From 1839 to 1914, the St. Croix River was a crucial link between the logging areas of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and their markets, carrying millions of harvested logs. Arcola witnessed this vast timber movement each spring, when the river swelled with pine and boat traffic came to a standstill, isolating the village. Workers pulled logs from the St. Croix to cut at the Arcola mill, while the rest floated another four miles downstream to the St. Croix Boom, the main processing point for sorting, measuring, and determining ownership. From there, logs went to mills in Stillwater or were made into rafts and sent south to Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.