Log Jams and Dams

My Daddy was born in 1915, and raised as a farmer, but when he was about fifteen years old he began working with his Uncle Clifton (Son) Lewis, and Lewis Tucker on a logging crew in the Florida Panhandle. He worked with this crew until him and Mother got married in 1936.

He used to tell us stories about some of the experiences he had during the time he worked with this crew. He told us they cut timber all over the Panhandle of Florida, and even as far south as the Suwannee River. All of his stories were fascinating, and Daddy was a great story teller!

Team of Oxen

In those days they used teams of oxen to move the logs (which was called snaking), and they usually cut timber near the rivers and floated them downstream to move them to the mills or shipping places. 

They would first cut a ring around a tree, and let the sap drain for awhile before the tree was eventually felled so that it would be lighter and float better. He told us this was called ‘kill dried’.

One of the stories I remember him telling us about that has stuck with me these many years. At the time this story happened it was sometime in 1929 and somewhere down on the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida Panhandle.

A Log Jam

He told us there had been a long drought and the River was so low that they were having constant problems with log jams in the River which slowed production drastically and the weather had been so hot and dry all summer and dry in the fall, and this affected the temperament of the logging crews considerably on a daily basis.

He said, “One night after supper; as we’uz turning in from a long hard day’s work there wuz a feller who made a state-ment that I’ll never fir’git iz long iz I live”! The man said. “I wish fore daylight it’ud rain thick’iz a mist and ever damn drop float a duck!”

And Daddy said, “Fore daylight; it come damn nigh doing what tha man said, it rained so much during the night, and kept on raining till it flooded the River and put all ‘em logs s’fir back in ‘em woods and swamps, we never

did git’em all.”

We can see in this little story the concept of how log jams in a long dry spell can even stop a River like the Choctawhatchee from flowing freely. The Choctawhatchee River is the fourth largest river in the state of Florida. But when it begins to rain and it keeps on raining or when it rains tremendous amounts in a short time it will cause rivers and lakes to flood.

The rain they had during the night where they were on the Choctawhatchee River combined with all the flood water flowing down from Southeast Alabama hit them with great force; a lot of damage was done, but no loss of life.

And when the flood comes it will stir up nutrients from the bottom and leave it on dry land when the water begins to recede, and this replenishes the soil again. Everything in the pathway of the water flooding will be moved, because water seeks its own level and it will make its own pathway.

One other little story included here, Daddy said, “Sum’uv the virgin timber we cut wuz so big, that when the tree wuz felled I couldn’t see tha feller on tother side’uv tha tree that helped me cut er down.”

I have seen a few of the large stumps along the Suwannee River from some of the timber that has been cut in the distant past, I have no idea if it was some my daddy had cut, but I don’t doubt his word at all.