IAGenWeb - Scott County

OUTPUT OF LOGS FROM DIFFERENT STREAMS INTO THE MISSISSIPPI

Compiled from records in the office of the Surveyor-general of Logs and Lumber
of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and from the Archives
of the State Historical Society of Minnesota and Wisconsin

289

From Saint Croix river into the lake, 1837-1903	11,285,835,720 feet
Brought in by railroad into the lake, 1837-1903	158,446,000 feet
By rail and river (estimated) into the lake, 1904-1915	1,000,000,000 feet
	_________________
Total in rafts from Lake Saint Croix, 1837-1915	12,444,261,720 feet
From the Mississippi above the falls (estimated), 1850-1870	150,000,000 feet
From The Mississippi above the falls (estimated) 1888-1916	1,559,062,520 feet
	_________________
Total through the Saint Paul boom, 1850-1916	1,709,062,520 feet
From the Chippewa river:
Through the Beef Slough boom, 1867-1889	5,301,019,170 feet
Through West Newton Slough boom, 1889-1896	3,064,856,760 feet
Through West Newton Slough boom, (estimated), 1897-1905	3,000,000,000 feet
	_________________
Total logs from the Chippewa, 1867-1905	11,365,875,030 feet

290

Total lumber from the Chippewa (estimated) 1830-1901	14,000,000,000 feet
	_________________
Grand total from the Chippewa, 1830-1905	24,365,875,930 feet
From Black river through Onalaska boom, 1855-1897	4,920,811,340 feet
Estimate for logs before and after recording	250,000,000 feet
	_________________
Total logs from Black river	5,170,000,000 feet
Total logs and lumber from Wisconsin river	2,285,000,000 feet
Recapitulation
From the Saint Croix river and lake	12,444,281,720 feet
From the Mississippi above the falls	1,709,062,520 feet
From the Chippewa river	25,365,875,930 feet
From the Black river	5,170,000,000 feet
From the Wisconsin river	2,285,000,000 feet
	_________________
Grand total rafted down river	46,974,220,170 feet
Value at $15.00 per thousand feet	$704,613,300.00

    One cannot contemplate this vast amount of building material so admirably suited for houses, barns and fences, in the prairie states, without recognizing the wisdom of the Great Creator in providing the extensive forests at the headwater of the Mississippi and its northern tributaries on whose waters it could be floated down at so little expense.

     The logs were brought down the Chippewa loose for seventy-five cents per thousand feet and the usual price for towing them in rafts from Beef Slough or West Newton to Davenport or Rock Island was one dollar and ten cents per thousand feet, or about one dollar per ton on the lumber cut from them for the entire trip from the woods in northern Wisconsin to the mill or yard in the tri-cities. Cheap transportation on the great commodity that was so essential in development of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, and lasted …

291

... until we learned to make and use cement and could afford to buy more expensive lumber from the south or northwest on which the rail charges are higher than the cost of the lumber on the cars.

     Logging out of the Wisconsin river ended about 1876.

     Logging out of the Black river ended in 1897.

     Logging out of the Chippewa river ended in 1905.

     Logging out of the Saint Croix river ended in 1905.

     Logging out of the Saint Paul boom ended in 1916.

291

THE LAST LOG

    "There is a picture hanging in the Gazette office, showing the old boom- master, Frank McGray, hitching the last log that came through the Saint Croix boom; the log was a large one, scaling, I would say, five hundred or six hundred feet and this closed operations at the boom for all time; that was on the twelfth day of June, 1914; on this day also, the last meal was served in the old cook house and among those that sat down to dinner that day were Mr. McGray, James R. Brennan, then the boom master, D.J. McCuish, Eugene O'Neal, Rev, John McCoy, then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, R.S. Davis, W.C. Masterman and several others, whose names escape me at this writing."- Stillwater Gazette, April 2, 1928.

     There has been much discussion as to when rafting ceased at West Newton where the M.R.L. Company handled the great output of logs from the Chippewa. I could not harmonize the positive but conflicting statements of numerous persons to whom I appealed for information and was greatly pleased when I finally got a letter from Mr. Andrew Thompson of Nelson, Wisconsin, which closed the discussion.

     Mr. Thompson had been a foreman at West Newton …

292

... until Mr. Edward Douglas, the superintendent, left for the west in 1904, when he took charge of the job until the final wind up.

     Mr. Thompson writes under the date of January 13, 1929, that no logs were put past Chippewa falls after 1904; that in autumn of that year (1904) they splashed and drove everything in the river and had teams haul in from the bottom and clear the islands and sloughs.

     In this way they had thirty million feet to raft out in 1905 and the last full raft was taken by one of Weyerhauser and Denkmann's boats late in July or August first.

     Some logs had broken away or got loose from number one and with a small crew he caught most of them in Fisher Slough and fitted them up so they could be taken to Winona.

     Then they pulled the piling and rafted it and some of the booms. These and the picked up logs were taken to Laird and Norton's mill at Winona by the steamer 'Frontenac' in August. The chains, wire and wood were also sold in Winona. The buildings and their contents were sold to people living near, in 1905.

     The steamer 'E. Douglas' and the pile driver were sold in 1906, and there was nothing left to indicate the activities of the company that had turned out as high as six hundred million feet of logs in one season, sorted, scaled and rafted up in good shape ready for boats o hitch into and take down river. 1904 was the last full season at West Newton, 1905 - 30,000,000 feet was the output at West Newton, and the clean-up of logs, piles and booms.