LOGGING A RIVER BOTTOM 



By EDWARD F. BIGELOW. 



F3R some two decades, begin- 

 ning a half century ago and 

 ending thirty years ago, Big 

 Rapids, Michigan, was one of 

 the famous lumber centers of the 

 United States. Here was the finest, 

 tallest, biggest trees. Here existed the 

 typical methods of lumber cutting of 

 that period. Lumber was so plentiful 

 that it was gathered recklessly. The 

 methods of taking a claim were such 

 as to attract large numbers of lumber- 

 men, and for a hundred miles up the 

 river, the sound of saws and axes was 

 heard on every side, and far back into 

 the country. Logs in a profusion seem- 

 ingly endless filled the river. They 

 filled it not only on the surface, but 

 they filled the entire river to the bot- 

 tom of the deepest places in the chan- 

 nel. They were piled in the river in 

 such numbers that logs on top pushed 

 other logs to the bottom, and still others 

 came on top of these, till the river for 

 many miles was, in places, a solid mass 

 of logs. 



A year ago last summer, the dam at 

 Big Rapids, Michigan, was carried 

 away. In some eastern places the 

 breaking of such a dam would be fol- 

 lowed by an abnormal supply of fish. 

 Old settlers tell of their experience in 



carrying off fish by the wagonload and 

 the cartload ; but here was revealed to 

 the present generation the amazing fact 

 that the entire bottom of the river was a 

 matted mass of logs. When the dam 

 broke, great was the astonishment 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 for 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 condition. The ac- 

 companying photographs show one sec- 

 tion after the lumber company had 

 been at work for several months. Un- 

 fortunately no local photographer 

 seemed to appreciate the picturesque- 

 ness and the novelty of such an aston- 

 ishing 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 



THE RIVER BANTC is LINED WITH LOGS. 



669 



