Logs and log jams were historically common blocked navigation even in some of the largest rivers in the country.

• Two large jams on the Skagit River appear on the GLO plat maps in 1873

• One jam (~1/2 mile downstream of Mt. Vernon) had been in place sufficient to block river traffic for nearly 100 years

• A second jam (roughly one mile upstream of Mount Vernon) was younger, but was “rapidly increasing in size at the rate of a quarter mile every three years.”

• The only way around the jam was “A rude skid road built by Upper Skagit Indians to haul their canoes…”

• In the summer of 1876, removal began using crosscuts saws and axes

• Removal involved cutting “through five to eight tiers of logs three to eight feet in diameter, totaling 30 feet deep”

• Removal was completed in 1879.