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July 2025

JACKSONVILLE, NC — Once upon a time, and perhaps it doesn’t feel like it was so long ago to those who were involved, there were as many as 11 different Goodson family logging businesses, each one a separate and independent company, operating in this part of North Carolina. People in the area, especially those connected with the timber industry, knew the Goodson name. And of course people from well beyond the area became familiar with it when Bobby Goodson’s reality TV series Swamp Loggers was a hit for the Discovery Channel from 2009-2012.

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Inside This Issue

COVER: Last Man Standing

JACKSONVILLE, NC —Once upon a time, and perhaps it doesn’t feel like it was so long ago to those who were involved, there were as many as 11 different Goodson family logging businesses, each one a separate and independent company, operating in this part of North Carolina. People in the area, especially those connected with the timber industry, knew the Goodson name. And of course people from well beyond the area became familiar with it when Bobby Goodson’s reality TV series Swamp Loggers was a hit for the Discovery Channel from 2009-2012.

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Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times

SOUTHERN STUMPIN': New SCTPA CEO

Back in February…somehow already almost five months ago…I went to Myrtle Beach to attend the annual meeting of the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. and bid farewell to Crad Jaynes, who is retiring from his position as SCTPA’s President/CEO after having served in the role for more than a quarter century. At the time, we knew this would be Crad’s final annual meeting, but the SCTPA board of directors hadn’t actually found his replacement yet, and no one knew what the timeline for that might be.

Article by David Abbott

BACKWOODS PEW: Witness Tree

Imagine it is hot (probably not hard to imagine this time of year). The air is warm, so warm you can taste it in your mouth. Sweat doesn’t trickle down your forehead, it runs in rivers. You cannot keep your eyes open for the sting of the sweat. Your sense of smell seems to have completely left you as the odor of dead, decaying leaves and mud attack your sinuses. You’re here for one reason: to prove that someone else was here before you. According to the document in your hand, a document copied at the local courthouse, you know that many years ago, a surveyor had passed this way. His job at that time was to mark out the location of a piece of property, a piece of property that you wish to own. Until you can find it, you do not know what you own or what you don’t own. How the surveyor did that job is what is recorded on the document in your hand.

Excerpt from Faith, Fur, and Forestry, Bradley Antill author.

INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
  • ALC/USLC Denounce CNBC Tariff Report
  • SHAMCO Is FRA National Outstanding Logger
  • GP Cedar Springs Set To Close
  • No Weight Increase
  • MLA Leads U.S. In Log-A-Load Funds
  • Virginia Loggers Organize Fundraiser
  • Ponsse Marks 30th Anniversary In USA

Last Man Standing

Mike Goodson is the last of the storied Goodson logging clan still working in the woods.

Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times

JACKSONVILLE, NC —Once upon a time, and perhaps it doesn’t feel like it was so long ago to those who were involved, there were as many as 11 different Goodson family logging businesses, each one a separate and independent company, operating in this part of North Carolina. People in the area, especially those connected with the timber industry, knew the Goodson name. And of course people from well beyond the area became familiar with it when Bobby Goodson’s reality TV series Swamp Loggers was a hit for the Discovery Channel from 2009-2012.

But today, there’s just one Goodson still logging in these parts: that would be Mike Goodson, 61. He’s Bobby’s big brother by 10 months. Since he has no next generation of Goodsons coming up behind him… his son works in a federal law enforcement agency and his daughters are in healthcare…it seems likely that whenever Mike does retire… hopefully not anytime too soon… that will be the end of Goodson family members running logging crews in North Carolina.

“It’s very surreal to me,” Goodson admits. “At one point, I had six uncles plus me, my brother, and three first cousins, all in the business. Everyone was independent, with separate logging jobs. We averaged between 800-1,000 loads a week with all family crews combined.” And now it’s just him and his two crews under Michael Goodson Logging, Inc. Time passed as it does, and the older generation, as older generations do, got older; some have passed on, others are still with us but have retired.

Mike’s baby brother Bobby, for instance, opted to get out of the business a few years ago, while the getting was still relatively good.

“Somehow, he saw it before it happened,” Mike reflects. “When fuel went to $5 a gallon a few years ago, he decided he was done. He was a swamp logger so everything he hauled was going to that mill in Georgetown, SC. When they announced the Georgetown mill was shutting down, everyone saw that my brother got out at the right time.

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