Logs were shipped by rail from northern Minnesota to Stillwater and made into rafts. They were then floated down the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The rafts usually consisted of 8 to 10 strings of logs fastened side by side, each string measuring 16 across and about 400 feet long. Some of these enormous rafts stretched 4 or 5 acres in size.
Lumber was rafted downstream from Stillwater. Boards were arranged in cribs or heavy crates, each 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. A lumber raft might contain as many as 200 cribs.
At the boom, floating timbers chained between piers caught and contained logs for sorting and measuring and rigging into rafts. At one time, the Stillwater boom extended a distance of 9 miles and employed 400 men to sort, scale and raft timber.
Elevator and Lake Superior & Mississippi Depot, Stillwater, MN. Elevator was erected in 1870 and has a capacity of 38,000 bushels. Lake Superior & Mississippi Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed to Stillwater in 1871.
Judge William McCluer's Residence, SW Corner of North Third and Mulberry Street. Before he became a judge, McCluer, an attorney, was mayor of Stillwater in 1876.
Looking north from intersection of Main and Myrtle Streets. Three story brick Masonic Hall is on the left. Smoke is billowing from a fire near Staples Mill.