The first jam worthy of note occurred in 1865, during the prevalence of high water. It is, in fact, only during high water that jams can occur, the current being at such time swift and strong, and the logs apt to accumulate in greater number than in the regular drives, from the fact that logs that have been stranded in former seasons or at low water are floated off, and the river is thus filled with logs from bank to bank. These are crowded into the narrow channel of the Dalles faster than they can be discharged, and a jam results. An obstruction once formed, the logs continuing to come in from above fill the channel. The tide of logs arrested, crowd downward until they rest upon the bottom of the river, and are heaped upward sometimes to a height of twenty or thirty feet above the surface. The river thus checked in its course rises, wedging the logs more closely and heaping them higher.
In the jam of 1865 the river channel was filled nearly to the St. Croix dam, a distance of a mile and a quarter above Angle Rock. This being the first of the great jams excited unusual attention. Excursionists came up daily in the boats to look upon it. It was indeed a wonderful sight. The logs were heaped together in the wildest confusion, and wedged in at all angles. Men and horses were employed to break the jam, which at that time, owing to the inexperience of the workers, was no light task. The modus operandi of jam breaking is to remove logs from the lower part of the jam till some log which serves as a key to the jam is reached. This being removed the logs above commence moving, and, if the haul be a long one, in a short time the movement is extended to the head of the jam. Perhaps the logs are so heaped above that no water is visible. It matters not; the tremendous current beneath sweeps downward, carrying the logs along, and the spectator beholds a wonderful scene, a river of logs, the current swiftest in the centre of the stream, the logs rolling, tumbling, crashing, grinding, sometimes snapped in sunder like pipestems. The jam breakers are in the wildest excitement, cheering and hurrahing, and some may be seen out in the current of logs, jumping from one to another, or making their escape to the shore. Others on the lower part of the jam at the moment of breaking are carried down the river. Though apparently a scene of great danger, comparatively few accidents occur. The workers are cool, experienced men with steady nerves and stalwart arms, a race of men not surpassed for muscular development.
In 1877 another jam took place nearly as large as that of 1865. This jam came near destroying the beautiful bridge that spanned the river at the head of the Dalles. Many of the logs carried high in air by the pressure of the logs below struck the bridge, and at times its destruction seemed inevitable. This bridge has since been replaced by an iron structure, much higher than the first, but even this occasionally received a blow from some log carried along by the current at a "present arms."
In 1883 another jam of considerable dimensions occurred, but it was removed with less labor and expense than its predecessors, and steamboats anchored below were used to aid in breaking it. It cost from $5,000 to $10,000 to break these jams.
By far the greatest of the jams occurred in June, 1886. The water was high, the current strong and the river above so full of logs that a log driver might have crossed upon them. This abundance was owing to other causes than those mentioned in the account of the jam of 1865. The dams at Snake, Kettle and other rivers had been simultaneously opened, and the logs in these streams all set free at once in the current of the St. Croix. On they came in long procession with but little obstruction till they reached Angle Rock, where they were suddenly arrested, and, owing to the force of the current, wedged more tightly and heaped higher than on any previous occasion, and the river channel was filled with logs to a point two miles above the St. Croix falls formerly known as the dam. To break this jam, two steamers, two engines, several teams of horses and over two hundred men were employed, and during the six weeks that occurred before it was broken, thousands of visitors came by rail and steamboat to look upon it. This jam was estimated to hold during its continuance 150,000,000 feet of logs.
POPULATION OF WISCONSIN.
The first census of the Northwest Territory, taken in 1790, does not show the population of the region now known as Wisconsin. The census of 1800 gave the following figures: Ohio, 45,363; Indiana Territory, 5,641; Green Bay, 50; Prairie du Chien, 65. According to the census of 1880, the original Northwest Territory contained a population of 12,989,571, or more than one-quarter of the population of the United States. The population of Crawford county in 1820 was 492; in 1830, 692; in 1834, 810; in 1836, 1,220; in 1838, 850; in 1841, 1,503; in 1847, 1,409.
In 1836, when Wisconsin Territory was organized, the population of the Territory was, 11,883. The whole number of votes cast at the election in 1836 was 2,462. The population, according to the census taken at the close of every five years, was as follows: In 1840, 30,945; in 1845, 155,275; in 1850, 305,301; in 1855, 552,109; in 1860, 775,881; in 1865, 868,325; in 1870, 1,054,670; in 1875, 1,236,729; in 1880, 1,315,480; in 1885, 1,563,423.
The official compilation of the census of Wisconsin gives the following details: Total population, 1,563,423; white, males, 806,342; females, 748,810; negroes, in full, 5,576; Indians, 2,695. The nativities are divided as follows: United States, 1,064,943; Germany, 265,756; Scandinavia, 90,057; Ireland, 36,371; Great Britain, 32,731; British America, 21,887; Bohemia, 15,838; Holland, 7,357; France, 3,963; all other countries, 20,030; subject to military duty, 286,289; soldiers of the late war, 29,686.