68 March 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com
Annoying pileups
that latch on one
bank or another are
wing jams. Logs
jammed against
a sand bar in the
middle of a river are
center jams. They’re
the trickiest and
most dangerous.birling. In some par ts of the United States,
birling contests are annual events. Some-
one has called them “one of the few truly
native American sports.”
Following behind the riverjacks are
two wannigans—24-by-84-foot log rafts
on which are built a canvas-covered bunk-
house and cookhouse. Only a few old-timers
still possess the knack of constructing a
wannigan that will survive the log drives.
These rough-hewn showboats of the log
drive are put together at the upper end of the river and follow the
riverjacks dow nstream—t y ing up a long the bank each night. When
they reach the millpond, they’re knocked down, thus adding a few
more logs to the supply.
Guiding the clumsy flatboats calls for expert navigation. Fre-
quently, the bows are under water in the rapids. Fifty-foot sweeps,
fore and aft, are used to guide the craft. They lumber along, scraping
over half-concealed rocks, slamming into
the river’s banks. But somehow the wann-
igans hold together, principally because of
the tough vines used to bind the logs.
Riverjacks work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This means breakfast at 6 a.m., first lunch at
10 a.m., second lunch at 2:30 p.m., and din-
ner at 7 p.m. Breakfast and dinner are served
from the wannigans. Lunches are brought to
the riverjacks on the job.
And man, what food! Great platters of
ham and eggs, loaves of oven-hot bread and pans of browned bis-
cuits, enormous two-inch steaks, great pots of beans, cookies
and doughnuts by the score, huge cups of steaming coffee, crates
of oranges and apples. The diet is heavy on the side of sugars and
starches because they provide quick energy.
“You can get a lot of logs down the river with a sack of sugar,” one
mill owner is fond of saying.Below: Downstream where the riverbanks are not steep, a bulldozer is used to break up the log jams near the shore.
Right: When a man falls into the deep water, this boat comes to his rescue.GIANT THUNDER LIZARD THAT SHOOK THE EARTH
IN BYGONE AGE IS MOUNTED FOR WORLD TO SEE
NOVEMBER 1931APRIL
1943