Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1922-04-14
LOG DRIVING
TO START SOON
River, Clear of Ice and With a
Driving Stage of Water, In
vites Lumbermen to Drive
Winters Cut


the Flambeau river now and the log
drive of the Flambeau River Lumber
Co. is likely to be started next week.
Just at present, there is a little too
much water in the river, for it has
gotten out of it's natural banks at some
places and is carrying logs out into
| the overflow where they will be left
high and dry unless driven out before
| the water goes down. So there is such
a thing as having too much water for
profitable log driving, as well as too
| little water.
| If the proper stage of water pre-
| walls next week, the drive will be start
ed. Some supplies have already been
sent up to Cedar Rapids where the
rollwoys are located. The logs were
| landed both on the ice and on the
banks and it is the logs that were piled
on the ice that now fill the river from
| the Brooklyn bridge to point beyond
| the north end Of West Second-st.
They came down when the ice broke
up the middle of last week, and are
still coming. Soon there will be hun
| dreds of thousands of feet Of logs in
the piyer at Ladysmith.
A crew of about sixty men will go
ap to Cedar Rapids to break the jams,
start the logs and drive them down
| to Ladysmith where they will be sawed
I'D into lumber at the big mill of the
Flambeau River Lumber Co. A wan
gan. large tiat-bottomed boat with
kitchen and dining room, and a scoW
for carrying bedding and other sup
plies, will accompany the crew. The
lumber companies always feed their
men, who are in the icy water much
of the time and have laDorious time
of it during the drive, abundantly and
we'll And the wages paid are high,
| so that it is not generally difficult to
obtain a crew But the crews are not
what they used to be, it is said. The
old-time drivers are passing and new
recruits are sometimes pressed into
service and some of them don't know
hemlock log from pine, These
greenies usually get thorough initla-
tion on their first trip downstream,
which is one of the compensating tea-
lures to the veteran river-pigs.
lin the Old Days
| In the old days of log driving on the
.Flambeau it was not an uncommon cir
cumstanee when an hundred million
feet of logs would be in a drive. 1t
was rough, hardy, fearless bunch OF
men who brought down the winter s
cut of pine. They worked long days
i'm dangerous work, wet to the skin
much of the time, sleeping in their wet
clothing. often, but seldom were SICK.
breaking Jams was dangerous work,
while the chance of drowning was al
WAYS ominously near. 1t Will De re-
called that several Indian drivers were
drowned at Jim Falls about twenty
wears ago. All were good swimmers.
But the boys with the peavies were
happy-go-lucLy lot and were always
ready to court danger and always look
ing ahead to payday and good time.
A goodly portion of the bunch were
Chippewa Indians or half-breeds anu
l
they were good drivers. But they
liked their fire-water and their Wnlte
brothers had similar tastes.
When the drive reached warner
| (now Ladysmith) the wanigan would
be tied up at the bank near where the
| Gerard hotel now stands and the men
would crowd the little saloons ana
small stores to buy what they desired.
| Often. some of them would not De Id
condition to resume the southern trip
when the wangan cast loose. The mas
ter of the kitchen boat would invite
the citizens of the town to ride with
him around the bend" (there was no
dam in the Flambeau them ana ne
| treated them royalty. Such food
Such biscuit! The cookie WASH {
called a chef then-was a man VINO
took great pride in his job, and ne
had reputation to sustain. And dld
not the lumber company supply MIN
with the very best of everything ne
! wanted? There was no stinting. 80
far as grub went, the log drivers had