Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hoo Hoo has long history with Gurdon

Gurdon's Hoo-Hoo plans to have a float in the Forest Festival this year "and we intend to continue to do so in the future because of how important this city is to our club and the timber industry."

Beth Thomas, executive secretary of Hoo-Hoo, said Monday the official name of the organization is the International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, Inc.

Hoo-Hoo International is the fraternal order of the forest products industry.

The international headquarters has been at the old Gurdon City Hall, 207 East Main Street, since the early 1980s. That is also the Hoo-Hoo museum and where the local Gurdon Hoo-Hoo club holds meetings.

"I represented the Hoo-Hoo at the Royal Ceresta in New Orleans on March 12, " she said. "That's on Bourbon Street."

"We traditionally meet once before the annual convention. There is a mid-year board meeting."

Thomas said every other year, the mid-year board meeting comes to Gurdon.

"This year's convention will be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The 113th annual convention will be held in September." she said. "Our mission statement of Hoo-Hoo is to promote the timber industry. We try to have fun with it and that was the original intent."

She said the black cat was adopted as a mascot because everyone said it was a bad symbol of superstition. It was adopted for amusement value.

"We are now in five countries; the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa," she said.

"There are more than 60 clubs. We have a small club for Gurdon and the surrounding Clark County area. But there are just nine members here  the minimum number to keep a Hoo-Hoo club going."

Hoo-Hoo International was founded in Gurdon, in January of 1892. Thomas said separate clubs were not established until the middle 1920s.

"The first little while, it was all in one and the members just got togther for periodic meetings," she said. "This started with some fellows looking to make timber industry meetings more fun."

Thomas said Gurdon is club number 120, and was founded in January of 1950.

"Gurdon is club 120, and the next number to be used is 283," she said. "The major thing we do is to promote timber around the area where we live."

Thomas said a couple of project examples come from the Hoo-Hoo Project Learning Tree, and a coloring book called, Tommy Tree.

The material, she said, targets children in the third grade  if the club adopts it as a project.

"Gurdon did Project Learning Tree years ago, but has not done it in some time because of the small number of members in the Gurdon club," she said.

"In the 1990s, the Gurdon club sponsored a Canadian Hoo-Hoo member to talk with local students about moving timber," Thomas said.

"Up in Canada, they use the water way instead of trucks on the road. Our guest explained some differences in transporting timber with water."

Thomas said Hoo-Hoo gives scholarships to forestry students on a national basis.

"If anyone is interested in joining our local club, the biggest requirement is you have more than 51 percent of your income from timber related services," she said. "You also have to be invited, but if someone has an interest let us know."

Thomas said up until 1993, you had to be a male to be a Hoo-Hoo. The club was 101 years old "when women were officially let in."

Thomas said she has been with Hoo-Hoo since November of 1984. She worked for Billy Tarpley, the past executive secretary, until 1989.

Tarpley resigned to become the executive director of the Arkansas Dental Association.

"We are an not in favor of one political party or the other, and Hoo-Hoo is educational in nature," she said.

Hoo-Hoo trade organization is one of the oldest industrial fraternities in the United States.

"We meet on that common ground of friendship," she said. "The Gurdon club meets about four times a year."

Charles Cabe is the president of the Gurdon Hoo-Hoo Club, while Charles Shaver is the secretary.

Thomas said there have been more than 100,000 people assigned membership numbers since Hoo-Hoo started.

"Anyone with any questions about Hoo-Hoo is welcome to call the office at: 1-800-979-9950," Thomas said. "My members enjoy coming to Gurdon. The city of Gurdon owns our building. We lease it from them. Hoo-Hoo International headquarters has been moved around to various spots. It came back to Gurdon in 1982 and a museum was established.

"What fascinates me about Hoo-Hoo is the way it started and has lasted all of this time," Thomas said.

"Six men had been to another timber industry meeting in Camden and it lasted until 2 a.m. They got bored and tried to figure out a way to make the meetings fun.

They came up with having an annual meeting with no real purpose but to have fun and promote timber.

Thomas said the founding fathers of Hoo-Hoo were: a newspaper man, a railroad man, a representative from a Malvern lumber yard, two trade managers and an associate secretary in the lumber industry.

Thomas said, "It really grew. They had so many members in so many different areas.

"This club is based on people with something in common getting together for fun and fellowship, sort of like the Red Hat Society is for women who need healthy and wholesome companionship from each other."

Concatenated, she said, means the Hoo-Hoo members are joined together and is apparently a reference to their black cat mascot.

"They had a sense of humor and at the time this organization was formed they had a real need to get together fairly regularly," she said. "They wanted the gatherings to be something to look forward to attending."

Looking around the Hoo-Hoo headquarters and museum, Thomas pointed out a United States map with pins where the clubs were located.

"It is my understanding that the Cabes were instrumental in the early 1980s in getting the international headquarters relocate back to Gurdon and in helping with the museum," she said.

"I used to come here years ago when this place was Gurdon City Hall. It had multi-purposes, as a library, police department and water department."

Thomas said the log museum building was constructed in the 1930s by government program workers. She said the fact that it is a log building makes it ideal for the Hoo-Hoo.

"We've had some famous people associated with this club," she said. "In 1948, Liz Taylor was a Miss Hoo-Hoo."

Thomas provided a Hoo-Hoo magazine called, "Log and Tally," the centennial edition for review.

In the magazine was the tale of Hoo-Hoo's headquarters moving from Boston, Mass. to Gurdon, Ark. in the dead of winter, and of the major renovations the building went through to become a museum.

The relocation from Boston to Gurdon occurred in January of 1982.

One of the stand out things about the museum is the flags representing the various countries where Hoo-Hoo is located.

The article said, "In what appears as a miniature United Nations, the national colors of every country where Hoo-Hoo is represented are flown from a row of flag poles, which were erected in front of the building."

Thomas said Hoo-Hoo continues to be glad for its home in Gurdon.

"Be sure to look for our float this fall at the Forest Festival," she said.