Transcript of Oral History Interview with Guthrie O'Donnell, May 22 2012 Page: 6 of 20

                                
everywhere. I mean, of course, same thing in Cedar Park. And, the Cedar Choppers Festival was, was,
they had it every year there for years and years at Cedar Park.
Ken: Yes.
Guthrie: And, uh, but, uh, you know.
Guthrie O'Donnell 2 (15:00)
Guthrie: People would have a, have an old Model A pickup, or an old, old, old pickup, and they'd, they
didn't have anything but a, but a, a good double blade axe and a file to keep it sharp - because it had to
be sharp
Ken: Yep
Guthrie: And, uh, and, they'd head out in the country, and I don't have any idea what, you know, a lot
of 'em went out and cut cedar on, cedar on places that, that, uh, just invited 'em out. I don't think they
paid anything. I think they just took - glad to get rid of the cedar and they, they hauled it down to the
cedar yard and sold it, in the cedar yard, sold it to these truckers and they transported it north, Dallas
and Ft. Worth and those areas where they were building, uh, different things. But there's a lot of, a lot
of things back then that they made out of, made out of cedar. I worked for a guy during high school
days that made, made cedar, um, log houses. And, uh, and most of that cedar was not hill country cedar.
It, a lot of it came from around Bastrop and, uh, different places like that.
Ken: It's a different
Guthrie: It - yeah, it was a different cedar.
Ken: Yeah
Guthrie: Uh, we built a, we built a motel in Uvalde one summer. It was about twelve cabins. I don't
know whether it's still there or not. But, but, you take that, take that round cedar and slice off a side,
get a flat side over here and a flat side over here and, uh, rabbit up there for a spline and then along
here this would, this would be solid flat. And all that ___ would be put together and then they'd have to,
they'd have a band of cedar that held it together.
Ken: That was built with this local cedar here?
Guthrie: No. It was built with Bastrop cedar.
Ken: Bastrop cedar.
Guthrie: Yep, yep.
Ken: Yeah, Uvalde is, they have, that's near Camp Wood, and there was a lot of cedar coming out of
Camp Wood.