BEEF SLOUGH
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The Beef Slough Boom and Improvement
Company was organized in 1867, and
chartered by the state of Wisconsin to catch, sort, raft, and scale all logs
coming down the Chippewa. These were turned into Beef Slough by a sheer boom
at the head, and jam booms farther down were
uses for holding the run in high water. The company was allowed to charge
seventy-five cents per thousand feet for logs, and two cents each for
cross ties.
It was soon demonstrated that this was a great improvement over
separate
operations by individual owners, and when this company was taken
over by the Mississippi River Logging Company, in 1873, it wa soon evident
that the sufficient capital and vigorous and intelligent management of
this
organization would take excellent care of the Chippewa outfit and keep
the large mills regularly supplied, as long as the timber supply held out.
Beef Slough is a branch mouth of the Chippewa river, leaving the
main
stream at Round Hill, and following down along the high Wisconsin bluffs
for about twelve miles, opening into the Mississippi just above the town of
Alma, Wisconsin.
By dredging and digging at its head, and removing obstructions in
its
course, the diversion was much increased into the slough, and then a long,
heavy sheer boom placed diagonally across the Chippewa, not only turned
all the logs into Beef Slough, but greatly accelerated the current and
gave good water to work on.
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Thousands of piling were driven and many booms placed, and pockets
and
chutes arranged, so that the big crops of logs were saved. They were sorted,
rafted and scaled, with check works and guy line pins, all ready
for tow boats to hitch into, and were taken away and delivered to the mills
down river as fast as the seventy-five steamboats on the Upper Mississippi
could go up and down.
During the busy season, between 1200 and 1500 men were employed in
Beef Slough, and the work was handled with great system and energy.
While Mr. Weyerhaeuser was seldom seen at teh Slough, his spirit
was
always evident. Mr. Irvine in the earlier years lived at Wabasha, and was at
the office nearly every day, with George Scott directly in charge. Other men
were E. Douglas, at the rafting works, D.J. McKenzie, head scaler, Kinney
McKenzie, in charge of the 'dropping', Duncan McGillivray as assignment and delivery clerk, and Pet Short handling the catch boom at the mouth.
The steamer 'Hartford' under Captain Henry Buisson, was busy
dropping
out half rafts to places of safety, where they would lay at owner's risk
until taken away by some other boat.
The steamer 'Jesse Bill,' under Captain Lew Martin, was doing all
kinds
of company work, while the 'Little Hoddie' was 'bowing out' and towing
batteaux crews back up to the works.
Twice a day the local steam packet 'Lion' passed through the lower
end of
the Slough, landing at the office to let off mail, passengers, and a
little freight , and then out through the 'cut off' on her way to Wabasha,
Minnesota.
There was no railroad on the Wisconsin side,
and
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Steamers Stillwater and Lady Grace
The Robert Dodds shown in the foreground, is going out with one-half of her raft. The view shows a group of raft-boats at the office of the M. R. L. Co., in Beef Slough, which in 1884 turned-out 647,000,000 feet of logs and kept 75 rowboats busy. |
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Captain H.C. Wilcox
had a nice trade between Alma, Wisconsin, and Wabasha, Minnesota, making two
round trips a day.
All the bosses and many of the men working in Beef Slough were
Scotch-
Canadians, who had been lumberjacks back home on the Ottawa or Saint
Maurice, and their quick, decisive speech with the burr on it, pleased me
very much. You could not throw a boom plug at any crew and not hit a
Macdonald, or a Mackenzie, and probably get one back from a Duncan.
Each raft was composed of two pieces (halves) of three brails each.
A brail of logs was six hundred feet long and forty-five feet wide. The rim was
made of the longest logs, fastened at the ends with about a thirty-inch lap,
by a short, heavy chain of three links. A two -inch hole was bored nine
inches deep in each log, and a two-inch oak or ironwood pin, with a head on
it was put through an end link of the chain, and driven hard into the
hole
in the boom log. These logs so fastened, made a strong boom or frame( with
just enough flexibility to suit the job) into which the loose logs were
carried by the current and skillfully placed endwise with the current, by
men, using pike poles and peavies. Then one-half-inch cross wires were placed
an tightened, to hold the boom and logs together
and prevent spreading.
