St. Croix Boom Site

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 mile (34 km) downstream.

The massive volume of logs on the river and the centrality of the St. Croix Boom Company to the all important lumber industry led to major regional impacts. At peak times the log choked river was impassable to steamboats. Travelers couldn't move upstream or downstream, farmers couldn't ship their goods to market, and towns like Taylors Falls were starved economically. Jumbles of logs could block drainage, flooding riverside farms and homes. The Boom Company did endeavor to provide teams and wagons to portage passengers and goods around blocked areas, transferring them to small steamboats upstream so they could continue their journeys. In the 1860s and 70s the company worked on a shipping canal to bypass the boom site. The St. Croix Boom Site Roadside Parking Area was developed 1935–1939 using New Deal federal labor relief programs, which had been instituted to combat widespread unemployment during the Great Depression. Landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols designed the plans while construction was largely carried out by young men employed through the National Youth Administration (NYA). They constructed a more permanent historical marker, a picnic area, fire rings, toilets, a stone wall, a guardrail, and a staircase down to the riverbank. They also landscaped the site, planting trees and improving a natural spring. Possible additions included an information kiosk, picnic shelters, and an enclosure for the portable toilets, all styled after the Boom Site's logging era structures.

In the present day the St. Croix Boom Site is a park with five distinct areas. At the northern end is a large parking and picnic area, signposted as the "wayside". A few hundred yards to the south, but separated by a gully, is a smaller parking area with the historical marker and a staircase down to the riverbank. .25 mile (0 km) south is a scenic overlook, which provides the clearest view of the river for motorists. The overlook abuts the private Boomsite Marina, but a short distance downstream is a separate public boat launch. It was long assumed that no other structures remained from the log boom era, but in 1975 a historical survey crew from the National Park Service rediscovered two buildings hidden by forest. One was identified as a crew office that also functioned as a winter warming hut.