Couple shares stories of lumber life with students

There once was a boy who was sent from his home in Duluth, Minn. to a logging camp far, far away so his parents could get him away from an influenza epidemic in 1918.

The small Jewish boy met a French-Canadian lumberjack, and fourth-graders at Butterfield Elementary School read about their adventures in “Marven of the Great North Woods.”

Inspirational to be sure, but perhaps a tad foreign and fanciful to a bunch of Maricopa kids rooted in iPods, video games and the desert. That is, until they meet Eulene and Smokey Conley.

The couple, parents to Ember Conley, Maricopa Unified School District’s deputy superintendent, was in the lumber business, following the seasons from Oklahoma to New Mexico to Colorado, starting off with mules hauling the big logs to founding a large lumber mill in Dolores, Colo.

For four years, Conley has convinced her parents to be the real-life example bringing history to the here and now at Butterfield.

“(The students) need to see a real-world story,” she said. “And it became therapy to mom and dad to see others interested in their life.”

Conley remembers a cedar chest brimming with photos and other memorabilia of those days; she was filled with questions.

“I grew up fascinated and loved hearing all the stories,” she said. “I was raised around saw mills and heavy equipment.”

“My dad was very giving; always helping others and giving them a living,” she said.

Involved in different aspects of the lumber business, her parents bought Tiger Tail Timber Treating in Maricopa in 1988. It still exists as Simmons Lumber; they sold it in 2006.

Eventually her parents relocated to Ahwatukee.

***ADVERTISEMENT***When Eulene and Smokey come to class, they share stories and photos of days when camp meant no running water, loggers had to construct a house in one day to shelter through the logging season, saws only had manpower, not electrical, and Eulene was the camp cook.

“Not all houses had tarpaper, but ours was a more exclusive one,” Smokey quipped as Eulene laughed.

Smokey explained how a tree had to be notched a certain way so it would fall right, “and allow you to get out of the way.”

Pupils get to see how machinery and technology changed through the years with mules giving way to trucks and hydraulics.

Kids’ questions run the gamut from “Did the girls have hair products?” to “How heavy were the logs the mules pulled?” to “Was it fun?”

To that Smokey answered: “The job was important; and I never didn’t like going to work.”