Rivers served as transportation and power for Maine's logging industry from the first sawmill in 1630 in Berwick until 1974. Lewiston's first sawmills were located near the Great Falls. Throughout the year, loggers cut trees upstream and stacked them on the riverbanks, using handsaws and axes and relying on horses and oxen to haul the logs in a dangerous profession. During the spring floods, the logs were dumped into the river and carried downstream, guided by river men using long poles, spiked boots for traction, and bateaux. Booms stretched across the river captured the logs so they could be separated, with some going to sawmills and some becoming pulp in paper mills. The last log drive on the Androscoggin was in 1962.