“River rats” float timber down the Columbia River in Oregon, c. 1910

Before we had the reliable infrastructure and heavy transport, loggers had to use the rivers as the way to transport their products to the sawmills and the markets.

They would take the logs to build massive timber rafts, which sometimes consisted of millions of feet of timber.

Cookery on J.R. Booth’s raft, circa 1880. The raftsmen cooked, ate and slept on these rafts as they floated down the river. From an interior point on the Columbia River, Oregon. Pine logs in rafts 800 feet long and 52 feet wide are towed 1000 miles via the Pacific Ocean to San Diego, California where they are transformed into lumber. Log rafts on the Apalachicola River This Underwood and Underwood 1902 stereo card bears the caption: “Stupendous log-raft, containing millions of feet– a camp’s year’s work, profit $20,000– Columbia River, Oregon.” $20,000 in 1902 was roughly equivalent to $500,000 today Mendocino Lumber Company woods circa 1870s Log Raft, Lower Columbia River – c. 1900 Benson seagoing log raft

These rafts could be the representation of as much as a year’s worth of work for the loggers. As an example, there were 3,000 men working in the lumbering trade in Wisconsin in 1857. All of that lumber they harvested had to be floated out of Wisconsin then down the Mississippi.

The vast scale of logging. Floating logs down a river worked well for the most desirable pine timber, because it floated well. But hardwoods were more dense, and didn’t float well enough to be easily driven, and some pines weren’t near drivable streams. Log driving became increasingly unnecessary with the development of railroads and the use of trucks on logging roads. However, the practice survived in some remote locations where such infrastructure did not exist. Most log driving in the United States and Canada ended with changes in environmental legislation in the 1970s. Some places, like the Catalonian Pyrenees, still retain the practice as a popular holiday celebration once a year. This looks like the river is bank to bank with logs. Have no idea how you manage something so big. Log drives were often in conflict with navigation, as logs would sometimes fill the entire river and make boat travel dangerous or impossible.

As rafting grew into a great business, which called on men who were reliable, rough, and dependable with the abilities to work under the industrious lead of raft pilots.  After reaching their destination, the raftsmen would get on board a steamboat that was headed up the river so they could go back and start their way down the river working on a raft again.

When the first sawmills were established, they most often were small facilities that were run by water. Located near the timber sources, they were sometimes converted to grist mills for the farms created after the timber was removed and the forest cleared. Later, larger circular sawmills were built close to the lower reaches of rivers, so the logs could be floated in the form of large rafts by the log drivers.

In the smaller stretches of a river, which was wilder and had faster currents, rafts couldn’t pass through, so the individual logs were sent in masses to be driven down the river like they were herds of cattle.

Timber rafts could be of excessively large proportions that reached as far as 2,000 feet long and 165 feet wide.

They were sometimes stacked as high as 6.5 feet. These huge rafts literally contained thousands of logs. Sometimes a massive raft required as many as 500 raftsmen, so for their comfort, the logs were used to build galleys and cabins. Initially, the rafts were controlled by oars. Later they used tugboats.

The watercourse determined the construction of the raft. Rivers that were rocky and winding saw simple rafts of smart construction. The fronts of the logs were joined by wooden bars and the rear was roped together loosely.

Bateaux ferried log drivers using pike poles to dislodge stranded logs while maneuvering with the log drive. A wannigan was a kitchen built on a raft which followed the drivers down the river.The wannigan served four meals a day to fuel the men working in cold water. It also provided tents and blankets for the night if no better accommodations were available. A commissary wagon carrying clothing, plug tobacco and patent medicines for purchase by the log drivers was also called a wangan. The logging company wangan train, called a Mary Anne, was a caravan of wagons pulled by four- or six-horse teams where roads followed the river to transport the tents, blankets, food, stoves, and tools needed by the log drivers. Rafts were assembled in sections. Each section was made up of round or squared timbers, all of the same length except for the outside, or “boom logs,” which extended aft a few feet to enclose the following section. Thus the sections were coupled together. A fairly typical raft would be one of three, four or five sections, each section having timbers twenty to thirty feet in length.

The slack resulted in an easy adaption for waterbeds that were winding or narrow. Rivers that were wide and quiet, such as the Mississippi, permitted caravans of huge rafts to travel together even being chained into strings.

This logging practice was common in many parts of the world, especially on the main rivers in Germany and throughout North America.

For log drives, the ideal river would have been straight and uniform, with sharp banks and a predictable flow of water. Wild rivers were not that, so men cut away the fallen trees that would snag logs, dynamited troublesome rocks, and built up the banks in places. To control the flow of water, they built “flash dams” or “driving dams” on smaller streams, so they could release water to push the logs down when they wanted Raft construction differs depending on the watercourse. Rocky and windy rivers saw rafts of simple, yet sometimes smart, construction. For example, the front parts of the logs were joined together by wooden bars, while the rear parts were loosely roped together. The resulting slack allowed for easy adaptation for narrow and windy waterbeds. Wide and quiet rivers, like the Mississippi River, allowed huge rafts to travel in caravans and even be chained into strings. Most rafts were sharp-chute, that is, V-bowed, rather than square-bowed. Raftsmen had learned that with a V-bow a raft was more likely to hold together and glance off if it drifted out of control and hit the river bank. As one old-time raftsman put it: “With a square bow you were compelled to hold the raft in or near the middle of the river: if it butted the hill it would come to pieces. The sharp-chute could be put together so it would not come apart. And it saved a lot of hard work. Raftsmen didn’t mind letting it go to the hill. They’d say: ‘Let’er shoot out.’” As the era of rafting receded into the past, old men recalling old times on the river talked so much about how boisterous some raftsmen were, about how ready they were for fight or frolic and, whichever, the rougher the better, and about the pranks they pulled and yarns they told—as to give the impression that that’s the way most all raftsmen were. It was a wrong impression, of course. Even so, old timers perpetuated it because in describing river life years later they tended to romanticize it—which is not surprising since they had found on the river and in Darien more than a way to make a little money, they had found a way to escape the drudgery and monotony of life in the backwoods.

Connecting large continental forests was possible with timber rafting. Areas where this was done included southwestern Germany along the Main, Neckar, Rhine, and Danube rivers with coastal states and cities, remote trading and early forestry became closely related.

In the black forest, the large pines were called “Hollander” as they were a popular choice for trade with the Netherlands. Along the Rhine, large timber rafts ranged from 200 meters to 400 meters in length and as large as 40 meters wide. They were comprised of thousands of logs.

These crews consisted of anywhere from 400 to 500 men, which included bakeries, ovens, shelters, and livestock stables.

Here is another story from us: The beautiful virgin forests of North America – then the loggers came

The infrastructure of timber rafting formed networks that were interconnected all over Europe’s continental area. The inventions of steamboat vessels, trucking improvements, the railroad, and highway infrastructure eventually reduced the need for timber rafts, but the rafts are still important in Finland.