Timber theft was not rare in the forest lands across the rural south. In fact, it was an art form, especially where absentee land ownership was common. It’s practitioners included, among others, unscrupulous timber cruisers, surveyors, loggers and log truckers, saw millers, land dealers and managers, and occasionally lawyers and county officials.
Ben Reach had observed them in action, often in concert, over a long career. He had acted to thwart them when he came upon them in time.
The Great Decatur County Timber Heist of 2022 was a case in point. It came to Ben’s attention through Pete-Bob Dix, nowadays selling mostly mixed pine forest and crop land tracts in the southwest-most counties of Georgia, but selling on commission whatever he could to earn a commission on, be it real, personal or mixed, tangible or intangible, animal, vegetable or mineral, including occasionally bird dogs and walking horses and London Best side-by-side shotguns.
For several years Pete-Bob had been angling to get a listing to sell a little-known tract in Decatur County. It’s ownership had become obscure because of the deaths in Detroit of two aged sisters, the last known inheritors of an eighty-acre tract known locally as the Blevins Place. It had been conveyed to the maiden-lady sisters (a southern term) by their grandfather, Mac Blevins, who had received it as a devise of gratitude from his employer. He had long worked as butler for Harvey Watson, a Boston Bremen who owned the three thousand acre Watson Plantation, off a corner of which the Blevins Place was cut. (Watson Plantation had since fallen victim to residential subdivision at the instigation of Harvey Watson’s grandchildren, inheritors from Harvey Watson).
Just who now owned the Blevins Place was a mystery, beyond the fact the owners were cousins of the Blevins sisters of Detroit, who had both recently died intestate. Pete-Bob had come to Ben for advice on finding the cousin-heirs. He had taken Ben to see the Blevins Place and Ben had fallen in love with it. Why? Because it held a grove of ancient virgin long leaf pines and, around a twenty-acre spring-fed natural lake, dozens of towering virgin cypress trees, their knees protruding from the lake and inviting in spring popping bugs cast with a fly-rod held by a fly-fisherman like Ben.
When Ben told Pete-Bob an heir search would likely be expensive and require an investment that might not be repaid, Pete-Bob expressed frustration. Then Ben got an idea, which he passed on to Pete-Bob. The ideal purchaser of the Blevins Place was Tall Timbers Research Station and Conservancy. Maybe Pete-Bob could work a deal to become its agent to seek acquisition of the Blevins Place.
On this advice Pete-Bob approached Tall Timbers and got not a hard commitment but a loose understanding that if it got a chance to acquire the Blevins Place there might be something in it for Pete-Bob, and meanwhile it would invest in an heir search to determine the owners of Blevins Place.
Pete-Bob Dix had over the years often proved to be his own worst enemy. He would do so again with Blevins Place. He did so by talk—telling one too many people about the iconic property and the fact its owners were currently unknown but being sought. Before long Blevins Place and its unique status was the talk of all those concerned with real estate—and timber—in Decatur County.
Ben Reach heard the talk, and knew from experience that wide knowledge of “ownership distant and unknown” might make Blevins Place the target of timber thieves. Ben told his pal Sam Nixon MD during breakfast at Millie’s Diner, which set Sam to thinking. That afternoon when the curmudgeons met in Ben’s library-conference room to share drams of The Macallan, Sam had with him pages printed from online catalogs for surveillance devices, including solar powered, motion activated, wi-fi and cellular equipped trail cameras.
Sam, always a gadget freak and photography wizard, explained how such devices could be used to keep watch on Blevins Place 24/7 and inform them of who came to inspect it in real time via their cell phones and office computers. Before they adjourned they had ordered equipment selected by Sam that would arrive at his office via Amazon Prime next day. That weekend the curmudgeons, with help from Pete-Bob Dix who brought and did the necessary climbing of a step ladder, set their high-tech trap for timber thieves.
They were just in time. When the cameras caught the images of several intruders, Ben alerted Decatur County’s Sheriff, who identified the images of known timber rustler suspects. Within a month the culprits were caught red handed on Blevins Place with chain saws, skidders, and log trucks, prepared to make quick work of its ancient trees. Their trials were postponed until the rightful owners of Blevins Place were found.
Behind the scenes Ben brokered, completely behind the scenes, a deal through the Second Judicial Circuit’s District Attorney’s office by which the half dozen individuals accused of conspiracy to steal timber from Blevins Place contributed to Tall Timbers the funds needed to buy Blevins Place and received deferred prosecution agreements. The inheriting cousins imposed a conservation easement on Blevins Place before contracting to sell it to Tall Timbers. The conspirators included a timber cruiser, a logger, a log trucker, a lumber dealer and a saw miller with an ultra modern portable saw mill capable of quickly converting the standing longleaf pine and cypress trees on Blevins Place into lumber. Pete-Bob Dix received a small commission on the deal. Ben and Sam received thanks from Tall Timbers and permits to fish the lake on Blevins Place. Sam and Ben contributed the trail cameras to the Youth Field Trial Alliance to be auctioned off at the next Kevin’s Game Fair.
Author’s Note: This story is entirely fiction, as are Harvey Watson, Mac Blevins, Watson Plantation, Blevins Place, Pete-Bob Dix and the maiden lady sisters of Detroit. Tall Timbers is real, but its role in this tall tale is imaginary, as are the roles of Decatur County’s Sheriff and the Second Judicial Circuit’s District Attorney.