Arpin avenue. Boys turning out of bunks on cook float.
[Men turning out of bunks on the Cook Float. Mike Lane, the Cook, nearest man, just crawling out. (Arpin)]
[On these rafts were built the cook's shanty and the "dog-houses" as sleeping cabins for the men. (Taylor)] 

Breasting an oar - Just to steady her
[To make a firm setting for the head and tail block an eight inch square timber was fastened to the two end pieces. A head and tail block was put onto this square timber and fastened to the two end pieces. A head and tail block was put onto this square timber and very securely fastened. In the middle the head block was set an oar-pin to become a part of the steering oar. These oars were very large, the stems thirty feet long, one foot in diameter at one end and shaved down to about three inches at the other end. Into the large end of the stem was inserted the oar blade made of a blank set edge-wise, usually three inches thick and from sixteen to eighteen feet long. This made an oar fifty to forty-five feet in length. A hole having been bored in the stem the same size as the pin in the head block the oar was balanced on this pin. It required strength and skill to handle such a rigging. The man in front guided as he saw the current and the man at the tail also steered. (Taylor)]

A cold morning

Cook and cookie after dinner
[Cook Mike Lane and cookie Ashley Bennett., On these rafts were built the cook's shanty and the "dog-houses" as sleeping cabins for the men.( Taylor)]
[When the last raft came down, they made a shanty for the cookery, and got the flour and ham and provisions of all kinds on it, and we would go right down. (Giese)]
[Cook, Mike Lane, and helper, the Cookie, washing up after dinner. "Cookie" was Ashley Bennett, son of photographer Bennett, who volunteered his services during the float. (Arpin)]

Cook and cookie before dinner

The crew
[Front row: Miles Daly, Corrigan, John (Jack) Starr, Jim Blow, Second row: Charles Oestrich, Jim Powers, Frank Brown, W.G. Gardner, Webster, Standing: Ed Welch, Levi (Lee) Ripley, Nels Dashneau, Jim Lynch, John Daly (bearded), Jim Aljoe, John Day, William Starr, Back row: Jim Brown, Pete Garseau, Joe Short and two unidentified men.  (Engel)]

Earning their money
[You run about fourteen hours a day. We used to get started at five o'clock in the morning and tie up at seven in the evening, or start in the morning at six o'clock and tie up about eight, which would give us fourteen hours run. (Giese)]

The fleet just below the dam in the Dells
[Daly and Sampson sent another fleet down the river from the mouth of the Yellow River and the print is one of the crew at their resting place above the Dells waiting for the balance of the rafts to come through. Mr. Daly is the center figure in this picture and adorned with the customary whiskers. (Taylor)]
[This crib usually contained about four thousand feet of lumber. Six or seven of such cribs were fastened together tandem fashion, by coupling planks and this was called a "rapids piece", shown in the next illustration. (Taylor)]
[In going through the Dells we disconnected our rafts. Where formerly two men handled a Wisconsin raft, consisting of three pieces, four men would take one piece through the Dells, run it through below Kilbourn, and gig back. That is, walking back through the Upper Dells. I suppose it is a distance, if I remember right, of about five miles. (Giese)]
[In those days three sections, or strings, formed a complete lumber raft. Before running the Rapids at Kilbourn Dam (now the Dells), the raft was separated, each string making the run independently, and then reassembled below the Dam so as to resume the journey downstream. (Arpin)]

Handspiking off a sand bar. A heavy lift.
[When we got down in the lower part of the Wisconsin River we spent much time getting the rafts off the sand bars. (Starr)]
When required all hands jumped into the water and with long heavy poles lifted the rafts off the sand bars. (Taylor)]
[Handspiking (prying) off a sandbar. A heavy joint effort, all in a day's work. (Arpin)]
[These rafts carry a top load of shingles in bundles, and laths in bundles; and tamarack poles. ...both crews at the time I was there both carried posts, laths, and shingles; put up in four by four, six by six, six by eight, ten by sixteen, put right on top. We carried that on top; and fastened it with the ropes from the cribs, so that when we got under water they would not float off. (Geise)]

Laying up for wind and drying out

Making a crossing  Hold her heavy pard

Muscular vigor in action
[Strenuous work - steering with a log rudder. (Arpin)]

Muscular vigor in repose
[Antoine Arpin standing in back]

