Clarksville Weekly Chronicle

RAFTING ON THE CUMBERLAND.
The Novel Life of the Men Who Run the River.

Nashville American.

The river has been a subject of extraordinary attention lately, and Saturday an American reporter, falling in with genial Ged Lowe, who knows everything about the river, asked what he knew about rafts. "There are about twenty tied up with cold weather between here and Celina, two of walnut and the others poplar," he replied. "What else do you know?"

"I know that prices are ruling uncommonly low, and that the up-river mills are sawing precious little lumber this season. The timber has been cut away from the river country, and now logs have to be hauled ten or fifteen miles."

In further conversation it was learned that much lumber which has not already come by rail is mostly waiting for the Nashville & Knoxville road. The river banks, clear up to head-water, have as a general thing been pretty well cut out. Logs begin coming down after Christmas; not so many this year, owing to the low prices and the extreme difficulty of hauling. With a high rise now the main crop would come down at once. There will be about two-thirds of an average crop. The best walnut in Putnam, Fentress and Overton counties has been cut out. There is oak, hickory and ash enough, though it is inaccessible. Poplar also would be brought out by a new railroad.

One hundred and twenty-five logs make an average sized raft. Poplar rafts average $500. The low grade of walnut not being reached makes that class of logs worth very little more than poplar.

The Nashville & Knoxville Railroad would open up the timber of Smith, Putnam, Overton, Fentress, part of Jackson and Cumberland counties.

Upon a low and safe estimate, about 60,000,000 feet of all kinds of lumber was received here, half by river and half by rail, last year. About 10 per cent. of this only was walnut, the bulk of the remainder poplar. At least 60 per cent. of this was sawed up here or used in the various mills of the city.

Before starting from the headwaters of the Cumberland river, a raft is pinned together with poles bored through to the logs, called whaling. Being well tied, good head blocks across the ends, and a shanty in the middle, two oars running sixty or eighty feet out at either end, and the raft is ready. It is not safe to turn them loose on a high tide, so they are unmoored on a falling tide with eight or ten feet of water on the shoals.

From five to ten men start with each raft, besides a pilot, who is acquainted with the river and who commands the hands. They usually stop at night unless the weather is fine or the pilot especially good. Six or seven days are consumed in this trip. The men are paid each from ten to twelve dollars; the pilot fifteen or twenty dollars.

Many a fellow comes down for the fun of the trip, as the crowd is lively and the ride costs nothing. The principal amusements along the way are cards, playing on the violin and an occasional bugle. A raft generally takes the right of way, and fine steamboats doff their flags and salute with a merry whistle.

The raftsmen have pork, meal, bacon, coffee, flour and a little fruit for food; a skillet, frying-pan and a coffee-pot compose the kitchen arrangements. A dugout is an inseparable companion of a raft and is used to reach the banks for one purpose and another. Each raftsman has a couple of blankets which he spreads on thick layers of straw, and they all sleep near a fire built on a bed of sand which is thrown on the log flooring of the shanty. Rails are first thrown down and these hold the straw. Each man then stretches snugly between two logs and you don't hear much of him till daylight, when all hands are up, and the raft is again afloat. The man assigned to the culinary department gets a breakfast which good appetites wait upon. Eat hearty and sleep sound is the motto of your raftsman.