Skills from another era State fair rolls on

captivate crowds

Sept. 4, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Anchorage resident Scott Smith and his wife, Karen, arrived at the Alaska State Fairgrounds' Woodlot 40 minutes before Fred Scheer's lumberjack show on Saturday afternoon.

The Smiths have been coming to the woodsman performance since 1988.

"We've actually seen some of the Scheer kids grow up. They were little. Now they're in the show. It's like having a second family you only see once a year," Scott said.

Jim Hadley, who emcees the traveling lumberjack show based in Hayward, Wis., said Alaskans are the only people who show up 30 minutes early even when it's raining. In addition, when he asks if anyone's seen the show before, about 40 to 50 percent of the participants raise their hands

"We love it," Karen said. "One of our daughters got one of the bunny chairs they make. We kept it for a long time."

The Smiths tried to explain how one of the lumberjacks creates a rabbit by chain-sawing a log. Throughout the project, it appears the guy is making a series of mistakes. But the end product, when it's turned upside-down, is a bunny chair.

"You'll understand when you see it," the Smiths said.

Sixteen-year-old Shane Sabin fires up his chain saw and his sense of humor as emcee Jim Hadley and he performed a comedy skit.

"What about the detail?" Hadley asked.

"Oh, de tail goes in de back," Sabin quipped.

Later, Sabin pretended to accidentally chain saw too far, cutting off the top of the log.

"You just decapitated your rabbit," Hadley yelled.

"No, I cut a hare too deep," said Sabin, sitting down on the tiny chair he had just created.

Then, he offered to give the bunny chair to an audience member.

Healy resident Spencer LaChappelle, 8, said the favorite part of the lumberjack show was winning the chair during the 1 p.m. show. He didn't remember the last time his parents took him to the performance because he was just a baby. It's quite a haul from Healy to Palmer, but wildfires smoked out the Fairbanks fair for the LaChappelle family.

"My grandpa was a lumberjack. This is part of the old, bygone days that you can relive for half an hour. It's fun to see people working with their hands and tools instead of pushing a pen to paper," dad Wayne LaChappelle said. "It's fun to watch them climb the poles. Most of us couldn't do it if you gave us all day. They're up there in less than a minute."

Sabin, who's been log rolling since he was 5 years old and doing the show for two years, enjoys the speed climbing best.

"It's just fun. It's a rush," he said.

Cassidy Scheer, 24, who's been performing in his dad's show since he was 15, says it's a great summer job. The first performance takes place at 1 p.m. daily.

"We go salmon fishing every morning and party at night," he said. "The crowds in Alaska are special. This place has a whole lot of character. We hope to be back for another dozen years."

Amy Jackman, of Kenai, rounded up her friends and their families to catch the lumberjack show.

"It's one of the most entertaining things at the fair. It's rugged. Chain saws are cool," Jackman said, laughing at her two boys. "It's interactive. Even the music like 'Cotton-eyed Joe' gets you in the mood for the show."