The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-29
THE TAYLOR's FALLS JAM.
Millions Of Logs Wedged In the Rapids of
the St. Croix River.

the st. Croix River.
There is at Taylor's Falls, Mimi, on the ST.
Crox river, a monster jam of logs, probably
the largest jam ever seen before anywhere. It
began on Sunday. June 13 1t was feared that
a jam would occur there. for the stream was
men had been there for weeks building booms
and keeping watch to prevent jams; but that
night, while they were asleep in their tents, a
rush of logs came, the booms broke, and. what
will long be known as "Tbe Big jam of
1886" began to form. The workmen did all they
knew to prevent the closing of the stream, but
in vain. A constant stream of logs poured over
the falls, which about thirty feet high. At
times the rapids fill with logs for several hun
dred feet, and then all settle down into the jam
with rush, and roar like the discharge of ar
tilery, swapping large logs in two as pipe
stems, and throwing others on end forty to fifty
feet in the air. This continued until by the end
of the week the jam had reached up over the
falls distance OF mile and a quarter. and logs
were still running in at the rate of 500 900 feet
an hour On Sunday last excursion trains were
run to the falls, and hundreds of sightseers went
out from ST. Paul and Minneapolis and the sur
rounding country.
In the meantime, the lumbermen. with the aid
OF stationary engine, were busy trying TO
break the jam. and each day thousands were
loosened and sent down the river to Saltwater
but as they ran in above the jam faster than
they ran out below. the progress was slow In
pulling out logs, q great deal OIL Judgment Is re-
quired to know just which are the key logs that
should be caught by the rope in order to loosen
the largest number A rope of two inches
diameter is used. and on this are attached huge
hooks, about like ice .tongs only larger and
stronger. There are probably 200 or 300
feet of this rope In single length, and it
takes from six to ten men to handle it An ex-
perienced man is at the end, picking his way
among the logs at some distance from the water.
He knows his business, and though it looks as if
he looped the end of the rope about any log taken
at random, he never does this until he has some
good reason for taking this particular log.
Sometimes, by making an especially fortunate
choice raft of hundred logs are loosened.
AS the little engine down on the boat puffs away
winding up the rope, there is heard terrible
grooming and creaking among the dry
logs. 1t is terrible strain that is
brought to bear, and then the whole end
of the jam seems to be moving down stream.
The creaking continues. and all at once mass
of logs packed together, their ends sticking in
all directions parts from the larger mass and
comes down the boiling water and floats
away. No sooner ia it loosened from the big
Jam than a score of the lusty rivermen run from
log to log and mount it, with their cant-hooks
pulling the small tanele apart. They keep up a
continuous shouting and leaping from log to log
until they are all untangled and float away. then,
by a few jumps on stray logs, they are back
again for the next pull
Experts say that there are anywhere from
$50, 000 900 to 400 000 900 feet of lumber in the
jam, and that it may last all summer, and quite
possibly until next fall If it is broken up with
out loss Of life it will be fortunate