1886 St. Croix River log jam

American logging incident December 2019 thumb|The 1886 log jam on the St Croix River near Taylors Falls, Minnesota On June 13, 1886, a log jam developed in the St. Croix River, close to Taylors Falls, Minnesota, and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, United States. The river was used to transport large quantities of logs from the forests upstream to the sawmills, and log jams disrupted this business. The 1886 jam was described at the time by a local journalist as "the jammedest jam" he had encountered,https://books.google.com/books?id=3BwKxY0OjdUC&q=%2522jammedest%2520jam%2522&pg=PA105 North Woods River: The St. Croix River in Upper Midwest History McMahon Eileen M. Karamanski Theodore J. 2009-10-20 Univ of Wisconsin Press 978-0-299-23423-2 en October 15, 2020 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221324/https://books.google.com/books?id=3BwKxY0OjdUC&q=%2522jammedest%2520jam%2522&pg=PA105 live and was very difficult to clear, with hundreds of men working for six weeks to clear it, eventually using steamboats and dynamite. The jam was also a major tourist attraction, with thousands of spectators every day. After the jam was broken up in July, cleanup work to remove the logs on the river banks continued until September. Background After the Wisconsin Territory was established in 1836, large amounts of Native American land were ceded to the United States via the 1837 Treaty of St. Peters. Much of the land was covered in vast pine forests, and logging activities started soon after.https://www.stcroix360.com/2014/06/jams-dams-pines-and-pigs-reflections-on-the-st-croix-logging/ Jams, Dams, Pines and Pigs: Reflections on the St. Croix Logging Era Thorson Dave St. Croix 360 en-US 2019-10-12 June 12, 2014 September 28, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190928181502/https://www.stcroix360.com/2014/06/jams-dams-pines-and-pigs-reflections-on-the-st-croix-logging/ live This was a winter activity, as the trees were so large that the only way to move them through the forests was by horse-drawn sleds, usually over ice.Ten events that shaped Wisconsin's history Wisconsin Blue Book http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1999.i0009&id=WI.WIBlueBk1999&isize=M Risjord Norman K. 1999–2000 Barish Lawrence S. Meloy Patricia E. en-US 128–132 October 12, 2019 August 21, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200821003912/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1999.i0009&id=WI.WIBlueBk1999&isize=M live Teams of lumberjacks cut down trees all winter and collected them by the shores of the St. Croix River and its tributaries. Pine is light and floats well, so the logs could be easily transported downstream by log driving in the river. The logs were marked with the relevant company's timber mark and then released into the river when the snow melted and the water rose in spring. Workers known as "river pigs" guided the logs down the river and kept them moving, especially at difficult places like shallows, rapids or sharp bends. Downstream, the logs were caught in the log boom at the St. Croix Boom Site, where they were sorted by owner, bundled into rafts and then sent to the sawmills.Blegen Theodore C. 1963 With Ax and Saw: A History of Lumbering in Minnesota Forest History Newsletter 7 3 2–13 10.2307/3982846 0015-7422 3982846 181152219 Causes and start of the 1886 log jam right|thumb|Dalles of the St. Croix with the bend at Angle Rock In the area now covered by Interstate State Park, the St. Croix river marks the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It runs through a narrow gorge, the Dalles of the St. Croix, and makes a 90 degree turn at Angle Rock. The spring of 1886 was very dry, so the water level was too low to transport logs. This began to change when the Clam River dam was dynamited by the hermit Robert Davidson, who claimed the dam interfered with his meadow lands.https://books.google.com/books?id=20s4DwAAQBAJ&q=%2522Davidson%2522%2520clam%2520river%25201886&pg=PT1105 Fifty Years In The Northwest Folsom William 2018-07-11 Litres 978-5-04-085230-7 en October 15, 2020 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221334/https://books.google.com/books?id=20s4DwAAQBAJ&q=%2522Davidson%2522%2520clam%2520river%25201886&pg=PT1105 live 36375 Fifty Years In The Northwest https://books.google.com/books?id=_DrrAAAAMAAJ&q=hermit Earl Chapin's Tales of Wisconsin Chapin Earl V. 1973 University of Wisconsin, River Falls Press en October 15, 2020 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221326/https://books.google.com/books?id=_DrrAAAAMAAJ&q=hermit live Davidson was later charged for blowing up the dam and jailed for contempt of court.https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90059522/1886-07-19/ed-1/seq-6 Notes gathered in the prison city on a Sabbath day 1886-07-19 St. Paul daily globe 5 May 17, 2021 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221453/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031/1HMADE58/86071901&page_name=6 live The release of the Clam River water caused the St. Croix to rise slightly. Sluice dams on several other tributaries, including Kettle River and Snake River, were opened as well, and coincidentally, heavy rain storms caused the rivers to rise further.https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2016/08/first-park-ever-be-shared-between-two-states-minnesota-and-wisconsin-s-own-intersta/ The first park ever to be shared between two states? Minnesota and Wisconsin's own Interstate State Park 2016-08-16 MinnPost en-US 2019-10-19 September 28, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190928180935/https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2016/08/first-park-ever-be-shared-between-two-states-minnesota-and-wisconsin-s-own-intersta/ live http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016771/1886-06-19/ed-1/seq-3 The Jam at Taylor's Falls 19 June 1886 The Minneapolis Tribune 2019-12-02 5 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221330/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0005/1DFC5F58/86061901&page_name=3 live https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/jam-of-all-jams-1 Jam of all Jams Curry Edna 9781536507393 December 2, 2019 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221342/https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/jam-of-all-jams-1 live (reprint of Curry Edna The Greatest Logjam Ever American Forests 92 24–25, 48–50) Large numbers of logs were dumped into the river all at once,Hovey H. C. 1886-08-14 The Great Log Jam in the St. Croix River https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-great-log-jam-in-the-st-croix-r/ Scientific American en 55 7 101–102 10.1038/scientificamerican08141886-101 more than the river or the driving crews working along could control. Shortly after midnight on June 13, 1886, while the driving crews were asleep in their tents, the logs were caught at Angle Rock and quickly started to accumulate.https://books.google.com/books?id=UfBlDwAAQBAJ&q=%2522The+greatest+logjam+ever%2522&pg=PT369 Floating Islands: an Activity Book Heggen Richard 2018-07-20 Richard Heggen en More and more logs ran onto the jam, including the 15 million board feet of the Clam River drive.https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031%2F0BZ0Z558%2F86061801&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=295dd776-6999-4936-bcdd-68079eb423f0&sort_col=relevance&cnt=3&CurSearchNum=2&recOffset=0 A Big Log Jam on the St. Croix 18 June 1886 Mississippi Valley lumberman and manufacturer 5 X 46 December 3, 2019 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221330/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031%2F0BZ0Z558%2F86061801&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=295dd776-6999-4936-bcdd-68079eb423f0&sort_col=relevance&cnt=3&CurSearchNum=2&recOffset=0 live The Stillwater Messenger reprinted a report from the Taylor's Falls Journal about the start of the jam: Last week the lumbermen wore a dejected and lost-their-last-friend look, for the water in the rivers was steadily falling and their logs were almost inextricably jammed at Wood river, Kettle river rapids, the mouth of the Namagon and other places. Crews had been discharged, and there seemed little prospect of getting the logs to market for an indefinite time. But it remained for Davidson, the hermit, to strike the key-note for a change to all this, by blowing out the Clam river dam with dynamite. The water from that stream caused a slight rise, and by one of Elias McKean's "most remarkable coincidences", there seemed to be a concert of action by the elements and otherwise. Other dams were opened, heavy rain storms flooded the upper country, and there was immediately a boom in the water of the Saint Croix, and logs went booming along toward the great Stillwater boom. Logs from the "low-water" drives were easily floated off, and came down stream in immense rafts, almost blockading the river as they moved along. Reaching the famous dells of the Saint Croix, their course was interrupted. The channel was too narrow and the current too sluggish to allow their passage in such large bodies, and shortly after midnight, Sunday morning, they "hung-up" and began jamming and piling. Something such a catastrophe has been anticipated, and yet it came unexpectedly, for the men who had been here for weeks, building sheerbooms at the eddies in the dells, and keeping watch to prevent a jam, were asleep in their tents, and their booms were broken, and the formation of the biggest jam ever known commenced before they were aware of it. Stillwater Messengerhttps://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90060506/1886-06-19/ed-1/seq-4 19 June 1886 Stillwater Messenger 2022-01-15 4 The Messenger An estimated 125 to 150 million board feet of pine became stuck in the log jam.https://books.google.com/books?id=3BwKxY0OjdUC&q=1886&pg=PA289 North Woods River: The St. Croix River in Upper Midwest History McMahon Eileen M. Karamanski Theodore J. 2009-10-20 Univ of Wisconsin Press 9780299234232 en October 15, 2020 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221344/https://books.google.com/books?id=3BwKxY0OjdUC&q=1886&pg=PA289 live For comparison, the average annual production of pine in the St. Croix valley between 1870 and 1889 was 241 million board feet.Andersen Osh(Barbara) Crow Thomas R. Lietz Sue M. Stearns Forest 1996-09-01 Transformation of a landscape in the upper mid-west, USA: The history of the lower St. Croix river valley, 1830 to present Landscape and Urban Planning 35 4 247–267 10.1016/S0169-2046(96)00304-0 0169-2046 Clearing the log jam thumb|1886 log jam, Dalles of the St Croix, with bridge in background Smaller log jams could be cleared just by human labor, with