Working Logs on the Fox

This 1915 photo shows logs for the Menasha Wooden Ware being worked past the crib protecting the Mill Street Bridge on the Fox River. 

 

Log booms were barriers, designed to collect and contain floating logs while they are guided to their respective mills.  As the logs proceeded downstream, they encountered these booms in a manner that allowed log drivers to control their progress, eventually guiding them to the mills.  Most importantly, the booms could be towed across lakes, like rafts, or anchored while individual logs awaited their turn to go through the mill. Booms prevented the escape of the logs into open waters.  Log boom foundations were commonly constructed of piles or large stones placed into cribs in a river to form small islands. The booms were themselves large floating logs linked together end to end, like a large floating chain connecting the foundations while strategically guiding the transported logs along their path.