Inside This Issue
COVER: Call Him "Tater"
BATCHELOR, La. — Even by his wife and closest friends, Louisiana logger Jimmy Gaspard is better known by a different name: “They call me Tater,” he introduces himself, and so, Tater it is.
Article by David Abbot, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': On The Horizon
Welcome to 2026! That sounds so weird, yet here we are: living in the future. No, we don’t have any flying cars…or flying log trucks, but do you really want one…can you imagine the insurance bill? But look at all the things we do have that used to be strictly Star Trek.
Here’s an example: Dick Tracy, the comic strip detective in the yellow hat and coat. Back in the 1930s (and in the 1990 movie, which was the only way I knew of the character), he had a wristwatch that doubled as a two-way radio that allowed him to call police headquarters. Even in 1990, let alone in 1930, that was futuristic sci-fi…but now it’s commonplace: a $50 smart watch from Wal-Mart does that and a lot more. How about in Back to the Future Part II (set in the then-far-flung future of 2015, 11 years in our past now), when middleaged Marty McFly could make video calls with his coworkers. We do that every day now, no big deal.
Remember Knight Rider? Back in the ’80s, KITT the talking car was a kid’s fantasy in a cheesy David Hasselhoff adventure show, but now, it’s a fantasy inching closer to reality, with GPS and AI in cars. Did you play with Transformers as a kid? Imagine a real-life Optimus Prime as a log truck loading and driving itself. Oh, I know, it’ll never happen, right? Well, if history is any guide, all those things the naysayers said would never happen usually ended up happening, sooner or later… and in 2026, we’re getting close to later sooner than you might think…
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
Holding Ground
PAMPLICO, SC. — In rural pockets of eastern South Carolina’s Pee Dee region, the local economy is driven by agriculture and forestry industries, along with various mills and manufacturing plants that create steady jobs to support the area.
Within this working-class land- scape, Mitch Campbell, 44, says options for making a decent living are limited to a handful of occupations. Having been in the wood business since 2000, he believes logging is the most rewarding, yet volatile, trade in which one can step foot, adding that it requires an authentic passion that can’t be taught or forced.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Swamp Ice
There seems to be an annual occurrence that takes place in the South; it usually lasts for a week or two and it is not greeted with much enthusiasm. It is the cause of much activity, usually at the grocery store. We southerners are notorious for making runs on the local grocery store when given the word that cold weather is coming and bringing ice. Yes, the arrival of winter. It comes, whether we need it or not, regardless of mill inventories or timber sales or planting plans. It comes with cold, wet weather and it seems to delight in our thin skin.
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Call Him “Tater”
Jimmy “Tater” Gaspard’s family company, Tater’s Logging, marks milestone anniversary this year.
Article by David Abbot, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
BATCHELOR, La. — Even by his wife and closest friends, Louisiana logger Jimmy Gaspard is better known by a different name: “They call me Tater,” he introduces himself, and so, Tater it is.
Gaspard, 62, has been logging for 20 years; he was 43 when he started his company, Tater’s Logging, LLC, in 2006, making 2026 the 20th anniversary of the family business. And it is a true family business. On the woods crew, Tater works alongside his two sons, Logan (better known as “WoWo”…just like their leader, everyone on this team goes by a nickname) and Mark Anthony (aka “Brother”) and his own brother, Joey (“Doc”). Back at the home office, Tater’s wife Lynn (no need for a nickname) is the clan matriarch and the true backbone of the operation.
The company is headquartered in Pointe Coupee Parish, near the Baton Rouge area, in the unincorporated community of Batchelor. The civicminded Tater serves locally on his Pointe Coupee Parish council. He is in his seventh year of service in that capacity, halfway through his second term.
Before changing careers midway through life, Tater spent 20 years as a boilermaker, traveling all over for construction work: everywhere from St. Croix, Aruba to Texas and the Carolinas, working for various companies in that time. “Whoever called me and had the money to pay me, I was gone,” he says. His last employer, J.V. Industrial Piping, was about to send him to do a job in Iraq, when Tater decided he’d had enough, so he started looking for a career change.
“My family was in logging when I was a kid,” Lynn recalls. “When Tate came to me 20 years ago, to tell me that he wanted to log, I asked him if he had gone nuts. My dad and them were loggers, and it was a struggle back then, and that’s when timber was close to get right off the road and it was worth a lot of money. And they couldn’t make it work then.” But despite her reservations, she committed to support her husband in doing what he wanted to do with the business, and she became a vital and integral part of it. “Here we are 20 years later, still struggling but still hanging on.”
Still struggling, but still hanging on: that could be the title of the southern logger’s theme song.
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