Symbols of Law and Order

Symbols of Law and Order. . Many logging companies used the Au Sable River to drive their logs to the sawmills. Each company branded its logs with a distinctive symbol by pounding the mark into log ends with special hammers. This branding process was very important because even a loss of a few huge logs could be costly. Scalers, river drivers, and boomers read hundreds of log marks at a glance to send logs to the right sawmills., Log branding did not solve the problem of rustling. Log rustlers hid in small streams, stole logs from the river at night, and sawed off the marked ends. They remarked the logs with their brand and received payment for timber they never cut.