The Lumber Boom In Williamsport

The Susquehanna Log Boom was a seven mile-long series of 400 linked stone and timber cribs erected in a slow-moving stretch of the river along the town of Williamsport.  The Lumber would be floated down the river, into the boom, and from there, sorted out to the mills.

I've lived in this area my entire life, so of course I knew Williamsport was once the Lumber capitol of the world.  But until this week, I had never given much thought to what that meant, beyond the pretty mansions on Millionaires row.  When I heard the term "lumber boom", I did not realize that a "boom" is an actual, physical, structure.

Lumber from the Williamsport Log Boom, in Milton, Flood of 1889

Until I came across a flood picture, in Milton, showing huge piles of lumber, from Williamsport, that had come down river and caused a good bit of damage. A newspaper article in the Miltonian mentioned that if the lumber was on your property, the law required you to advertise it.  (In other words, you can't just keep it, even though it may have wiped out your property when it landed)

The  scale of the lumber operations in our area was absolutely amazing, and the photos are so incredible to see - Here is an overview of how it all worked:

Lumbering Near Waterville Pa

A Note About The Photos

I have to cheat a bit here with the photos in the lumbering time line.  Photography was not invented until 1826, and even then, it wouldn't have been common in the vast remote forests along the West Branch of the Susquehanna.  But felling logs didn't change a whole lot over the years, and neither did the logging rafts, so the process likely looked similar. to the photos we have from the 1870s into the early 1900's.

 There just would have been a whole lot more trees on those hills in the background.

In The Beginning (or around 1768)
When European settlers first arrived along the the West Branch of the Susquehanna (after 
Pennsylvania purchased the land from the Iroquois in 1768) the river  flowed through some of the most remote areas of the state.  It was a vast, isolated, area of white pine and hemlock forests. 

The settlers had arrived in need of money, and with nearly six months to kill from the end of one growing season to the start of the next.  Those majestic white pines  were straight-grained, tough and resistant to warp and rot. 

Towering as high as 150 feet into the air, they were  some of the most valuable trees in North America.  This was during the age of sailing ships, which required tall, straight grained wood, free of knots.. Theses unspoiled forests of white pines were practically worth their weight in gold during these years. 

Removing the Bark From A Tree Before It Is Rafted Down River

But to get the trees from the mountains along the Susquehanna river to the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia was no easy feat.  There were no trains.  And prior to 1834, there was no access to the Canal. 

 There were horses, and there were creeks and streams and the mighty Susquehanna river.

"The very largest and finest pine trees were cut for spars, that is ship masts. They were 80 to 100 feet long and required 8 to 14 horses to haul them to the river. They were peeled but left round. A great deal of care had to be used in the cutting and hauling.".

Log Raft on the river

Then the loggers would pilot the rafts the many miles down river to Marietta, or Port Deposit.   There they would dismantle their rafts, sell the lumber, then walk  home, walking 50 or miles a day, hurrying home so they could  start the process all over again.

Shipbuilders in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston depended on the white pine to build the clipper ships masts and spars.  They could not get enough of it.   Strong, versatile and resistant to decay, the pine was also popular for bridges, homes and furniture. Markets for Williamsport’s white pine were found as far off as Europe, South and Central America and Africa. 

As I mentioned earlier, those 150 foot tall trees were practically worth their weight in gold.

As more and more men joined the lumbering efforts, flat boats would be  anchored midstream, with men stationed there and at other advantageous locations to catch logs.  The men would be stationed on boats, watching  the river day and night, to catch logs. Huge fires would be set along the banks at night, to enable them  to see the logs they needed to catch.. Once caught, the logs would be hastily secured into flat rafts and secured to shore.  

But  still, it was only a short season for lumbering.  During the summer, only certain species could be cut.  In winter, ice blocked the logs’ passage downstream.  The early lumberjacks simply could not supply the sawmills with enough lumber to keep them running at full capacity.  

