In the late 1800s and early 1900s, portions of the Mississippi and Little Elk Rivers were used to float logs to area sawmills, most notably the Pine Tree Lumber Company in Little Falls. Log jams were common and required large numbers of log drivers, or "River Pigs," to loosen them. These pileups could stretch from Little Falls to Belle Prairie, a distance of around five miles. Some Mississippi river islands in the area were created by "sinkers," or sunken logs, and jams that eventually gathered enough dirt and debris on top to meld with the river landscape.