James V. Brown Library - Lycoming County Digital Photo Archive

Splash Dam on Pine Creek

Spudding bark

Spudding bark

Star Mill

Susquehanna Boom. Williamsport's former fame as a lumber center was based on the Susquehanna Boom, of which this is one of the most informative of surviving views. In operation from 1846 to 1909, the "boom", consisting of a series of massive log cribs anchored by stone ballast, with "boom sticks" strung between, each year caught and impounded vast numbers of sawlogs, some of them cut well over 100 miles away, brought down tributary streams and into the West Branch of the Susquehanna in the Spring "drives". Up to 350,000,000 board feet of logs were contained in the boom in a single season. Each log bore the identifying mark or brand of the owner. Here at the "head of the boom" these logs were sorted according to ownership, scaled or measured to calculate "boomage" charges, and made up into loose rafts for delivery to the busy mills lining the river from Newberry to Montoursville. In this scene the "channel" is flanked by a series of "platforms" manned by a "cornerman" and "check-in" man, each commanding a bay in which the logs were collected according to their identifying marks.

Susquehanna Boom

Susquehanna Boom

The Susquehanna Boom

Susquehanna Boom, Linden

Team and wagon loaded with tan bark used in tanning leather