The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-04-15
Reminiscent Story of Annu-
al Occurrence in Con-
necticut River
FIRST CAME ONLY
TO BRATTLEBORO
Other Ways Found for Handling Big
Timber Cut-Eler,ent of Danger to
Rivermen Never Absent-service of
enc Man Spawned Entire Period.

Timber Cutr-EIerlent of Danger to
Rivcrmen Never Absent-service of
Ono Man Spawned Entire Period.
A tiny steam scow, wedge-shaped
like a piece Of restaurant pie, if
piece Of pie could be imagined to have
Il box on lis lid and a smoke-stack
projecting out of the box, skinned the
waters OF the Connecticut on a gray
day late last fail when the river ran
still and black under the shadows OF
the coming winter, says the Spring
field Sunday Republican. From close
under the bowlder strewn bank where
Mt. Holyoke plunges stark snub
shoulder into the encireling waters,
she slid crescent wise across the eur
rent toward the flat dull-colored mead
ows opposite. She was 4 ricketv lit,
tie craft. old, seemingly awkward. all
lungs and no body, but capable for
her purpose. For the long line OF
logs dragged on q chain in her wake
moved smartly and easily along even
when the current struck them hard
est and bent their order crescentvvise,
also in midstream.
There was nothing in the faces OF
any OF the three men on the deck of
the little craft to indicate that her
slight journey had any special signi-
ticance. But loggers-and at least
two of those aboard were veterans OF
many 4 drive are not given, like
actors or people of great drawing
room experience to telling stories with
their eyes. But there was a story to
be told for all their stohdity, a story
in keeping with the sombreness of the
day and the time of year. When the
little steam scow with old Al Patrick,
- drive boss for 80 years on hel
prov, passed the entrance TO the
great Ox-bow that surrounds the Con.
nccticut valley lumber company s great
saw mill on 1.-THE island. she was
bringing in the 1915 boom, the last
logs of the last drive that the Connec-
ticut river in all probability viii ever
see. From the shore group of prom
inent lumber men watched her and a
camera clicked to record the closing
Of a great history, the history of sc
years of risks and chances taken by
great swashbuckling men in the open;
a history not without an epic tang
about it, and certainly with an epic
hero. The pulp demand may grow ano
changes in market facilities may shift
the sites of sawmills as they will but
the grandsons of Connecticut river log
gers, it is easy to believe, viii still
tell tales to their grandchildren Of
George Van Dyke, and the drives OF
the Connecticut.
along the Connecticut. ar Hartford
Holyoke, McIndoe Falls, Brattleboro
Bellows Falls, have closed their door
and sold their machinery to plants 10
Gated nearer to the sources of supply
but in spite OF the long drive from
the Connecticut lakes, from PER-,
stream, Indian stream and Hall stream
the tributaries of the infant Connec
ticut, reaching in some cases over tn
northern boundaries of New Hamp
shire and Vermont into Canada, tn
Connecticut Valley company, or TIL
! Mount Tom mill. as it it is more ia
miliarly known throughout the valley
has managed tc make the drive
profitable. Even now it is not admit
ted officially that the last mill wi
close. Nevertheless the loggers hay
taken the admission that there wi
be no drive in 1916 as a hint tina
there will be no more drives at al
and business gossip is sure that til
company has been lead to give up it
local plant by the assurance Of vas
\ profits to be had by serving the grea
wood-Pulp demand directly from il
immense timber preserves. The driy
has not ceased to be profitable, bu
there are other methods in the indu.
try still more profitable, it is said.
First Drive At Years Ago.
4 Forty-seven years ago the first driv
II came. Judged by the standards c
Il some of its mammoth successors,
was comparatively puny effort,
Il mere score of million Of logs carrie
only from the mouth of Connectict
II lake to Brattleboro. ZAP Patricl
II known on the censor s and assessor,
|, books and the voting list, but in +
/ logger S natural conversation as A
4 bert Kirkpatrick, who bossed the la
\ drive on its last stage, was one Of II
II young huskies fresh from the Mali
II woods who served Boss Charles Weel
II in this first drive crew. His is IL
II only service that spans the whole hi
u tory of the drives on the Connection
- Side by side with him, paid do
II wages also, worked George S. Va
II Dyke. later to be head of a syndica
i controlling all the lumber operations
the river.
II Then for two years Patrick stage
away from the Connecticut, workir
on the Maine rivers, where he h;
served his apprenticeship When
U came back i'll the early '70s, the Co
necticut drives had already leaped ;
most to full blast. a thousand me
sometimes more, were invading t
headwater forests each winter, al
D piling up logs on the ice Of t
streams and the lakes in annual lo
of s0,000,0O0 and 90,000.O00. Fu!
500 would start down with the spri
freshets for the brand new mills
- McIndoc Falls, Bellows Falls, II
yoke and Hartford. Later when t
FL mills We're merged, and the tedious
ty Grafton of sorting the logs at ca
as mill site could be eliminated, the nu
al Der OF men taking down the drive W
L. cut to less than 200, although it r
,ot far above that in time Of low wat
or for drives of unusual size, like t