Susquehanna Boom - Operation

Operation

The Susquehanna Boom was placed in an area of the river that had a large bend that drew the logs to the south side of the river. It worked as a type of corral, a corral for logs. Operating and managing the boom was a labor intensive endeavour. 150 men and boys were needed to sort and separate the millions of logs that floated into the Susquehanna Boom. Boys as young as 12 worked among the cribs. They had to identify one of over 1,700 marks found on the logs and send them along in a raft to the proper sawmill. Sorting these logs was the first job a boy could get on the Susquehanna Boom. The "Boom Rats" walked along long planks known as "stretchers" that connected the 352 cribs. They used long handled hooks to gather the logs to be tied into rafts. The was a job that required strength and agility and was the domain of young men.

The boom had to be lifted from the river at the outset of every winter before the river would freeze. This job was carried out by a group of men that worked with a tugboat. The power of the tub lifted the boom out of the water for storing on the safety of the banks of the river. Then each spring before the run of the logs down the river the boom had to be put back into place.

The boom operated for eight months. The 150 employees were paid $1.50 per day for their work. The owners of the boom paid an average of $50,000 per year to their employees for an average of $333.33 per man. This low pay compared to the millions that the owners of the boom and some of the mills brought about some hard feelings among the workers of the Susquehanna Boom. The workers of the boom, the lumber jacks, and the sawmill workers banded together in 1872 went on strike that summer.