"The Log Flume"

In the nineteenth century, lumbermen in the Chippewa Valley needed a reliable way to direct pine logs, and after the Eau Claire Dells Improvement Company dammed the Chippewa River in 1879 to create a large holding pond, moving logs to the sawmills still remained a problem. Because floating them downriver caused congestion in the center of the city, mill owners Daniel Shaw, Orrin Ingram, William Carson, and others created a combined flume, canal, and tunnel system to carry logs 1.2 miles from Dells Pond to Half Moon Lake. The wooden flume, eight feet by ten feet, ran along the rock wall of the river's west bank, with a planked catwalk on top so workers could watch for jams or damage, and a Tainter gate at the entrance served as a giant water shut-off valve. South of the Omaha railroad bridge, the flume turned inland and sent five feet of water into a canal parallel to the river. At the corner of Mappa and Randall streets, the canal dropped the logs eighteen feet into a one thousand foot tunnel leading to Half Moon Lake. Completed in April 1880, this unusual system drew sightseers and also found unintended uses: neighborhood housewives used the canal for laundry, mill hands bathed in it, and the uncovered canal tragically claimed the lives of many careless children. After the sawmills closed, the flume decayed, and the tunnel was used as a beer cooler and a shortcut by braver residents until it too deteriorated and had to be sealed. In 1990, city workers finally filled the tunnel after its collapse damaged sewer lines and caused houses to cave in.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin · United States