Dennis Chastain
chain saw artist
Forks, WA
Chainsaw sculptor Dennis Chastain, a former logger and shake-splitter, operates a shop
in the Bogachiel Valley on the Olympic Peninsula. Dennis has become known as one of the
most talented chainsaw carvers in the Northwest and has participated in many area carving
competitions and events, including the Northwest Folklife Festival, Forest and Woodlands
Program in 2002.
The first chainsaws that appeared in the Northwest woods in the 1940s were huge unwieldy
machines. By the late 1950’s, smaller models were widely available for use limbing trees
and by the general public for cutting firewood. Precisely when someone discovered that a
small chainsaw could be used to sculpt wood is unknown, but by the middle 1960s people
were starting to carve simple and elaborate figures. A few have been able to make a career
out of chainsaw sculpture. Dennis, who lives near the Bogachiel State Park, is one of them.
He carved the well known local sculpture, the Forks Loggers Memorial, and his wife,
Margaret, helped him with most of the finish work.