Log driving is a means of moving logs (sawn tree trunks) from a forest to sawmills and pulp mills downstream using the current of a river. It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America. [1] A sawmill with floating logs in Kotka, Finland.

Nov 13, 2016 · 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.

Feb 16, 2019 · In the summer and winter in Idaho’s panhandle, lumberjacks floated logs in the river. In spring, they broke up the jams that formed and collected the logs at the other end. It was a center jam—a...

Logs were lashed together and floated down river as giant rafts that utilized oars for steering. The Rock Island riverfront of the late 19th century was characterized by hundreds of amassed logs – most of them either in this area or at the main Weyerhaeuser & Denkmann operation located about 15 blocks downriver.

Log driving is the process of transporting logs by floating them in loose aggregations in water; the motive power is supplied by the natural or flushed streamflow.

Apr 11, 2014 · In colonial times, men floated logs down the rivers of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont for shipments back to England for the king’s masts.

River drives were a standard way of moving large amounts of cut timber to sawmills during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prior to the expansion and adoption of railroads and trucks for...

Mar 23, 2016 · On this drive, the logs would plunge through a forty foot diversion tunnel, join the main stream of the Clearwater and float almost forty miles to the mill pond at Lewiston. But only this one time. By next year a concrete plug would close the tunnel forever.

Apparently inspired by his experiences as a sailor in the West Indies, Daniel initially tried log driving, floating the logs loose down the river. (Woods, 1934) This failed and in 1764, he instead tied the logs together into a raft and successfully floated his timber from Cochecton, New York, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A splash dam was constructed to pond water and floating logs and, when full, was commonly destroyed with dynamite with the intent of sending a flood-wave of water and logs rapidly downstream. River corridors used for log drives were also modified to facilitate downstream conveyance of the logs.