KAWARTHA LAKES-From the mid nineteenth century until trucks started to become common around 1920, log driving was the primary means of transporting logs long distance to a mill—or timbers to Quebec City for transatlantic shipment. Practically all large sawmills in the Trent Valley during this period were located on the water, downstream from the timber a company intended to harvest. Over the course of the winter logs would be felled, skidded, loaded on sleighs, hauled, then piled on or near the ice. The drive began as soon as the ice broke upon on the streams in spring. Lumber companies relied on the flow of the spring freshet to wash the logs downstream, carefully managed by control dams.
The water could literally be at the freezing point and many log drivers could scarcely swim. Log drivers were typically young, adventurous men—”a light-hearted set of dare devils and the greatest rascals and thieves that ever a peaceful country was tormented with.” One exceptional log driver, George Cloot, who worked for Trenton’s Gilmour Company, passed through the region in 1894 on his 51st drive. Many young men from the Kawarthas worked in logging camps in winter, then rode the logs to the mills come spring—many more labourers were brought from rural Quebec.
To burl on a log (as walking/balancing was called), river drivers wore caulk (pronounced “cork”) boots—leather, with ¼ inch spike cleats that could be purchased complete or separately. These boots were also useful for bar fights and Coboconk’s Pattie House was a favourite stop on the way down. Log drivers developed remarkable skill at burling, as they used a pike pole to collect logs and guide them around obstacles. Their incredible skills would be put on display when they had to break a log jam—a volunteer would climb out on the mass and then hopefully scramble back to shore as the whole mass of logs started to move. Many rapids in the area have long forgotten log drivers’ cemeteries on the shore nearby. Many larger watercourses were fitted with log slides to overcome cataracts.
As the nineteenth century wore on, log drives got longer as the merchantable pine close to mills had been cutover. Often log drives lasted into the summer. When the Gilmour Company started cutting in Algonquin Park, some of their drives took two years to reach Trenton. A huge amount of work went into floating a log to a mill—supplying the crews, towing logs across lakes, guiding logs past rapids, sorting logs to separate different companies’ produce, maintaining and managing all the dams. This was only a fraction of the work that went into getting a log to market. Some timbers were shipped all the way to Great Britain, using water, muscle and wind power (steamships and coal power were becoming common as the British trade was declining). All of the work that went into floating logs to market was a reflection of how valuable timber was, especially in Britain, relative to a river driver’s wage.
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum and was written by Glenn Walker.
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