When you think of a lumberjack, it’s hard to imagine anything but red-and-black checkered flannels, dark, bushy beards, suspenders, the whack of an axe hitting wood, and maybe, just maybe, a giant blue ox. You might think of the northwoods, the lingering scent of cedar, pine, or campfire smoke in the air.
It’s all very nostalgic: the tall tales of the glorified, burly lumberjacks showing off their wood-chopping skills, strength and swagger. But with industrialization, the demand for lumberjacks is nonexistent in the traditional sense. Today, being a lumberjack is more for sport or show, carrying with it the spirit of its woodsy predecessor.
Cameron Pilgreen, a 3x world title holder and Lebanon, Wisconsin, native, is a hybrid lumberjack of sorts, competing in both timbersports competitions and entertaining crowds of travelers at lumberjack shows.
What does it take to become a lumberjack? What is it like competing in a sport that involves incredibly sharp blades and, for some, daunting heights with no safety harnesses?
Let’s find out.
Cameron wasn’t born into a family with a long history of wood-slingin’ lumberjacks, nor was he swinging an axe as soon as he could walk. But, it wasn’t long after that when he stumbled upon the sport.
At just nine years old, he discovered log rolling at the YMCA at Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc, and at 18, he would go pro, turning his dreams into reality as timber sports took him around the country and allowed him to compete against people from all over the world.
Over the past few years, Cameron has participated in both lumberjack shows and timbersports competitions. Early in his professional career, he worked with the Fred Scheers Lumberjack Shows out of Hayward, Wisconsin.
Then, in 2022, he moved out to Alaska, where he spent almost two and a half years working as a lumberjack with The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. That same year, he would also snag his first solo title as the Boom Running World Champion. Two years later, in 2024, he brought home the title for a second time.
When he wasn’t putting on shows for tourists, he was jet-setting off to the next competition or specialty show. In 2023 alone, he logged almost 52 flights, including a trip to Atlanta, where he performed at a NASCAR race, then celebrated with the drivers on Victory Lane.
All the travel was necessary in order to build up his ‘lumberjack resume’, a document with qualifying times from reputable competitions that hopeful contestants must submit in order to be considered for upcoming events.
Cameron is back to living in Wisconsin now, calling Hartland home, but that doesn’t mean the traveling has slowed down. Almost every weekend during the summer season, he’s off to competitions, including this month’s Hayward Lumberjack World Championships. He’ll be competing against 110 competitors in events like boom running, speed climbing, standing block chop and more.
He’s also got plans to compete throughout the Midwest, Idaho, Washington and British Columbia, Canada this year. As he keeps building his experience, Cameron’s goal is to compete in Australia and New Zealand, which are apparently hotspots for lumberjacks.
But getting there isn’t always easy, and you can’t exactly pack light as a lumberjack. You’re stuck toting around sharp steel saws and heavy axes – TSA’s favorite kind of traveler.
Not to mention, it’s not exactly cheap. Luckily, over the years, Cameron has had sponsors like Mint Mobile – you know, Ryan Reynold’s phone company – and local sponsors like Iron Joc, an apparel company out of Oconomowoc.
“When I was up in Alaska, we were just salary-based under contract. So, we do ‘x’ amount of shows for ‘x’ amount of money. But otherwise, everything else is just kind of funded by winnings. So, I have to try and compete well enough to be able to either break even or try and make some money.”
In addition to his busy career as a lumberjack, he’s also an engineer at a Pewaukee-based medical company where he designs MRI machine coils (helping to offset the costs of those carry-on and oversized bags!) and teaches log rolling at the very same YMCA where he found his passion for timber sports.
Outside of the solo boom running titles in 2022 and 2024, Cameron is technically the fastest speed climber in the US. He placed second in the 60ft speed climbing event at the last World Lumberjack Championships, but the competitor who snagged the first-place spot was from Japan. He won a team relay world championship title in 2021 and is 10th overall at the Lumberjack World Championships.