Sitting here remembering things from the past my thoughts went back
 to the time that Ridder Lumber Co. put a railroad up line fork and Bear Branch,
around the late 1930s and early 1940s.
I was about 5 years old, when they put it up at Bear Branch.
They used a steam shovel to dig the road bed for the track.
Men layed the ties and rails by hand.
I can remember watching the work being done as they went by my home,
the railroad went two and three forth miles up Bear Branch.
   At the time this was  known as Gilley Ky that was our post office.
 After they got the railroad built they had special loading places for the
 logs to be loaded that pulled the logs out of the mountains with teams
 of horses. There was a log landing in front of my home, I would sit and
 watch the log loader load the train that was operated by steam.
   The hill that they had the log landing was about one hundred feet high.
 I did not think how lucky, I was to have had that experience so early in life.
We do not think about things like that at the time it is going on.
 We look back and see things that we have experienced in life.
If we could call back time, we would get more out of life than we did.
One of the men that ran the train was called Red Blevins. I did not
know who the fireman was.
   The railroad went up long Bear Branch and came out on Leather Wood in Perry County.
They had a sawmill in Perry Co.
   At this time the war was going on we had to have stamps to buy coffee,
sugar and shoes.
I remember going with my father to Ridders Camp in head of line fork to get a pair of shoes.
The men that worked for Ridders had money but could not buy much
with out the stamps.
   Where they sawed the  lumber was down near Hazard. The sawmill was called a ban saw,
I don’t know much about it. I was told that one tree that they cut down and hauled to the sawmill,
they had to put dynamite in a small hole in first log so they could burst it open before they could saw it on the mill.
It is said that they got a plank from the second log that was 9 feet wide.
   I have a picture of the tree while it is still standing I would be glad to share it with any one that is interested in it.
If there is anyone that has more info. on this please send it to this book or email me at  mailto:[email protected]
 

 I hope this might help some one to get a little look into the past.