Log Drives on the Connecticut River

This photo of log men on the Connecticut River is from the Image Museum website, but looks to have been taken from a book. From about 1870 to 1915, lumberjacks drove timber from the near the Canadian border down the 300-mile trip on New England's longest river to Massachusetts sawmills, where lumber was produced for the industrial cities.  The log drive was a springtime event, when the river was swollen from the melted winter snows. We'll not see a sight like that again after a long winter, but just a look at the photo may remind us, encourage us that, indeed, spring is coming even after such a winter as this one.

Copyright by Jacqueline T. Lynch. No reprint or reuse is permitted without permission.