When a brail was completed, two men with a double-headed skiff or
batteaux, would drop it down, by the current, one to three miles, and snub
it in, where later two more brails would be landed beside it. Then a fitting
crew would come a drop the three brails even at the stern, fasten them
together, build 'snubbing works' and other things necessary to complete
a 'piece' or 'half raft' all ready for a boat to hitch into.
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When the tow-boat came to take these pieces away, she would move alongside
slowly, while the amte and his men threw off the cross lines, reaching across
the three brails, and the windlass poles, with which they were drawn up and
made taut.
Then they would turn the boat around (not by any means an east task
in such a close place), hitch her into the stern of the raft, with headlines
straightout to the check works to back on, and breats lines from her head to
the right and left, to keep her stem, or nose, on the butting block,
and guy lines out from the midship or after-nigger to the stern corners of
the raft, to hold the boat in any desired position.
The butting block was a big log securely fastened, by timber and
chains,
to the stern boom, to tow on.
Then part of the crew ran out the long A line, running diagonally
across
from the outside booms, crossing X like in the middle (these to keep her
straight and prevent buckling), and others put on the corner lines to prevent
the heavy strain on the guy lines from pulling the corners back. The mate
with one or two good men, put on and tightened a heavy monkey line, to help
the butting block. When this was done, she was all ready to back
out, with the 'Little Hoddie' hitched in across the bow, to back or come
ahead, moving the bow to right or left, to clear the other pieces on either
side of the channel, just wide enough in places to let the bow through,
sometimes the outside booms rubbing on each side. The mate a few men
watched close to loosen her up if she caught anywhere.
Sometimes she would catch and foul, and tear a
brail loose, or make a drive. Then came the call 'tie up, the catch boom is
closing,' and a general tie-up of two to three hours would follow, till the
loose logs ahead were secured.
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Usually, though, all went off wonderfully well, and she soon passed the
closing boom and out of the Slough into the Mississippi. Soon they tied up
under a bar or on the foot of an island., while the boat went back to the
Slough and got her second piece.
When coupled up, these two pieces made a raft two hundred and
seventy-five
feet wide and six hundred feet long. They contained 800,000 to 1,000,000 feet
of logs, weighed 3,500 tons, and covered three acres.
The output from Beef Slough was 12,000,000 feet in 1867, 26,000
feet in 1869, and 10,000,000 feet in 1870.
From the time the Mississippi River Logging Company took control,
in 1871,
the annual output increased quite steadily, until it reached 535,000,000 feet
in 1885, 405,000,000 feet in 1887, and 542,000,000
feet in 1889.
In 1889, the operations were transferred from Beef Slough to West
Newtin
Slough, a little below, on the opposite side. They were conducted
by a new company, but it was composed of the same stockholders, and headed by
the same officers.
Not only the logs belonging to the 'pool,' as it was called, but
all logs
coming down the Chippewa were handled and delivered to their owners in
regular raft shape, on the regular charges allowed by the state charter.
There were over 2,000 different marks on the logs scaled and passed
through the Slough. The way this was done was certainly a fine demonstration of efficiency and square business methods.
West Newton reached the peak of its business in 1892, when 632,
150,000
feet of logs were rafted.
Using west Newton as a base required the driving
of the loose logs out of the main mouth of the Chip-
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pewa
at Read's Landing, and down the Mississippi to the head of the West Newton
Slough, and to place a big, long sheer boom above the mouth of
Beef Slough, to throw the logs over toward and into the head of West Newton
Slough.
These loose logs between the sheer boom and Read's were often too
thick to
run through, especially when the Chippewa was rising, and it was common for
steam boats to have to tie up for a few hours until the heavy run was over. From 1892 the output decreased steadily until 1904 when the 'great game'
ended for good. This was because the supply of pine accessible to the Chippewa
and its tributaries was exhausted.
In 1909, the Mississippi River logging Company of Clinton, Iowa was
dissolved, after a most highly successful career, during which nearly every one
of its members became millionaires.
During the period of its greatest activity, the officers were: Fred
Weyerhauser, of Rock island, Illinois, president; Artemus Lamb, of Clinton,
Iowa, vice-president and Thomas Irvine, Secretary.
The principal members of the company were:
