Logging heritage part of Sultan's weekend Shindig

Arnold Jordan, this year's logging marshal for the Sultan Summer Shindig, has a saying about his favorite town.

"I always say, 'God, he made the whole wide world, but when he got here, he really got good,' " Jordan said with a laugh. "There's no place I'd rather be."

Sultan sits alongside Highway 2 in the Cascade foothills where the Skykomish and Sultan rivers converge.

This weekend, the city will host its annual Shindig. The term "shindig" refers to a festive party, often including dancing, and surfaced as early as the 1830s. Some think that when things really got rowdy on the dance floor, dancers referred to the inevitable kicks in the shins as "shin digs."

Logging events define the Sultan festival, though it has grown to include parades, a carnival, arts and crafts, car shows and competitions, and music and dancing at the Pavilion at Riverfront Park.

At 72 — a "young" 72, he said — Jordan recently bought a new Kenworth T800 truck, and he still works as a logging-truck driver. Last week, he took three loads to the Lake Wenatchee area.

When he was younger, Jordan cut slabs off the ends of logs in the Shindig's power-saw-bucking contest. Each year, the events include ax throwing, line splicing, firewood chopping, speed climbing and obstacle-course racing. The overall winner gets the Bull of the Woods trophy.

"It's a great family outing," said Vicki Foltz, who works at the Sky Valley Visitor Information Center and Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce in Sultan.

"Sultan was founded on the logging industry, and they try to keep some of that alive, showing a younger generation how they felled trees and how they climbed."

All around the city, there are reminders of the industry. The visitors center has logging- and railroad-era artifacts, some donated by the Sultan Saw Shop, whose former owner, the late Sam Wold, will be remembered at this year's Shindig. Wold, a World War II hero and the Tulalip Tribes' most decorated veteran, died in April at age 81.

"He was such an interesting and great man — we really are missing him," said Debbie Copple, the director of the visitors center.

The Northwest Chapter of the American Jeepster Club is part of the annual Show-n-Shine car show, and club event coordinator Chris Jurden will drive his Jeepster Commando, a model that flourished from 1966 to 1972.

While Jurden is doing the parade and car show, his wife, Alanna, a nature photographer, will run an arts booth. They met at Washington State University and moved to Sultan in 1999.

"I married a country girl," Jurden said. "We knew we wanted to live outside the city. Here, everything happens at its own pace. And that's true of the Shindig. It's a bunch of local folks having fun."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com