The Oconto County Historical Society will begin its fall speaker series Sept. 5 by looking at northeast Wisconsin’s lumberjack history.
The program “River Rat: Real Life and Romantic Legend” begins at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Beyer Home and Carriage Museum, 915 Park Ave., Oconto.
Kathleen Marsh will tell the story of tens of thousands of unsung heroes, lumberjacks who extended their seasonal employment during the Big Pine era. Singing on as log drivers, these legendary men were also known as river pigs or river rats. They skillfully navigated a series of dams and rivers to deliver millions of sawlogs that would be turned into lumber to build America.
Marsh’s program was inspired by “Breakfast in Hell,” a song recorded by Slaid Cleves. Written by Robin Frederick, as “The Ballad of Sandy Gray,” the song immortalized a valiant log driver who lost his life clearing a logjam on Ontario’s Musquash River in the early 20th century.
Owned by the Oconto County Historical Society, the Holt and Balcom Depot Camp in Lakewood was an integral part of this water highway from 1881 until after the turn of the 20th century. River crews assembled there every spring to prepare for a log drive utilizing McCauslin Brook and branches of the Oconto River to float their white pine and hemlock logs to the company’s sawmill in Oconto.
Facing unimaginable dangers and hardships almost beyond endurance, these men were at the mercy of the weather, swarms of biting insects, perilous rapids and logjams of epic proportions. Injury or death was always close by, just one miscalculation or careless step away.
The program is free. Light refreshments will be served.
Historical society presentation looks at lumberjacks
