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A Raft Pilot's Log
~
 A History of the Great Rafting
Industry on the Upper Mississippi
1840-1915

by

WALTER A. BLAIR
Master and Pilot of the "Ten Broeck"

Published by The Arthur H. Clark Company
Cleveland, U.S.A. 1930

Transcribed by Joan Bard Robinson

Submitted to the History Project by Lynn McCleary

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 15
Early River Days 23
Beginnings of the Rafter Industry 33
Beef Slough 47
My First Year Rafting, 1878 55
The Great River Then (1878) and Now (1928) 77
The Noted Raft-Boat 'Silver Wave' 95
The LeClaire Navigation Company 121
Pleasant Rafting with the Good 'Ten Broeck' 135
The Green Tree Hotel 149
What Became of the Raft-Boats 171
The First Use of A Steamboat to Push and Handle, a Raft 191
The First Boat Built to Tow Rafts 195
The Largest Raft 203
One Freak and a Pair of Twins 209
Some of the Men Prominent in the Rafting Industry, 1878-1915 211
Sawmills and their Owners 255
Complete list of Raft Pilots, 1840-1913 265
Rapids Pilots Who Handled Rafts over the Upper, or Rock Island Rapids, in the Order of Service from 1840-1915 275
Rapids Pilots who ran Rafts over the Lower, or Des Moines Rapids 277
Chief Engineer of the Rafters 279
Raft-Boat Mates 287
Output of Logs from Different Streams into the Mississippi
  Compiled from records in the office of the Survey-general of Logs and Lumber at Saint Paul, Minnesota, and from the Archives of the State historical societies of Minnesota and Wisconsin
289
Appendix I: List of Raft-Boats, their Masters and Owners, 1883 293
Appendix II: List of Raft-boats in Commission, 1890, with Names of their Masters and Owners
  as published in the Davenport Democrat, February, 1890
299
Appendix III: List of Raft-Boats from Davenport Deomocrat February, 1893
  This is the last authentic list the author can find. It shows numerous changes from the list of 1890.
305
Name Index 315

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