UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES/PHOTO

Stewart Holbrook (left) with Washington Governor Arthur Langlie, Oregon Governor Earl Snell, and Arthur Priault of the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, standing on the Interstate Bridge in 1943.

I.

Ninety-eight years ago, in a logging camp deep in the forests of British Columbia, a logger in a funny hat walked up to a big stump, an ax in his hand.

Taking off the hat — it was a battered bowler, an…