WILLOW CREEK — A logjam of extraordinary proportions on the Willow River, one mile below Thorne’s Bend, required fifty men working three full days to clear, the largest such operation on the river in recent memory.
The jam, formed after heavy rain raised the river by three feet, consisted of an estimated two thousand logs stretching a quarter mile. The tangled mass backed up the river enough to flood the lower portion of the old Thorne & Sons Shipyard site.
“It is the worst jam I have seen since 1878,” said Elijah Cook, 77, the former Thorne & Sons ship’s carpenter. “In the old days we would have had a hundred men on this. But the old days are gone.”
The jam is notable for another reason: it may be one of the last major log drives on the Willow River. The Aroostook Valley Lumber Company has announced plans to shift most timber transport to the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad’s logging spur.
“The river is fickle,” said the company’s superintendent. “The railroad runs every day, rain or shine. The iron horse can carry it all.”
Ezra Thorne II watched from the bank of the old shipyard. “Fifty men to clear a jam my grandfather’s generation would have prevented,” he said quietly. “That is what happens when the knowledge leaves. The Thorne yard trained men to read the river. The railroad trains them to read a timetable.”