New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-02-23

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tractors, boat builders, hardware deal
ers, pile driver captains, builders,
wholesale grocery men, cooks, axmen,
chore boys-all little world in itself
Downstream eight miles, below the
mills, and just beyond where the draw
bridge crossed over to Monroyia, Dun
can McLeod's shipyards steamed and
bent and bolted away at two tugboats.
The spring burst into leaf and set
tied into summer. Orde was constant
| ly on the move. AS soon as low wa
ter came with midsummer he departed
to Redding. Here he joined a crew
which Tom North had collected and
| went to the head Of the river Far
back on the headwaters he built q
| dam. The gate operated simply and
could be raised to let loose an entire
flood. And, indeed, this was the whole
purpose Of the dam. 1t created a res
| ervoir from which could be freed new
supplies of water to exc out the drop
ping spring freshets.
The crew next moved down ten miles
to where the river dropped over a
rapids full of powders. Here were
built row Of stone filled log cribs in
a double row downstream to define
the channel and to hold the drive in
it and away from the shadows. At the
falls twenty-five miles below Orde pur-
posed his most elaborate bit of rough
engineering. The falls, only about
fifteen feet high. fell straight to bed
of sheer rock. This had been eaten by
until a jagged irregular scoop hollow
had formed Immediately underneath
the fall
In food time the water roar>1
through this obstruction in a torrent.
The logs plunged end on into the
scoop hollow, hit with crash and
were spewed out below more or less
battered. Sometimes, when the drive
| brought down a hundred logs together,
| they failed to shoot over the barrier
of the ledge. Then followed a jam, a
bad jam, difficult and dangerous to
break.
This condition of affairs Orde bad
determined, if possible, to obviate.
"If," said he to North, 1--WE could
carry an apron on slant from just
under the crest and over the potholes
it would shoot both the water and the
| logs off better angle"
"Sure," agreed North, 'but you'll
have fun placing your apron with all
| that water running through. Why, it
would drown us!'
give got a notion on that" said
| Orde.
Into the forest went the axmen
| The straightest trees they felled
trimmed and dragged down travoy
trails they constructed, on sleds they
built for the purpose, to the banks OF
the river. Here they bored the two
holes through either end to receive the
| bolts when later they should be locked
together side by side in their places
AS fast as they were prepared mer
with canthooks rolled them down the
slope to fiat below the falls.
After the trees had been cut in suf-
fcient number Orde led the way back
upstream half mile to a shadows
where he commanded the construction
Of a number Of exaggerated sawhorses
with very widespread slanting legs
When the sawhorses were completed
Orde directed the picks and shovels
to be brought up.
| Orde set his men to digging a chan.
mel through the bank. 1t was no slight
| job, as the slope down into a swamp
began only at point forty or fifty fee
inland; but, on the other hand, the
earth was soft and free from rocks
When completed the channel gave pas
sage to rather feeble streamlet from
the outer fringe of the river.
Next Orde assigned two men to eacl
Of the queer shaped saWhorses and in
structed them to place the horses il
row across the shallowest part of The
river and broadside to the stream
This was done. The men, halfway t.
their knees in the swift water, bore