Logging industry boomed at the St. Croix Boom

Before there was a boom, logs were floated down the St. Croix indiscriminately by individual log owners. As more log owners and companies started using the river, the more confusion there was on whose logs were whose. To make it more organized and to make it fair to all parties involved, the St. Croix Boom Company was organized.

The Minnesota Territorial Legislature organized the boom company on Feb. 7, 1851, with a capital stock of $10,000 with the privilege of increasing it to $25,000. The incorporators were Orange Walker and George B. Judd, of Marine; John McKusick, Socrates Nelson and Levi Churchill, of Stillwater; Daniel Mears and William Kent, of Osceola; and W.H.C. Folsom, of Taylors Falls. Fred Bartlett was the first secretary and was superseded by D.B. Loomis.

The first boom was built near an island lying opposite and just above Osceola. The boom was not located in a very advantageous spot, the channel of the river above being too narrow for the increasing production of logs. So in 1856, the company obtained a new charter, with a capital stock at $25,000 with a privilege of increasing to $50,000 (then to $100,000), and the power to construct the boom anywhere from the head of Lake St. Croix to Taylors Falls. The incorporators of the new company were Martine Mower, W.H.C Folsom, Isaac Staples, Christopher Carli and Samuel Burkleo.

This new company placed the boom about a mile upstream of Stillwater. The increase of their business compelled them, from time to time, to build side booms and shear booms to prevent the logs from lodging against the banks or while passing bayous or secondary channels, and also keep the primary channel free from obstructions to navigation. They built firm and expensive piers, drove piling and made canals for the use of steamboats when the main channel was needed for booming purposes.

Even with all the care the St. Croix Boom Company did to provide open navigation of the St. Croix, there were times when the logging was so heavy that it closed the river to other forms of transportation. When this occurred, there were controversies, public meetings and lawsuits. In one case, navigation was closed for 57 days, and the costs of the loss of that navigation was estimated at $146,525.

The boom continued operation until June 1914, when the last log was hitched up and scaled. This spelled the end of nearly 75 years of logging in the St. Croix Valley. Over the years, the logging was larger in this area than in any other place in the world. In 1890, more than 450 million feet of logs passed through the boom, and several billion feet of logs came out of the St. Croix boom and constructed towns and cities in the Midwest.

The buildings and the pilings of the boom were removed, and in 1966, the St. Croix Boom Site was designated a National Historic Landmark under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of Aug. 21, 1935. It was deemed that the boom site possessed exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States. The boom site is just one of about 20 landmarks designated as a National Historic Landmark in the state of Minnesota.

Brent Peterson is the executive director of the Washington County Historical Society.