In 1887, state-authorized improvements for log driving led to construction of a new dam just upstream on this stretch of the Manitowish River to raise water levels for spring log drives. Because the river was crooked, shallow, boulder-strewn, and full of submerged logs and leaning trees, crews typically dynamited rapids, straightened curves, and regulated water levels with dams built of rock rubble and timber with one or more sluice gates. In fall and winter, the sluice was closed and logs were piled on the ice and on tote roads along the shores, while on Rest Lake a steamer named “Skidoo” pulled rafts or logs to the dam. In spring, the sluice was opened and logs were fed through the gate and downstream on the flood, with men riding the logs and using pike poles to keep them from jamming. These workers, called river rats, worked in two crews: a jam crew at the front of the drive preventing logjams, and a beat crew gathering logs left on sandbars or in backwater eddies, while the camp cook followed on a floating cook shanty called a wanigan. Most of the logs floated down the Manitowish River were driven to the Chippewa River and on to mills in Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire. In 1997, the federal government stated that the dam “is neither used or useful nor necessary or appropriate to maintain or operate downstream projects,” although it clearly maintains water levels for boaters and homeowners, and no scientific studies have been done on its impact.