By Christi Baron

If you were a logger in the mid-1970s through the 1990s, chances are at one point you had yourself a Timber Beast calendar. The calendars and books of cartoons that depicted the life of the logger or Timber Beast were created by Glenn Duncan.

Duncan was born in Port Angeles in 1936 and he grew up in Joyce. He started to work in the woods at age 13.

From his friend Pat Baar:

“After graduating from Joyce High School and a hitch in the Navy, Glenn worked in the rigging for R.D. McDonald, W.A. Swanson and Olger Sandberg to name a few.

While working road construction for Zed McCauley at Bear Creek, he broke in drilling rock under Emmett Reaume and Don Stevens. Zed would fire a man a week, so after Emmett and Don were down the road, Glenn was the one and only driller.

Early in his drilling career, he drilled on the east side of the North Cascades highway starting at Early Winters Creek and continuing toward Washington Pass. The half diameter drill holes, called pre-splitting, still can be seen along the slopes.

Drilling took him to DelHur, Rayonier, Crown Zellerbach, Craig Fletcher and TLC Excavating until the rock dust became too much for his lungs.

He was a cartoonist, wildlife artist and somewhat of a poet. He was paid to draw cartoons depicting safety infractions by Crown Z personnel. Much to Crown’s dismay, the cartoons continued long after the pay stopped.

Glenn never met a logger he didn’t like or a politician that he did like. He broke me — Pat Baar — in as a driller and I’ve never decided whether to thank him for that or not. Glenn died Feb. 22, 2006, and is missed by many people in and out of the timber industry.

As a long time member of A.A., he helped many folks get sober.”

Glenn’s daughter Eileen Duncan, of Clallam Bay, remembers their family living at Hoko Camp and Lake Ozette. She said her father loved everything about the woods and at one time he started a business carving and making canes.

She said, “He got the business all set up to sell the canes and I think he ended up giving them all away. I don’t remember that he ever actually sold one.”

In addition to making the Timber Beast calendars, Glenn also made a calendar for cooks and waitresses and in 1979 some of his cartoons and thoughts were compiled into a book. My favorite part of each cartoon was to look for the little mouse that appeared somewhere in the drawing — and sometimes you had to look hard.

In his 1979 book, Glenn said he was not sure how the mouse got started and said he occasionally would leave them out just so people would keep looking. Glenn said, “As a rule, the mouse is in each drawing, I got to where I like him.”