Holt and Balcom Logging Camp Museum will present a new program, “Cate and Jack and the River Rats” at 1 p.m. July 13.
The presentation will feature Pat Lowery, who just returned from touring in Ireland, and Kathleen and Jon Marsh, who will reprise their iconic roles as Cate, Madame of the Red Light Saloon, and her wayward husband, Jack.
The program includes a slide presentation that tells the story of thousands of unsung heroes, fearless lumberjacks who extended their seasonal employment during the Big Pine Era. Signing on as log drivers, these legendary supermen were also known as river pigs and river rats. They skillfully navigated a series of dams, streams and rivers to deliver millions of saw logs that would be turned into lumber to build America.
Holt and Balcom’s river rats utilized McCauslin Brook and branches of the Oconto River to guide the floating logs to the company’s mill in Oconto. Facing unimaginable dangers and hardships almost beyond human endurance, these hardy souls were at the mercy of the weather, swarms of biting insects, perilous rapids and logjams of epic proportion. Injury or death was always close by, just one miscalculation or careless step away.
Part of the presentation is a Learning and Laughter program 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.
Holt and Balcom, the oldest logging camp in America sitting where in was built in 1881, is located off County Road F within McCauslin Brook Golf Course, 17067 Club House Lane, Lakewood. Patrons can park in the golf course lot; the museum is behind the clubhouse and open for visitors prior to the show.
Admission is $5 per person. The show is not suitable for those under age 10. Seating is limited.
River rats subject of Holt and Balcom program
