Shanty Boys, Swampers, and River Hogs: Lumbering Around Elk Rapids
Date and Time
Thursday Jul 6, 2017
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT
Thursday, July 6th, 2017
7 pm
Location
Elk Rapids Area Historical Museum
301 Traverse St.
Elk Rapids
corner of Pine St.
Fees/Admission
Elk Rapids Historical Society Members,Students and Children - Free!
Non-Members: Donations Accepted!
All proceeds benefit the Historical Society’s building preservation.
Shanty Boys, Swampers, and River Hogs...
Description
"Shanty Boys, Swampers, and River Hogs:
Lumbering Around Elk Rapids 1860-1900"
Presenter: Dr. Jim McClurg
Dr. Jim McClurg graduated from the University of Michigan and taught there for ten years before moving to Wyoming where he was a University of Wyoming Geology professor until his retirement some 15 years ago. HIs home in Eastport in on Torch Lake on land that has been in the family since the mid-1880's.
Jim is very interested in the history of the area as both sets of his Great Grandparents lived in the Eastport Area in the 1800's. One ran the Eastport hardware and the other homesteaded a farm a mile away. Interestingly, he spent 1862 working on the Elk Rapids lumber mill dock to get enough money to buy the materials to build his home. For a few years before that he was a "shanty boy" and "river hog" (terms used back in the day for the lumberjack and for those who "rode the logs" down the rivers.
Jim is very interested in the history of the area as both sets of his Great Grandparents lived in the Eastport Area in the 1800's. One ran the Eastport hardware and the other homesteaded a farm a mile away. Interestingly, he spent 1862 working on the Elk Rapids lumber mill dock to get enough money to buy the materials to build his home. For a few years before that he was a "shanty boy" and "river hog" (terms used back in the day for the lumberjack and for those who "rode the logs" down the rivers.
