Daily AncestorLog driver
A log driver guided logs floating down a river from the logging camps to the sawmills each spring, breaking up jams.
Logs cut in winter were piled by the riverbank, and when the snow melted and the water rose they were rolled in and the drive began. The men who kept them moving were called log drivers or river pigs. The most experienced formed the jam crew, who rushed to spots where logs piled up and freed the key logs before the jam grew.
The 1900 census instructions told enumerators not to class a lumberman, raftsman or log driver with the employees of a lumber yard or mill.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1910 census
Napoleon Gagnon, 27, Log driver, Canada
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Daily Ancestor. "Log driver." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/log-driver. Last checked 2026-10-12.