Iconic logger from old Harbor Vue Drive In getting a makeover

Group of locals saved sign from the scrap heap, hopes to get placement in Aberdeen

By Dan Hammock • July 27, 2017 8:30 am
(Dan Hammock | Grays Harbor Newspaper Group) The 24-foot-tall logger from the old Harbor Vue Drive In in Central Park saw the light of day for the first time in more than 25 years Thursday. Ralph and Danny Stangland rescued the iconic image from the blowtorch decades ago and it is just now getting refurbished.
(Dan Hammock | Grays Harbor Newspaper Group) The 24-foot-tall logger from the old Harbor Vue Drive In in Central Park saw the light of day for the first time in more than 25 years Thursday. Ralph and Danny Stangland rescued the iconic image from the blowtorch decades ago and it is just now getting refurbished.

The 24-foot logger sign that stood at the entrance of the old Harbor Vue Drive In in Central Park for decades is getting a makeover.

Brothers Ralph and Danny Stangland happened to be driving past the old theater in 1989 and saw a sign company employee cutting up the iconic figure. He had already lopped off the top of the logger’s head when the brothers stopped him. The two disassembled the huge sign and stored it for some 28 years in the old gas station near the intersection of U.S. 12 and Karjala Road.

Denny Jackson, who recently retired after closing down his Blues Brothers Hot Tub shop in Hoquiam early in July, remembered the sign and when he learned the Stanglands were in possession of it, he started talking to the brothers about it. He wanted to restore the sign and said it took a couple of years to convince the Stanglands that he could do it, and he is hoping to get permission from the City of Aberdeen to place it next to the Welcome to Aberdeen, “Come as you Are” sign on westbound U.S. 12.

“I tried for years to figure out who had the sign and got nowhere until I met Danny,” said Jackson. He learned he “was talking to the wrong brother” and it was Ralph he needed to get a hold of. Without a contact number for Ralph, Jackson got creative.

“It was his 75th birthday, so I wrote him a note telling him happy birthday,” said Jackson. The card also read in part, “Hey, I’ve been trying for years to get a look at the Paul Bunyan sign and haven’t had much luck.” It continued to describe what Jackson had in mind for the sign, and ended with, “If not on your 75th birthday we could do it at your 85th.”

The Stanglands and Jackson unveiled the two-sided sign last week. One side is almost completely refurbished — the head is welded back together — while the other remains in the same condition it was in when Act III Theaters bought the drive-in and called for the sign’s demolition in 1989. Gone are the neon lights that lined the figure — longtime locals will remember the lights flashing in such a way the ax blade appeared to be in motion — and local artist Jerry Spargo freshened up the paint, keeping as much of the original paint as possible.

Former Aberdeen City Councilwoman Kathi Hoder has been a vocal advocate for the placement of the sign in Aberdeen, but said she hasn’t had much luck gaining traction with the City Council. The group has presented the idea to the council in the past few years but so far no decision has been made one way or the other. Hoder told the Stanglands and Jackson on Thursday that if the city doesn’t come through she would like to put it up at her vehicle licensing office on Sumner Avenue, and would like to do so by Loggers Playday in September.

Jackson said he figures it will take another $8,000 or so to complete the restoration. Donations are being taken at Hoder’s licensing office and can be mailed there attention DeCourcey Hoder, 2616 Sumner Ave., Aberdeen, 98520.