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Winfield Scott McCorrison, 77, sluices logs at the West Buxton dam in 1935 with a pike, or pick pole. The dam was built in 1905-6 and became a choke point for the annual log drive. It took four men working 24 hours a day one month to run the drive’s logs though the narrow sluiceway. The sluiceway was narrow to minimize the water used to pass the logs. Most of the river water was used for power generation. The drives were held from 1772 to 1943. The largest log drive was in 1877 at 35 million board feet of lumber. The drives declined after that because the old growth forest had been cut. Courtesy / Buxton-Hollis Historical Society

In commemoration of Maine’s bicentennial this year, the American Journal is featuring historical highlights from our communities’ past 200 years. 

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