Review: Science Fiction: "Trees are Where you Find Them" by Arthur Dekker Savage

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The narrator of this light little piece set in a logging community in Oregon, tells of one old Doc Yoris, who normally didn’t join the others for a movie picture show at the Ivy and a drink. Doc is particular about his looks and will usually come to Cave Junction only after dark. Even then, he wears dark glasses. On the night the trouble started, Doc was at the Ivy theatre with the narrator, Lew, and Rusty. They were showing a scientific picture, one where some men got out of rocket ship on Mars and ran over to look at some trees. Doc started laughing. “It’s them trees,” he told his friends. “There’s no trees like that on Mars.” As luck would have it, Burt Holden heard him. Burt Holden was a newcomer to the area, an Outsider, who’d started a big lumber mill and logging outfit and was trying to freeze out the smaller operators. He gets irritated every time Doc laughs. Later, at the Owl Tavern, they see Burt talking to Pop Johnson, who owns the outfit where they work. Burt has already made an offer to Doc for his land. He wants Pop’s land, too. For a pulp mill. A pulp mill would strip the land. No more hunting for the narrator’s crew. And they could no longer fish in the river. They might get hungry in the winter. Doc decides to talk to Burt, to make him an offer, but not for land. There are several cute elements in this story, but it addresses something serious, especially for the time. Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring was nearly a decade away. It is a matter of degrees, of course. As for the origins of Doc, while the implications are many, the question is never settled. I liked this story. I could find no bio info for author Arthur Dekker Savage. This story is available from Project Gutenberg: _____ Title: “Trees are Where you Find Them” Author: Arthur Dekker Savage First published: If, November 1953 Source: ISFDB