A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



In June of this year, 1844, he made his first trip as 

 pilot of a log raft that floated all the way down from 

 Stillwater, at the head of Lake Saint Croix to Saint 

 Louis, a good, long seven hundred miles. 



In 1845 he helped cut the logs and get them to the 

 first mill in Stillwater owned by John McKusick. He 

 helped raft the lumber from these logs and ran the raft 

 to Saint Louis where it was sold. 



He was one of the first to run logs and lumber by con- 

 tract: so much a string or per thousand feet, finding the 

 crew and paying all expenses. 



He continued this work running mostly by contract 

 for ten years when he quit rafting for a time and began 

 piloting steamboats in the Galena and Minnesota Pack- 

 et Company between Galena and Saint Paul, first on 

 the "Dr. Franklin II," with Captain D. S. Harris. 



On his first arrival in Saint Paul the only house there 

 was a double log cabin used as a trading post by Louis 

 Robert. He was a delegate from Stillwater that aided 

 in locating the old Capitol building. The same com- 

 mittee also located the old penitentiary in Stillwater. 



Captain Hanks served as pilot on nearly every boat 

 in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company's line. 

 He was on the "Galena" when she had a hard race from 

 Lake Pepin to Saint Paul and not only won the race but 

 free wharfage in Saint Paul for that year. 



He was on the "Galena" when she burned at Red 

 Wing landing July i, 1858. He was pilot on the "Al- 

 hambra" and reached Albany a few hours after the tor- 

 nado had wrecked Camanche, Iowa, and Albany, Illi- 

 nois, June 4, i860. Many were killed in the two towns 

 but Captain Hanks found his family and relatives unin- 

 jured. 



In the summer of 1868 Captain Hanks got off the 



