This bench was made by sculptor Morgan McDonald and unveiled on July 19, 2019, commemorating the 500 volunteers who formed the Newfoundland Forestry Corps. The non-combatant military unit built a 900-metre-long chute that quickly moved the logs from the top of the hill to a pond at the bottom, where they were then floated to the sawmill. The log chute was widely believed to have been the longest in the world at the time. The corps cleared more than 1,200 acres of timberland, a supply that was critical to the Allied war effort.
The bench also commemorates some 3,600 loggers Newfoundland and Labrador sent overseas during the Second World War. The British government suggested making the unit a civilian one, because there would not be enough time to recruit, equip, and train a military company. These volunteers formed the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit and helped supply timber products critical to British coal mining operations.
Some 2,150 volunteers, between the ages of 18 and 55, agreed to six months’ labour and the first draft of 350 men sailed from St. John’s to Liverpool on 13 December 1939. After completing six months of service, many foresters returned home or joined the British armed forces. The British government asked Newfoundland to recruit an additional 1,000 volunteers, but this time requested that the contract last for the duration of the war. Some foresters were injured on the job and 34 died. In addition to logging, the unit also produced telegraph poles, pulpwood, and lumber used in shipbuilding, the rebuilding of bombed structures, and the construction of air raid shelter bunks.
