Sound Wormy: Memoir of Andrew Gennett, Lumberman

Set in what remains some of the wildest country in the United States, “”Sound Wormy”” (a term used in grading hardwood) recalls a time when regulations were few and resources were abundant for the southern lumber industry. In 1901, Andrew Gennett put all of his money into a tract of timber along the Chattooga River watershed, which traverses parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. By the time he wrote his memoir almost forty years later, Gennett had outwitted and outworked countless competitors in the southern mountains. Gennett’s recollections of a rough-and-ready outdoor life are filled with details of logging, from the first “”cruise”” of a timber stand to the moment when the last board lies “”on sticks”” in the mill yard. However, as John Alger notes in the afterword, Gennett’s head for business was ever in conflict with his poet’s soul, and he “”was drawn to the beauty of his surroundings as well as the commodity usage of the forestlands.”” Gennett recalls, for instance, his efforts to convince the U.S. Forest Service to purchase undisturbed areas of wilderness at a time when its mandate was to buy up farmed-out and clear-cut land. One such sale initiated by Gennett would become the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness in North Carolina. Filled with logging lore and portraits of the southern mountains and their people, “”Sound Wormy”” adds an absorbing chapter to the region’s natural and environmental history.