St. Croix Boom Site
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St. Croix Boom Site
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Former site of the St. Croix Log Boom
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| Location | Off Minnesota State Highway 95, Stillwater Township, Minnesota |
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| Coordinates | 45°5′6″N 92°47′8″W / 45.08500°N 92.78556°WCoordinates: 45°5′6″N 92°47′8″W / 45.08500°N 92.78556°W |
| Area | 26.1 acres (10.6 ha) |
| Built | 1856 |
| Architect | Unknown |
| MPS | Washington County MRA (AD) |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000407 |
| Significant dates | |
| Designated NHL | November 13, 1966 |
| Designated NRHP | November 13, 1966 |
The St. Croix Boom Site is a historic and scenic wayside on the St. Croix River in Stillwater Township, Minnesota, United States. It commemorates the location of a critical log boom where, from 1856 to 1914, timber from upriver was sorted and stored before being dispatched to sawmills downstream. The site was developed as a roadside park along Minnesota State Highway 95 in the 1930s. In 1966 it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its national significance in the theme of industry. It was nominated for being the earliest, most important, and longest serving of the log storage and handling operations that supported Minnesota's major logging industry. Virtually no traces remain of the site's original buildings and structures.
The vast white pine forests of the St. Croix River Valley became a major target for logging in the mid-19th century. The St. Croix and its tributaries provided easy transport downstream. Moreover the St. Croix flowed directly into the Mississippi River, making a convenient route to the burgeoning communities all down the length of the nation plus the numerous inland settlements they served. Since multiple logging companies sent their timber down the same waterway, each company had a distinctive "timber mark" or "owner's mark" they stamped into the bottom of each log. In the 1830s and 40s the St. Croix harvest was collected and sorted downstream on an honor system, but the increasing number of companies and logs soon necessitated a more official approach.
In 1851 the Minnesota Legislature chartered the St. Croix Boom Company, granting them the right to collect all logs at a certain point on the river, sort them according to mark, and deliver them to the appropriate owners in return for 40 cents per thousand board feet (17 cent/m³). The Boom Company's leadership was largely composed of men from Marine, Taylors Falls, and Osceola, so the boom was initially located near Taylors Falls. However there were two major problems with this. One was that this was upstream from the mouth of the Apple River, the St. Croix's second-most productive tributary. The other was that Stillwater was already becoming the region's primary lumber town, and mills there had to pay extra to have their logs timber rafted 21 miles (34 km) downstream.
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