At the beginning of the 20th century, Eastern Kentucky was still covered in virgin forest. These trees were cut by logging crews and transported by oxen or narrow gauge railroads to a waterway. Here, a Splash Dam was built to impound water to float the harvested logs. These logs were later floated downriver to sawmills. Among the rivers used to transport the logs was the Kentucky River. In 1900, Frankfort was home to four sawmills and three planing mills.
The floating of the logs down the North, Middle and South Forks of the Kentucky River to Beattyville was dependent on the Log Tide. Between Frankfort and Beattyville, were 10 locks and dams, #5 to #14. The Kentucky River had to be high enough so the logs could be floated over the dams. The river height on both sides of the dam had to be the same height so that the logs did not churn in the whirlpool that was created when water from the upper pool fell a foot or more into the lower river pool.
Now, when the logs were put in the splash pond, they were branded on each end with the owner’s mark. As the logs floated downriver, logs from various splash ponds would intermix. It was not unknown for some people to fish logs out of the river and saw an inch off either end removing the existing owner’s mark, then adding their own mark. The logs were herded downstream by a log rider who would use a long pole called a pike to keep the logs moving and not jumbling into a log jam as they headed downstream.
Generally, the logs headed downstream on the Spring Tide, or “flood” to you non-natives. The weather was carefully monitored at Beattyville and at the locks and dams downstream. When it was deemed that the river was deep enough for the logs to reach Frankfort, men would prepare to open the Splash Dams and ride the logging rafts. The upper Splash Dams were opened first. As their tide of water with a bevy of logs reached the next lower Splash Dam, that Splash Dam was breached. So, it went until all the logs from a particular watershed were in one of the branches of the Kentucky River and heading for Beattyville.
At Beattyville, the individual logs, regardless of owner, were secured into a log raft and put in charge of a log rider. The logs were tied together in 500-foot-long rafts by saplings attached perpendicular to the log raft and secured into place by chain dogs. All this work had to be performed quickly before the tide dropped preventing the log raft from floating safely over the dam face.
As the log rafts moved downriver at the speed of the river’s current, the length of the voyage from Beattyville to Frankfort could take seven to 10 days. At Frankfort, the log rafts were corralled by small steam-powered towboats, which would maneuver the log raft to one of the river banks where it would be tied off. Depending upon the need of the local sawmill, the length of time that a log sat tied to the riverbank could be days or weeks. The lumber resulting from cutting logs at the local sawmills was stacked along Benson Creek near the Louisville & Nashville Railroad’s West Frankfort Yard. As orders came in from lumber yards around the Midwest, the lumber was loaded on a train and shipped out.
As a log was brought out of the Kentucky River to the sawmill to be turned into lumber, the brand on the butt of the log was noted in a brand log book, along with the type of wood and its length. At the end of each month, a review of the brand log book was made by the sawmill and the owners compensated for their logs that had been turned into lumber. The lumber trade in Frankfort died down by the beginning of World War II. The only local lumber company from that period that survived into the second half of the 20th century, was Frankfort Lumber, which lasted until circa 1990.
For more on Frankfort’s relationship with the Kentucky River, visit the Capital City Museum Kentucky River room.
