CHARTERED DAMS.
The Namakagon Totogatic Dam Company obtained a charter in 1869 from the Wisconsin legislature empowering them to construct two dams for sheering logs, one to be at the outlet of Namakagon lake, the other on Totogatic river, a stream tributary to Namakagon river, entering that stream about eight miles above its junction with the St. Croix. In 1870, by legislative act, the charter was amended by permission to erect sixteen dams, to be built severally on the waters of the Upper St. Croix, Moose, Eau Claire, Namakagon, Totogatic, Yellow, and Clam rivers. The name was changed to the "St. Croix Dam Company," and the capital stock was fixed at $50,000. The incorporators were A. M. Chase, Joel Nason, Henry D. Barron, Wm. Kent, and S. B. Dresser. A. M. Chase was the first president. The company had permission under the charter to hold the water during the seasons when it was not necessary to navigation on the St. Croix. These dams were usually shut down to gather a head during the months of March and April, with the exception of the dams on the Namakagon and Eau Claire, which have the privilege of gathering and retaining a head of water during any part of the year. The head of water above these dams varied from seven to ten feet, and the average cost of construction was $4,000. The tolls per 1,000 feet at these dams were as follows: Namakagon and Clam, 25 and 20 cents; at Totogatic, 20 and 15 cents; St. Croix, 20 and 15 cents; other dams, 3 to 10 cents.
A. M. Chase was the original mover in organizing the corporation and forwarding its interests. He was foreman in selecting sites and building the various dams. He was also owner and general agent until within the last few years, when he transferred his interests to other parties. The charter expires in 1893.
The dam on Clam river, built at a cost of $10,000, was, in 1886, blown up by dynamite and destroyed by Robert Davidson, who claimed that the flowage interfered with his meadow lands.
LUMBERING ON THE ST. CROIX IN 1845.
The progress of civilization involving the building of railways, the transformation of the wilderness into cultivated fields, the growth of villages and cities, the increased facilities for manufacturing and the bringing the forest domain under law, has created such changes in the business of lumbering as to justify the insertion of a chapter relating to the life and surroundings of the early lumberman. Let us go back to the year 1845. The country, save a few sparse settlements on the navigable streams, is as yet an unbroken wilderness, and tenanted only by wild beasts and roving Indians. There are vast regions, densely wooded, in which the sound of the woodman's axe has never been heard, lying about the headwaters of the Chippewa, St. Croix and other streams. These pineries can only be reached by stemming the currents of the minor streams in bateaux or birch bark canoes, or by traversing the country on foot or with teams. Parties operating must purchase their outfit, consisting of teams, supplies of flour, pork, etc., in Illinois or Missouri. Sometimes they drive their teams through unsettled country, without roads, swimming and fording streams, clearing away obstructions, and camping where night overtakes them. Sometimes they ship their supplies by steamer to Stillwater or St. Croix Falls. When landed at Stillwater the supplies are packed upon flatboats and poled to Taylor's Falls, where they are to be portaged to the head of the rapids, a distance of six miles, and transferred to bateaux. The portage is a difficult one. The goods are to be hoisted up over the rocks of the Dalles and placed upon sleds calculated to run upon the bare ground. Considering the inequalities of the surface from the Dalles to the head of the rapids, the portage is an immensely difficult one. They are then taken to their place of destination, the bateaux returning to the Falls for successive loads, the whole transfer requiring considerable time. Sometimes, if late in the season, part or whole of the fleet of bateaux may be caught in the ice, in which case a bushed road must be made, and the supplies transported by teams and men.
Arriving on the ground, the operators blaze trees on lines surrounding the region which they wish to work during the winter. These claims are generally respected by others. The first work to be done is making a camp, building stables, clearing streams of obstructions, and making roads. Incidentally the Indians, certain to be visitors at the camps, are to be propitiated with presents of flour, pork and tobacco. These pacified and out of the way, the lumberman may say with Alexander Selkirk—
"I am monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute."
Trespassing is unknown. The lumberman is not conscious that he himself is a trespasser on the domain of Uncle Sam. Nor is he. Has he not the best title in the world? Who is there to dispute it? No government agent ever troubles him, or questions his right to fell the royal trees and dispose of them as he may choose. He is earning by his strong right arm his title to the trees. He endures much, accomplishes much and is the advance courier of civilization. He spends long months away from the common haunts of men. He is cut off from the mails and from home pleasure. He lives an industrious life. Cold is the day when the stroke of his axe is not heard. The snow deepens around him, the temperature sinks lower and lower, till it would not discredit Labrador; still he toils on unceasingly, and at night builds high his blazing fire, wraps himself up in his buffalo robe and blankets, and sleeps through the night the sleep of the tired and the just. Meanwhile his appetite is marvelous. The cooking (done by one of the crew) maybe of the rudest, and the provisions none of the daintiest, but exercise and the cold gives a relish to the food not often found in the fashionable restaurants. The members of the crew have each allotted duties. To one is intrusted the cooking department, to another the position of teamster, to another that of sled tender; some are choppers, some are swampers, some are sawyers. The records of the camp are kept by the foreman or some person detailed for that purpose.
The winter over, the teams are returned to the settlements. The log driving crew succeeds the choppers and other workers. The logs, having been hauled upon the ice of the driving streams, with the melting of snow are afloat on the swollen streams, and the drivers commence their work, following the logs in their downward course to the mills or booms, dislodging them when they are driven upon shore, and breaking jams when they occur. This work is difficult and attended by considerable exposure, as the driver is often obliged to go into the stream. It therefore commands higher wages than other work. The drivers are without tents, but a wangan, or small flat boat, containing bedding, provisions and a cooking kit, is floated down the stream so as to be convenient at night. The wangan is managed by the cook alone, and his work, when he ties up for the night, is to take ashore the bedding, cooking material, etc., build a fire and provide a meal for the hungry crew. His cooking utensils are of the rudest kind, consisting of a tin reflector and a few iron pots and pans. The savory repast is scarce finished before the arrival of the crew, cold, wet, tired, and hungry. They are not particular about a table with its furniture, but are satisfied to eat from a tin plate, sitting or lying on the ground. Hunger satisfied, they spend their evenings by the blazing fire, drying their clothing, jesting, story telling, or recalling the events of the day, or scanning the open or clouded sky for indications of weather changes. When the sky is clear they trace the constellations, locate the principal stars and planets, or follow the devious windings of the milky way. Some of them have studied astronomy, and some have learned from others, and all are intent, though without books or teachers, on learning the wisdom that Nature teaches, and some are found who have learned to look "from Nature up to Nature's God."