A Raft Pilot's Log by Capt. Walter A. Blair
1929-Arthur H. Clark Company
Transcribed by Joan Bard Robinson
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 Large
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 ser-
vice 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
II:
List of Raft-boats in Commission,1890,
with names of their Masters and Owners
as Published in the Davenport Democrat,
February, 1893..................................305
This is the Last Authentic list the
Author can find. It Shows Numerous
Changes from the List of 1890
Index...........................................................315