And that's when the Boom was born.

Prior to 1846 - Williamsport had one mill - The Big Water Mill, erected by a Philadelphia Company. It was not thriving, and it had been  purchased by Adam Updegraff & James Armstrong at Sheriffs sale.

The Susquehanna Boom was built in 1851, and it began with just 20 cribs.     It was expanded over the next decade, growing to 400 cribs.  By 1870, the boom was 7 miles long, and  thirty mills had been erected along the rivers edge in Williamsport.

At the boom, saw logs (meant for the lumber mills) passed out of the lower end of the boom through a sort of double gate, where the "boom rats" armed with long pikepoles and sharp caulk (pronounced cork) boots were stationed to identify and sort out the logs belonging to different owners, based on their branding

A Pikepole & Calk  (pronounced "cork") Boots

Around 150 “boom rats,” men and boys, some as young as pre-teens, worked the boom, directing each log to its destination with long hooks.

Back up on the hills at the lumber camps, lumberman always cut logs  to an even length - 16, 18, 20, 22, or even 24 feet.  On one end, a smooth beveled, or tapered,  space was cut. Then the logs were branded on that beveled end.  Using a  heavy sledgehammer with a brand  attached, the hammer was  swung to strike the beveled space. 

In the heyday of the lumber era, there were 700 different brands registered in Williamsport!
When the logs came down the river, those brands are what told the Boomrats where to send the logs.

The construction of the Williamsport Log Boom in 1849 was an industrial milestone in Pennsylvania history. And the  timing of this invention was impeccable.  After the Civil War broke out, the nation needed more lumber than ever.

The combination of mountains full of trees, the need for lumber,  and the invention of the Susquehanna Log Boom -  a way to store and sort the lumber - all together is what  built a town full of millionaires.  

Between 1868 and 1906, the areas mills sawed more than eight billion feet of white pine. When, by the late 1870s, the pine was largely gone, the loggers moved on to the hemlocks.  

The boom ran for about eight months every year and was annually removed from the river before the ice came—an "onerous task completed by workers and tugboats". (I would love to find photos of this.  I just can't picture what a tugboat looked like on the Susquehanna River in 1860)

Problems Boom 

Raftsmen Vs Lumbermen
"Back in 1850 occurred the first trouble between the log drivers and the raftsmen. A log boom had been erected at Williamsport, Pa., on the West Branch of the Susquehanna river. Rafts were held up at the boom by the logs.

To square accounts with the log drivers the raftsmen began spiking saw logs, by boring an inch hole in a log and inserting an iron rod then ...a wooden plug [to] conceal the rod.

When such a log hit the saw the saw was destroyed. Also it got the nerve of the sawyers. A settlement was reached whereby the logging companies paid roundly for all  rafts held up at the boom or wrecked by floating saw logs on the way down the river"  - Reminiscences of A  Pennsylvania Wood Hick 

This all lead to the Raftsman Riot in 1857.

Maynard Street, in the flood of 1889

Flooding
Now that there was room to store the lumber, and 30 mills to process it, elective cutting of raft timber ended, and mass production began.  Forests were clear cut - every tree being cut, no matter the type of wood. The river had always flooded from time to time, but the massive clear cutting of the mountains increased the momentum of the spring floods.

In the spring flood of 1860, the boom broken and at least 50,000,000 feet of lumber were carried down the river. In September of 1861, a flood broke the dam once again.   In 1868, and ice flood tore out and carried away 24 of the large cribs. 

The boom was broken by floods again in 1889, and 1894.

Log Pirates - "Rustlers"
When logs ran wild, or became stranded in a farmers field, lumber mills paid 25 cents each for their recovery.  "Rustlers" were the pirates of the lumber boom.  Rather than return the logs, they would cut an even two feet off the end, rebrand the log with their own brand, and sell it.

