Spars and Sticks: Rafting the West Branch

Spars and Sticks: Rafting the West Branch. The Timber Trail. , Daring, brawn, and skill , that's what Pennsylvania rivermen needed to deliver timber to market in the early 1800s. Men felled immense Eastern white pines, fastened them together into log rafts, and rode them down river to be used for shipbuilding in the Chesapeake Bay area. , The best pine logs were sold as ships' masts, or spars. These valuable logs were lashed together with pliant sticks and wooden pins for the downstream journey. Men sometimes used broad axes to square the logs bound for sawmills. Timber rafts, which could measure 100 feet long, had oar sweeps at either end for steering on the spring melt waters. , Cowboys of the River , "... the rude structure shoots by... manned with a singing and saucy crew, who dodge the branches of trees, and work their steering paddles with an adroitness and nonchalance..." , , Nathaniel Parker Willis, describing Susquehanna log rafting circa 1840. , Between 1840 and 1850 , the heyday of West Branch log rafting , thousands of log rafts and men crowded the river in spring. Men muscled their unwieldy crafts along frigid, flood-swollen waters to markets hundreds of miles downstream. After their journey, they hiked home over rough trails. , The "Last Raft" , To commemorate historic log rafting on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of individuals built a raft and reenacted its journey down the Susquehanna River. The "Last Raft" left Clearfield County on March 14, 1938, drawing huge crowds along its 200-mile route. As the 112-foot raft passed under a railroad bridge in Muncy, it struck a pier, causing seven passengers to drown in the frigid water. Despite the tragedy, the raft journeyed on to Harrisburg, where it was sawed into timber and sold.