, boss. This the time you have all of the cups you need. We are, Frenchie, go now. Bill and Frenchie, be out soon, and we try to break up this for good. The logs are moving. Oh, come on. Come on, we've got to help you. Well, Arson, I hope you're satisfied. Your mistake, she just killed Frenchie's best friend. I hope the jam will be broken by the time he gets back. He didn't say be beneath it. Frenchie, forget dynamite cups. Take valuable time. Go back for more. Frenchie here kills Ben of making a mistake. Frenchie may bad mistake, too. Frenchie just as guilty. Oh, Frenchie, you can't blame yourself when you can't blame Ben. This was an accident. Bill has many close calls. Feller can't defy death all his life and get away with it forever. Stumpy speak truth. Maybe you'd be dead now, too, if you had caps with you first time. Any chance that you could get out? Not even one small chance? Not even small chance, Henry. Bill Christ, under thousands of tons of law. What am I going to do? I lost my father, my brother, my friend all at once. Whoa. Oh, Henry, you've got to take this awful bitter pill like a man, like a ranger. Yeah, that's what Bill always said. You know, boy, you can't dodge the realities of life even as terrible as they are sometimes. Bill's the Lord's chief forest ranger now. Everybody in this part of the country going to miss him bad. They're not another man who can take his place. There are only one Bill Jefferson. Yep. Well, Fellers, you better get about the gruesome job ahead. What's that? Find Bill's body so we can bury him. Three times now. I'm still not Find Bill's body. Fresh heat, thinking no use. Yep, I guess you're right. The man is well, go home and try again in the morning. Fresh heat, fixed place for you to stay out here, huh? Thanks, but we have to go back to town. We've got to tell Bill's mother. Who's going to do it? Won't ask me to, will you? Oh, Henry, I'll tell her. We tell her together. Well, let's get started. I'll lead storm back to town. Everybody will know when they see the empty saddle. Storm's in his stall. Seems like he do, didn't he? You see the way he kept turning his head, looking for Bill? Yep. He didn't like them to saddle any more in water before we go and tell Bill's mother. Yeah, I could use one. Hello, Fellers. Bill almost had a heart attack. I'm not joking. I mean, we almost had three of them. That is true. How'd you get out alive? That's what I want to know. Well, when those key logs began to move, I knew my only chance was underwater. You'll remember that the Narrows have rock banks. I knew that there might be small caves underwater. So I dove under the logs and swam for sure. The Lord sure helped me because I found a small cave in about a minute and a half, just when I thought my lungs were going to burst. Inside the cave, I was able to get my nose above water and breathe. Wow. Boy, you've had some narrow ones. I think this is the narrowest. Bill, how do you know when to come out? That's where the Lord guided me again. I waited until I thought the danger was over and came out. I didn't see you fellas around or living soul, for that matter, not even storm. So I walked to the highway and got a lift to town, changed into dry clothes, and here I am. Just to show you, the Lord can do the impossible. Daniel got out of the lion's den, and Bill got out. I don't know about you, but the hair on my head is standing straight up. I really thought Bill was dead. But it was the Lord's will for him to live. We'll see you next week for more adventure with Ryan.