river pigs releasing key logs, but this log jam was more difficult and dammed up the river. On June 18, 1886, The New York Times reported that the jam was over two miles long and the largest to ever occur in the Northwest, and four hundred men were working day and night to clear it, while it was still growing at a rate of 700,000 board feet per hour.https://www.nytimes.com/1886/06/18/archives/an-immense-log-jam.html An Immense Log Jam. 1886-06-18 The New York Times 2019-12-02 en-US 0362-4331 September 28, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190928144704/https://www.nytimes.com/1886/06/18/archives/an-immense-log-jam.html live The logs were owned by more than 100 companies, who joined forces and shared the costs of breaking the jam, which were about $75,000 in total. When the log jam started to endanger the two-year-old bridge at Taylors Falls (which until then had been thought to be safe), logs sticking out of the almost 70 foot high pile were sawn off to protect the abutments.http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016771/1886-06-16/ed-1/seq-1 That Jam 16 June 1886 The Minneapolis Tribune 1 January 15, 2022 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221333/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0005/1DFC5F58/86061601&page_name=1 live In attempts to clear the logs, two steamboats were used to tug at the front end of the jam. Land-based steam engines and horses were also used to pull out logs from the jam with ropes, with $100 worth of ropes having to be replaced every day due to wear. Around six to eight million feet of logs were released in this way. Finally, it was attempted to use dynamite bombs. On July 2, 1886, a 24-pound dynamite bomb was exploded, releasing a million feet of logs into the water and moving another 15 million feet out of the main jam.http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90060506/1886-07-03/ed-1/seq-4 The Breaking of the Jam 3 July 1886 Stillwater Messenger December 2, 2019 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221334/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031/1HMB4Q58/86070301&page_name=4 live This had broken the jam in two, but also released most of the water that had been held back by the jam. As flowing water was necessary to get the logs moving, this could have impeded the work, but rain soon replenished the river. When a channel was cleared through the jam, only the logs on the banks still required clearing. Cleanup work involving at least 70 people was still ongoing in mid-September. Tourist attraction Log jams were a major disruption to the sawmills: the 57-day 1883 jam in the same area had played a part in causing the bankruptcy of Marine Mill in Marine on St. Croix.https://archive.org/details/stcroixmidwestbo0000dunn registration 76 The St. Croix: Midwest Border River Dunn James Taylor 1979 Minnesota Historical Society Press 978-0-87351-141-4 en On the other hand, log jams brought large crowds of spectators and were welcomed by the local tourism industry in Taylors Falls.https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031%2F1HMADE58%2F86061601&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=d72e456d-522a-4fdf-8336-56a3e5376728&sort_col=relevance&cnt=6&CurSearchNum=5&recOffset=0 A Mammoth Log Jam 16 June 1886 St. Paul Daily Globe December 3, 2019 January 15, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220115221341/https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031%2F1HMADE58%2F86061601&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=d72e456d-522a-4fdf-8336-56a3e5376728&sort_col=relevance&cnt=6&CurSearchNum=5&recOffset=0 live Thousands of tourists per day came to see the jam, by special excursion train from St. Paul and by steamboat from Stillwater.https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90060506/1886-06-26/ed-1/seq-4 The Messenger 26 June 1886 Stillwater Messenger 4 The local hotels and restaurants were packed.http://npshistory.com/publications/sacn/hrs/chap2.htm Saint Croix NSR: Historic Resource Study (Chapter 2) npshistory.com 2019-12-02 October 5, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191005202557/http://npshistory.com/publications/sacn/hrs/chap2.htm live End of log jams To end the threat of log jams disrupting the industry, lumbermen organized to construct a dam. In 1890, Nevers Dam was finished at a cost of almost $250,000, situated 11 mi km upstream of St. Croix Falls. It was said to be the "largest pile-driven dam in the world".http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/destinations/state_parks/wild_river/nevers_dam.pdf Nevers Dam . . . The Lumberman's Dam Braatz Rosemarie Vezina Minnesota Department of Natural Resources December 2, 2019 October 25, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201025032143/http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/destinations/state_parks/wild_river/nevers_dam.pdf live The dam gave the lumbermen the ability to control the flow of both water and logs on the St. Croix River, and there were no further log jams on the St. Croix after 1886. References External links Images of the log jam at the Minnesota Historical Society website Category:1886 in Minnesota Category:1886 in Wisconsin Category:St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota) Category:1886 disasters in the United States Category:St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin