Birdseye view of the Stillwater Lift Bridge and the Commander Building in Stillwater, Minnesota. The Stillwater Lift Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge crossing the St. Croix River between Stillwater, Minnesota, and Houlton, Wisconsin. It first opened to traffic in 1931.
View of the Lift Bridge in Stillwater, Minnesota. The Stillwater Lift Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge crossing the St. Croix River between Stillwater, Minnesota, and Houlton, Wisconsin. It first opened to traffic in 1931.
Logs were shipped by rail from northern Minnesota to Stillwater and made into rafts. They were then floated down the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The rafts usually consisted of 8 to 10 strings of logs fastened side by side, each string measuring 16 across and about 400 feet long. Some of these enormous rafts stretched 4 or 5 acres in size.
Lumber was rafted downstream from Stillwater. Boards were arranged in cribs or heavy crates, each 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. A lumber raft might contain as many as 200 cribs.