In the spring, rafts went into the woods, armed with poles, gaffs and timber turners. Standing on “pitounes” or in waist-deep water, they made the logs cross hundreds of kilometers of rivers, waterfalls and lakes. Raymonde Beaudoin, author of the book Once upon a time there were log driverstells us the story of the log drive.
Raymonde Beaudoin’s father was a timber driver and as a child he lived in a timber camp for a year. It also defines the difference between loggers and log drivers. The loggers cut down the trees and there were nearly 35,000 in the 1940s, while “the loggers were the ones who delivered the trees that floated freely on the river. [jusqu’aux papetières] “.
Log drives originated in the appearance of paper mills in 1910 and were mainly practiced until 1980. Paper mills managed the log drives and hired drivers, “who were hard to find”, Raymonde Beaudoin pointed out. The villagers accepted this effort, as it was a little better than a woodsman.
The living conditions of the loggers were “horrible”, but differed according to the areas of logging. “People sleep in tents, eat as much as they can,” Raymonde Beaudoin said. Some camps are more comfortable than others: “Conditions and employment vary from place to place. “
A somewhat false legend
This daredevil profession has inspired many works such as books Menaud, log driverby Felix-Antoine Savard, The hunting galleryby Honoré Beaugrand, and the song Gatineau Log Drivers, by Raoul Roy. Raymonde Beaudoin seriously questions the myth of the driver being able to descend the river on a log. “It was a suicide bomber. There were no log drivers who worked balance on a log”, he specified.
The end of an era
In the 1970s, local residents and environmental groups lobbied for an end to log drives. “Around 1980, these groups started winning,” Raymonde Beaudoin explains. At the same time, chemical processes for making paper were discovered, and pulpwood was gradually being replaced. Finally, the improvement of the road network greatly affected the log drive, which continued on the Saint-Maurice River until 1995.
For Raymonde Beaudoin, who wants to recognize the work of log drivers, “they are not thugs. They are resourceful, disciplined people. “
Source: Radio-Canada
