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SURING SCHOOL DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY
1979
Page 53
Page 54
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The Annual Drive
One of the early industires of this section of Wisconsin was lumbering. The logs were cut in the woodw during the winter and when spring came and the ice vegan to thaw and break on the rivers the log drive began. This was an interesting, exciting and daring experience.
Log drivers had to be quick and daring and rugged men. Armed with peavies, long pike poles, heavy high shoes with calked soles, theswe woodsmen had to cleverly direvt and guide thousands of logs on their slow wcourse from the forest where they were cut to the sawmill where they would be made into lumber. Often times, in spite of the ski8ll of the drivers, the logs would become jammed in 6the stream, sometimes piling up to heights of seven and eight feet. To break such a jam was difficult and dangerous. Usually tere was a key log in the breaking of the jam.