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HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY
is shipping the oar stem, which is done by men enough to lift the stem up
and let
it down over the pin in place.
    "This completes the rapids-piece ready for running. From two to
four men
on each oar are used for running the rapids, the number depending on the
height
of water, the man handling the head oar being the pilot, the one handling
the
tail oar the steersman. The steersman receives his orders which way to pull
from
the pilot by motion of the hand or by word, as the case may be. After running
the rapids-pieces over the rapids to Point Basse (one mile below Nekoosa)
all
rough water is passed until the Dells at Kilbourne are reached. At Pointe
Basse
three of these rapid-pieces were coupled side by side, which was called a
"Wisconce
raft.' The 'bunk-houses' (small houses large enough to hold two men for sleeping
-about 4 by 6'2 by 3 feet high) made cookery raft-fixed up. The number of
'Wisconce Rafts' in a fleet of lumber might vary, but was usually about ten;
and
the crew on each 'Wisconce Raft' was made up of two men-a bowsman and a
tailsman. The bowsmen were expected to have had some experience in river
running and be able to follow the pilot. The tailsmen were usually called
'suckers,'
never pulling unless told to do so by the bowsman, and generally the bowsman
could make the 'sucker' do most of the work, if he were a good bowsman.
   "Everything being ready at Pointe Basse, the pilot calls out, 'Tie
loose,' he
starting out ahead, the rest of the fleet to follow him about 30 or 40 rods
apart.
Now they have clean running if they keep in the water until they get to the
head
,of the Little Dell, where the fleet is tied up, which, with good water and
good luck,
should take not more than two or three days. When one of the rafts gets 'stuck'
or 'hung up' on a sand bar or island, you hear the cry of 'tie up' sent from
one raft
to another and every raft ties up at the first chance. The tailsman jumps
ashore
with the line (the line or cable is 114 inches in diameter and 125 to 200
feet long)
when the raft touches land, and finding a tree or stump, takes two turns
around
it and one around the line, and then holds the end while the bowsman with
the
other end of the line on the raft pays it out around the snubbing-yoke, gradually
checking the raft until it stops; then the tailsman makes a fast hitch on
the tree.
   "After tieing up at the head of the Dells the crews are doubled up
and the
rafts dropped through the Dells below Lone Rock. Then each crew of two takes
its own raft and starts for the mouth of the river, which with fair water
and good
luck should be made in from six to ten days from Pointe Basse. It has been
made
in five days. When reaching the mouth of the river the 'Wisconce rafts' are
all
coupled together into what is called a 'Mississippi raft,' after taking a
number of
spring-poles and making a set of snubbing-works. The line for a Mississippi
raft
is usually from 1,500 to 2,000 feet long and is always laid in loops back
of the
snubbing-works, so as to avoid fouling when being rendered out through the
works.
   "Mississippi rafts were frequently kept running day and night. The
market for
lumber run by water might be anywhere, according as a demand could be found
for all or any part of the raft, but it was often contracted for beforehand,
by par-
ties in Dubuque, Rock Island, St. Louis or other cities along the water-route.
   "The men usually received pay by the trip, either so much to the
mouth of the
Wisconsin, or to market, the prices ranging from $70 to $125 per trip for
bowsman
and tailsmen. The pilot received about double that amount. Some pilots, how-
ever, ran by the season.
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