Roland Ellefson was one of the sawmill operators near Lawrence Lake (previously Bear Lake). Building a summer access road to enable the sawmill operation was a challenge. Trees along the roadway were felled leaving a high stump. The logs were skidded into the trees by horses.
Smaller brush was removed with axes, piled and burned. The remaining stumps were pulled with a cat and skidded into the bush. The cat had no bull dozer so sharp gullies were filled by horses and scrapers. After putting in culverts made of logs or rough sawn lumber they were ready to make the grade, or the top part of the road.
The grader that was pushing dirt onto the roadway often encountered rocks and large roots. When this happened the wheels lifted off the ground and the grader sheared sideways along the slanted blade. The grader would whip sideways and unless the operator was hanging on he was launched into the nearby bush.
The cat operator found this amusing but the grader operator not so much. They grader operator finally refused to go on unless they took turns. The result was much safer operations as the operators knew if they didn’t remove the obstacles they were up next.