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.
Landscape view; Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River was completed in 1883; Exposition Building completed in 1886; Spillway of St Anthony Falls.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Landscape view; series of stereographic cards by the Union View Co. Publishers, Rochester, New York; bridge in place by 1894; close up view of bridge looking at the girders, iron work and bridge railings.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Landscape view; from a series by M. Nowack; view checked on card is: "view of Suspension Bridge; " bridge completed about 1876. This is the second bridge over the Mississippi River. The third replacement bridge was constructed from 1886-1888.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Stereoview of people in boats, on bank and on bridge pose during Red River flood of 1881 or 1882. View is to the northwest from just south of Moorhead end of Northern Pacific Railway bridge to Fargo, Dakota Territory; visible in distance beyond bridge is stern of the U. S. government dredge the "Unser Fritz."