We went up river in a boat from above Snow falls to the rapids in Section Thirty, Township Thirty-three, Range Seventeen. The trees had grown all the way across the river at this point and we could not go any farther with the boat so we walked up river to the north side of Section Thirty. The mosquitoes were so thick that we could hardly stand it and Modoc said he would make a smudge, but the mosquitoes bit him so fiercely that he could not keep the match going long enough to light the fire. But finally he got a smudge started and we ate our lunch. We then took a trail leading to Waubee Lake, where a man by the name of Hale had a hunters' and fishermen's resort. A wheel road from this point ran to Ellis Junction and during the time that this place was operated by Hale great quantities of venison and fish were hauled to Ellis Junction and shipped. It was said that the venison was shipped in boxes and billed as mutton. It was also said that the lakes were dynamited in order to get more fish. We stayed one night there and Hale took us up to a point on the North Branch in Section Five, Township Thirty-three, Range Sixteen, which, he said was the best location for a dam and after looking it over we came back and looked at a possible site for a dam in Section Twenty-four, Township Thirty-three, Range Sixteen, and then we returned to Brooks's camp, where Mr. Cole met us and took us to the Farm, The next day Mr. Cole went with us, taking the Indian trail to Waubee Lake, riding on horseback while Thompson and I walked, and visited the three dam sites that we had looked at, and we agreed that one dam should be built at the Lower Rapids where we had left our boat, which was later named the Sullivan Dam; and another dam at the site which Hale had shown us, which was called the Knowles Dam. We decided that it was not necessary to build a dam at the third site that we looked at. 

After we returned from the trip looking over the river in 1887 we made a contract with the Oconto Company under which we agreed to pay 38/50ths and the Oconto Company agreed to pay 12/50ths of the cost of the river improvements. This work was completed in the summer of 1888 and both Companies put in logs the following winter and we never had any trouble driving, as the dams were adequate and the river was in good shape for driving. 

Mr. Brooks after-ward made the statement that he got even with us on the McCauslin Brook deal, because there was some timber on the North Branch which was owned by the C. & N. W. Railroad Company and before he went up there with me to look the river over he had secured from them an option on all of the timber they had tributary to that stream, so that really they had a good deal more than twelve million feet at that time. However, in the end we also bought more timber and the final amount of logs driven out was not very different from the estimate of twelve million and thirty-eight million.

In the summer of 1888 we had several crews of men working on that portion of the North Branch, building the two dams and blasting out the rocks and clearing logs and windfalls out of the river. The men suffered very much from mosquitoes, especially the men who were drilling rocks for blasting as they had to sit still and could not brush the mosquitoes away and I saw some of them whose faces were swollen so that they could not see at all, on account of mosquito bites. 

In 1894 we improved the North Branch farther up and built a dam in Section One, Township Thirty-three, Range Fifteen, as the Knowles Dam was not as far up as it should have been to take care of logs put in above that point, and as the Oconto Company had no timber up there we had to pay all of the expense. 

Twenty-four 
 

Oxen drawn single runner sleigh like the ones used in early Oconto County logging. Without snow, logs were peeled and half buried at intervals along the logging trails to slide the sleigh runners upon. Postcard Photo identified by Thomas Walker -  taken in Washington State by a famous photographer from Sedro Wooley and Seattle, WA.,
Darius Kinsey.
 
 

It is my understanding that in the early days of logging in this part of the country oxen were used exclusively to haul the logs to the river, and where the distance was too great to skid the logs they were loaded on single runner sleighs, that is, one long runner on each side of the sleigh. Later on someone got the idea of making sleighs in two parts, which were much easier to turn and steer and were thereafter used exclusively for logging sleighs. As all of the timber that was cut was large, only a small number of logs had to be loaded on each sleigh. 

All trees were chopped down, usually by two men in a team, and the men were very expert in chopping. About the time that I first came up here they discontinued chopping the trees down and sawed them down with crosscut saws, which was easier and quicker. I remember hearing them tell about the choppers having contests to see which could cut the most in a day, and Mr. Wm. H. Young told me once about a day that he chopped on Peshtigo Brook, with another man, and they won the contest. At that time Mr. Young was scaling the logs in the camp. 

As it became necessary to go farther back from the streams to get timber, horses were used for hauling the sleighs but oxen continued to be used for skidding until about 1894 in the camps on the Oconto River. On account of the depressed conditions logging operations were cut down in the winter of 1893-94 and we had more horses and cattle than we could use, and as we could not very well eat the horses we had the cattle all'killed and used for food in the camps, and we never went back to the use of cattle afterward. 

As the logs were cut they were skidded to skidways along side of the logging roads and were rolled onto the sleighs by what was known as a cross-haul, that is to say, the cattle or horses were placed on one side of the sleigh opposite the skidway, and then a chain was passed around each log and the loading team would go ahead and roll the log up onto the sleigh. Horses were quicker than cattle and could load more logs in a day, and sometimes the horses would go ahead and roll the log up and when they got the log up they turned around of their own accord and came back and got into place without any guiding by the driver. As smaller logs were cut the number of logs on a load became greater and chains were placed across the load to keep the load from spreading, and sometimes very high loads of logs were piled up in that way. It was not unusual to have loads of logs mesuring 5000 or 6000 feet, where the road was reasonably good and not up hill. Only Pine timber was cut because Hardwood timber would not float,and Hemlock,while 
 

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