The 1884 Fire Wood War
"In 1884 occurred the "fire-wood war". People living in the forest had been in the habit of cutting firewood on company lands, dead or down trees that could not be used for lumber.
The company s began charging for such wood ... [which] caused a fire which burned one hundred thousand acres of timber in one day. If they couldn't burn the wood in their stoves they would burn it in the woods. The company s gave up."  - Reminiscences of A  Pennsylvania Wood Hick 

Monopoly
Every log entering the 30 mills was sorted by the Susquehanna boom, and there was a fee  for every log sorted.  In 1857,  the exorbitant fees  came to national attention. For 20 years, the Lumber Interest both upstate and down river combined forces to fight the monopoly, but with no real success.   

The 1872 Sawdust War
In 1872 the  Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a law requiring ten-hour workdays. Despite the new law,  the state government had no way to enforce it, so owners of the lumber mills and the boom chose to simply ignore it. (Lumbermen worked 12 hour days)

The leaders of the lumbermen decided that going on strike would be the only way to receive the hours and pay that they felt they deserved. Their motto was, "Ten hours or no sawdust."

On the morning of July 1, 1872, the leaders of the  lumber workers went on strike, gathering in front of the Lycoming County Courthouse with signs reading "10 Hours Or No Sawdust".

The demonstration was peaceful.  The workers needed their paychecks, and were unwilling to put up too much fuss.  The leaders held another strike on July 22, descending on the mills and attempting to convince the workers that they had to stand firm.  The Pennsylvania Militia was called in to protect the interests of the sawmill owners. And the strikers fled the scene. Twenty-seven men were arrested for their role in the riot and 21 convicted by the local court for their roles in the riot. Later all of them were pardoned by Pennsylvania Governor John W. Geary as a political favor to Peter Herdic, the owner of the Susquehanna Boom.

The remains of a crib in the Susquehanna River at Williamsport

END OF AN ERA
Damaging floods, the clear cutting of timber and improved shipping capabilities of railroads contributed to the demise of the boom.

"The good times lasted close to seventy years, until the timber boom was followed by a timber bust. By the 1880s the timber barons were building railroads into Pennsylvania's northern woods and using portable sawmills to cut wood on site that could then be hauled directly to market. No longer dependent upon streams and rivers to float the logs to towns with mills, the railroads made logging a year-round operation. The more intensive logging accelerated the cutting of trees, and soon little remained of the great woods of northern Pennsylvania." - Williamsport History Marker

By the late 1880s, it was cheaper to bring logs to Williamsport by rail than river.

The flood of 1889,  in particular was a turning point, washing away 300 million feet of lumber. In the process, every sawmill in the valley was wiped out. In the time it took to rebuild, the market shifted to Wisconsin and Michigan. Williamsport was never again “lumber capital of the world.”

In 1894, another flood broke the Boom and washed close to two million board feet of lumber down the river,

The Susquehanna Boom Co. was dissolved in 1907.

By 1908, little remained of the great woods of Pennsylvania. By then American timber barons were clear-cutting their way through Minnesota, Wisconsin and other states farther to the west. In Pennsylvania, the challenge was no longer how to cut the trees and get them to market, but how to protect what little remained and how to rejuvenate the millions of acres stripped of their riches and then abandoned.

In 1919, the last of Williamsport’s sawmills closed. 

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An Index Of Stories, Photos & History From the Lumbering Area

Particularly Along The West Branch Of The Susquehanna River

Types Of Lumber:

Square Timers - not square, but trees shaped in a rectangular form by hewing from the sides.  Made as long as the trees would permit.

Saw logs - shorter cuts, floated down the river in drives.  Pieces of timber, any kind size or length, were called "sticks"

Spars - 90 feet in length, destined for shipyards to make masts for clipper ships.  Had to be unblemished, no pin or bow or wedge was ever driven into a spar. The pieces were tied with green hickory withes.  Spars sold for anywhere from $50 to $300 a piece 

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The Times, 1893