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HISTORY

A Raft Pilot's Log

A History of the Great Rafting
Industry on the Upper Mississippi
1840-1915

by

WALTER A. BLAIR
Master and Pilot on the "Ten Broeck"

Published by The Arthur H. Clark Company
Cleveland, U.S.A. 1930

Transcribed by Joan Bard Robinson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction	15
Early River Days	23
Beginnings of the Rafter Industry	33
Beef Slough	47
My First Year Rafting, 1878	55
The Great River Then (1878) and Now (1928)	77
The Noted Raft-Boat 'Silver Wave'	95
The LeClaire Navigation Company	121
Pleasant Rafting with the Good 'Ten Broeck'	135
The Green Tree Hotel	149
What Became of the Raft-Boats	171
The First Use of A Steamboat to Push and Handle, a Raft	191
The First Boat Built to Tow Rafts	195
The Largest Raft	203
One Freak and a Pair of Twins	209
Some of the Men Prominent in the Rafting Industry, 1878-1915	211
Sawmills and their Owners	255
Complete list of Raft Pilots, 1840-1913	265
Rapids Pilots Who Handled Rafts over the Upper, or Rock Island Rapids, in the Order of Service from 1840-1915	275
Rapids Pilots who ran Rafts over the Lower, or Des Moines Rapids	277
Chief Engineer of the Rafters	279
Raft-Boat Mates	287
Output of Logs from Different Streams into the Mississippi Compiled from records in the office of the Survey-general of Logs and Lumber at Saint Paul, Minnesota, and from the Archives of the State historical Societies of Minnesota and Wisconsin	289
Appendix I: List of Raft-Boats, their Masters and Owners, 1883	293
Appendix II: List of Raft-boats in Commission, 1890, with Names of their Masters and Owners as published in the Davenport Democrat, February, 1890	299
Appendix III: List of Raft-Boats from Davenport Deomocrat February, 1893 This is the Last Authentic list the Author can find. It Shows Numerous Changes from the List of 1890.	305
Name Index	315