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Jack “The Squirrel” Johnson, at the height of his career, was one of the fastest utility pole climbers in the Arrowhead Region of Minnesota.
At one point, as a veteran employee of Northern Power & Light, he could climb up a fifty-foot pole in 11.5 seconds! The man scrambled up like he had fire in his pants!
One day while he was clearing a line in a Cook County Forest, Jack accidentally got between a mama bear and her cubs. As she faced and charged him, Jack turned and scrambled up a poplar tree. (The nearest power pole was 100 feet away.)
The angry bear charged and took a swipe at Jack›s leg, but Jack held her off with some hand tools on his belt. He yelled and screamed, but the bear seemed deaf. “The Squirrel” remained in his tree for two hours until Jack phoned for help from the local fire department.
Jack reported, “It was my fastest time up a tree. I think I broke the record for a poplar.”
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