LOGGING A RIVER BOTTOM 



265 



THE LOGS LINE THE RAILROAD TRACKS AS WELL AS THE RIVER BANK FOR MILES. 



at the sight of that thick floor of logs. 

 The Muskegon Lumber Company 

 bought from the original owners their 

 rights and began the removal. The 

 work of taking the logs from the river 

 bottom has been done until logs line 

 the banks to a width of many rods and 

 tor long distances, a lumbering scene 

 that must rival the busiest scenes of 

 the lumber camps that existed more 

 than thirty years ago. The logs were 

 water-soaked, but in fairly good condi- 

 tion. The accompanying photographs 

 show one section after the lumber com- 

 pany had been at work for several 

 months. Unfortunately no local pho- 

 tographer seemed to appreciate the pic- 

 turesqueness and the novelty of such 

 an astonishing sight- No photographs 

 of the scene at its best are obtainable. 

 Old-timers of Big Rapids become lo- 

 quacious and tell of the interesting 

 scenes of the time when the "river 

 hogs," as the waders were called, made 

 things lively in that town of mushroom 

 growth. It was a mecca for all kinds 

 of workers in logging, but especially 

 for those who were skilled in setting 

 loose huge piles of logs to float down 

 the stream. These logs would often 



become wedged together, when a skil- 

 ful "river hog" could, with a cant hook, 

 remove the keystone log and let the 

 immense heap go tumbling free with 

 thundering noise and swirling currents, 

 only perhaps to become again blocked 

 in another place. 



These old-time residents are inter- 

 ested in deciphering the various marks 

 on the ends of the logs, and in pleasant 

 reminiscence they talk of the "good 

 old times" when such men as "Doc" 

 Blodgett and others were active. It is 

 probable that in all the United States 

 there has never been such novel lum- 

 bering scenes, nor such deeds as have 

 been done in this last year in Big 

 Rapids. 



Mr. James Gow, of Muskegon, 

 Michigan, is the prime mover in this 

 work. He is and for a long time has 

 been the president of the Muskegon 

 Log Owners' Booming Company. He 

 has been personally able to purchase 

 ninety-six per cent- of all the marks 

 that were used by the old-time loggers 

 on the Muskegon Lake and Muskegon 

 tributaries. At the present time Mr. 

 Gow owns nine hundred and thirty- 

 four marks and controls others. 



