TIE-RAFTING RE-ENACTMENT TO BE HELD NEAR DONIPHAN

DONIPHAN, Mo. -- Celebrate Labor Day by learning about the work of Ozark loggers in the 1800s. Attend a tie-rafting re-enactment Sept. 2 on the Current River in Ripley County to see how loggers got their goods to sawmills.

A century ago, connecting logs and floating them downriver was the most efficient way to get timber to sawmills. Tie rafters drove nails into the tops of logs before placing them in the river. They placed poles on the nails to connect the logs, creating a raft. They inserted poles between rafts every 75 feet to enable the raft to negotiate bends in the river. When approximately 100 logs were attached the rafts would be floated to sawmills downstream. The last tie-rafting on the Current River occurred in April 1931.

The tie-rafting re-enactment will float a raft of 480 logs eight miles on the Current River from Mark Twain National Forest land to the city of Doniphan. The raft will be more than 250 feet long and weigh approximately 100,000 pounds.

The re-enactment will highlight Ripley County's river and lumber history. The river and the town were important to Ozark timber operations from the 1880s through the early 1900s. The Current River served as a major transportation route for transporting logs and ties to Doniphan. For more information, contact Rebecca Johnson at 996-2212.