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THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
CAPT. STEPHEN B. HANKS,
PERILOUS ADVENTURES
TAKING
RAFTS THROUGH LAKE PEPIN
Aug. 20, 1921
After the Amulet had secured a load I
went on her to Galena, having promised to do so when I first
went on board.
On my return to Stillwater we preceded
to fit up two rafts for down river one of which was to follow
me in charge of Aaron Winans, and my brother David.
The following men were in my crew: John & David Wray; Ed.
Efner; Mat Thompson; C. Knapp; Joseph & Thos. James; Ad.
Farrington; Jap Marcey; Phil. Arnett and his brother; Lover
Laird and Jim Withrow. Although the ice went out early it
proved to be a backward spring and the weather was so cold
that rafting was done with much difficulty and we were slow in
getting started. We had to cordell through the lakes as has
been already described and had no bad luck until we reached
the home of bully Wells at Frontenac. We tied up for the
night above the point that here projects into the lake, as the
wind was from the south west and the point gave us some
protection. Early the next morning the wind changed to the
north west and began to blow with great fury. I was a wake
early and heard the roar in the trees on the top of the bluff
and realized that we must change our position at once. All
hands were called and I determined to get into the bay below
the point where there was plenty of water and we would have
fairly good shelter. We pulled out with the oars so as to
float free of the bank and the wind carried us along while we
kept line out to shore to warp around the point. It was a
hair raising time with us; we pulled up a couple of trees with
our check lines but we succeeded in making the turn, aided by
the very high water which made it unnecessary to go far out
into the lake. By the time we wee in our new position the
wind was raging in a terrific way and did not abate until
early the next morning and then only for a short time when it
raised again and blowed as on the previous day, and we were
held there until the next morning before we could get away.
Just a little while before we reached
Stillwater, Sandy McPhail had started with a fleet of two
lumber and two log rafts and, although we had neither seen nor
heard of him, I was sure he was not far ahead of us, so after
breakfast the first day of the blow I went to the top of the
bluff and although we had no glasses we could see to the lower
end of the lake and dimly saw what we were sure were McPahil’s
rafts in trouble and in the course of he day our fears were
verified by word from McPhail that this rafts were all broken
to pieces. It proved later that they were in a terrible
condition. The lumber was chawed and ground up and even the
logs had the barn torn off and logs and lumber scattered all
along the shore and running down the river. The result was a
long delay in re-rafting what could be save. In addition to
the large loss of lumber and logs they lost a portion of their
cooking outfit and a large lot of supplies. This was a serious
loss in those days as we could not go ashore as now, and
replace the articles at the first town.
While we were waiting for the gale to
abate. Cornelius Knapp, Jap Marcy and Lou
Ferrington concluded to take advantage of the detention
and make a visit to Maiden Rock, nearly directly across the
lake. They started out the first morning in a skiff with a
sail but as they began to ship water, they dropped the side
and went bounding along almost as fast and were soon on the
other side with their skiff nearly full of water. They spent
the day on the rock and looking around and meantime the gale
increased so that they did not dare attempt the return trip
and spent a cold and dismal night running around in their wet
clothes to keep warm until just before day break the wind
lulled and they made their way back but none too soon as the
wind son began to blow with increased fury. They had an
adventure and were glad to be back safely and I was greatly
relieved to see them for I had concluded they were drowned.
Knapp, within the last few days has shown me that he has a
vivid remembrance of the occasion.
The wind abated on the morning of the
third day so that we decided to start out. This was about the
5th of May, 1847, and the weather was so cold that
ice formed from the water that splashed over the top of the
raft. The wind was still down stream and soon pushed us out
of the lake and into the current once more. This was as
severe a gale as I ever saw in lake Pepin and McPhail’s break
up was as bad as any I have known and our own escape from
disaster about as miraculous.
Our trip was finished without any
further incident that I can recall. The lumber raft went to
Holmes at St. Louis and I think the log raft was sold before
reaching there.
I returned at once to Stillwater,
taking I thin, the Highland Mary to Galena and the Yankee from
there. Such a change was frequently made as many of the large
boats did not o to Stillwater regularly but we could always
get a boat to Stillwater from Galena. On our return from
Stillwater, Mr. McKusick had no rafts ready so I went up to
Cedar Lake where rafting was being done by Socrates, Nelson&
Co. the trip being made on the Pioneer in command of Capt.
Perry Langford who is still living at his old home in
Albany. Nelson had a couple of rafts of long logs and these I
contracted to take to St. Louis for him. I had practically
the same crew with me, mostly men from Albany and I placed
surveyor Bruce in charge of the second raft in Lake Pepin we
encountered a very high wind and ran into Bogus bay, which we
could do at that stage of water, which helped us to et through
the lake in god shape and in good time. Bruce ran his raft
into Buffalo slough, whether by mistake or in spite of himself
I do not know, and I feared he would have trouble in getting
through but he did not and came through without mishap only to
find trouble a little further on by hanging up on a willow
island or tow head and broke up his raft badly. I saw his
predicament but was obliged to go on some fifteen miles before
finding a suitable place to tie up, and that brought a little
below Winona. We returned to Bruce soon as possible and it
was a hard pull against the strong current, and commenced
picking up and re-rafting his logs. This kept us at the
severest kind of labor for a week or more. The water was
falling and a large number of logs had to be rolled from dry
ground into the water and being of extra long length sometimes
it took nearly an entire crew to roll one. In the disaster
Bruce had the misfortune to run his cook house under a leaning
tree and lost most of his cooking outfit. This was a new
experience to the most of my crew as hitherto we had very
little fixing of broken rafts. When at last we were ready to
pull out we found the river had fallen four feet. We had no
further trouble and delivered our rafts to a man named Cochran
at St. Louis and returned to Stillwater during the later part
of August. |