On a sand bar. Jack run out. Hold her boys.
[From Portage down to Boscobel. The water was unusually shallow there. If we could run that strip we could get out the Wisconsin, and if we couldn't we were hopelessly stuck. We had to wait for a freshet, anywhere from one and one-half to two inches of rainfall. We had to stay right there, or we would be caught again. That was the most narrow piece we had. The hundred miles down to Muskoda, that is the worst piece, where we had to do handspiking, and we had to be in the river a great many hours a day. (Giese)]

On a sand bar. Setting a jack

On a sand bar. Working a jack

Pasttime. Dick dancing for the boys.
[Dick Stevenson dancing, Zach Dugas, left, clapping, Jack Warnock sitting in middle, Archie Young to left of center pole (Arpin)]

The pilot
[Archie Young, Pilot and logging camp foreman for the Arpin Lumber Company. Zach Dugas, a cousin, in the background. (Arpin)]
[The lumber is rafted by the pilot of the fleet. He is like what you would call a colonel in the army. He controls all the crew, the bowman, as well as the tailman or the steersman. He is the pilot. He is in charge of the works, to see that the raft gets to its destination just as quick as possible, because in the interest of time it is dollars. (Geise)]

Pulling in a grub
[ The raft was made by taking three planks and boring two inch auger holes about one foot from each end and one in the middle. Into these holes, grub stakes were inserted from underneath. These grubs, so called, were made from small trees of about two inches in diameter and cut below the roots and trimmed to leave one root branch at about right angles to the stem. Later in rafting, these grub stakes were turned with a head to secure the pin from coming through the lumber bottom plant when pressure was applied. After the grubs were fitted through the planks, three other boards similar to the grub planks were set crosswise to the bottom planks thus tying the form together making what later was called a crib. Then the building of the crib began. The lumber to go into the raft was laid cross wise and alternately until sixteen courses had been laid.  (Taylor)]

Putting down a spring pole - a hard one
[Just as soon as the lumber was all rafted down, and the crews all got down, we got ready to take the rafts down and put the spring poles on.... They have spring poles that work like this. That is the reason it works faster, because the front of the crib has been lifted so as to allow the raft to work that way. In order to get the spring pole in we have to put a log about ten inches wide right at the inside here on the front of the crib. (Giese)]

Putting down the grouzers

Putting in a twister

Putting in a yankee
[If you happened to run on a sand bar, here is a way we had of working our way loose or running over that sand bar, by shifting this raft around so that one end of it would get in the water. We used this system like this. In order to do what we used what we called a "Yankee" which is a log-like piece, a square piece. That runs down something like this. The "Yankee" swings that raft down into deep water. In case you put the "Yankee" down in front, it brings the raft to a sudden stop, like this and has a tendency to bring that end the other way. (Giese)]

Rafting over at foot of Dells

Running the Kilbourne dam on board the raft
[Shooting the Kilbourn Dam Rapids, with Mr. Bennett, photographer, as passenger. Name of pilot is unknown. (Arpin)]
[When we got down to Kilbourn then we had a Dells to run; which is a narrow, tortuous course and, a great many fleets broke up on it, many men drowned (Brazeau)]

Running the Kilbourne dam seen from shore
Running the Kilbourn Dam Rapids - seen from shore. Joe Short is the man steering the raft, Rough going. (Arpin)]

Running the Portage bridge

Shipping an oar in the Dells

Shipping an oar a heavy one

The skiffman going ashore with the line

Snubbing. Clear that line, quick.

Taking a drink after a hard pull

Taking it easy. Leaving the Dells.
[Jim Aljoe at the rudder. (Arpin)]

Trip finished. Pulling out the lumber.

We are broke up take our line

Witching up
[Binding planks parallel with the first planks underneath were fastened onto the grubs shown in the next illustration called "witching" or drawing tight the layers of lumber and fastening tight with a wedge run through the grub pin.  (Taylor), When the crib is done, we "witch" it with those crib sticks. You have an instrument something like a wagon jack, which is a lever. This is the fulcrum. We set that right on our raft this way. The hook, this ring, we slip that right over the grub. It is square, it is not round, and we bear down on this. One man stand here and pulls that down. It pushes down on the "Witch" plank and the other pulls up on it. The distance from here to there is eighteen inches only, and the distance here is ten feet. You get an awful leverage on it. Every grub we figure that there is five-hundred-forty pounds pull. (Geise)]

Working a Spanish windlass