The Log Drive: The River Job That Drowned Hundreds

The log drive was a centuries-long North American practice of floating harvested timber down swollen spring rivers to distant mills. Skilled workers called river drivers — compact, agile men in spiked boots — jumped across millions of churning logs, breaking deadly jams and keeping the timber moving. The work was extraordinarily dangerous, killing hundreds through drowning, crushing, and being struck by logs. Entire river systems were engineered with splash dams and booms to support the operation. The last commercial drive ended in Quebec in 1996. The industry built a continent's worth of wooden civilization, at an enormous and largely unrecorded human cost.