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.
At the boom, floating timbers chained between piers caught and contained logs for sorting and measuring and rigging into rafts. At one time, the Stillwater boom extended a distance of 9 miles and employed 400 men to sort, scale and raft timber.
The Stillwater Library Association's handwritten record book includes detailed meeting minutes from 1870 - 1896. Elections of officers, fundraising events, finances, book acquisitions, membership lists and day to day library business transactions are meticuluosly recorded.
The Stillwater Library Association Treasurer's Book contains the financial records of the Stillwater Library Association including lending receipts, private donations from individuals and businesses, fundraising, the librarian�s salary, expenditures for books and day to day operating expenses.