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If you build it…

Scale-model of 19th Century raft built for Allegheny National Forest to display

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Toy Shoppe volunteer craftsmen (left) Herb West and Dick Walchli work on some details of the scale log raft they created for the Allegheny National Forest.

On spring days in the late 1800s, it was fairly common to see huge rafts of timber floating through Warren County on the Allegheny River.

The timber was floated down to Pittsburgh and sometimes much farther. Then, another common sight was those men and maybe women who drove the rafts walking back into the county.

On Monday, a raft will be following a non-traditional path from a starting point along Conewango Creek to Marienville.

It’s a scale model of those rafts of the late 19th century.

The Allegheny National Forest was looking to grow a display at the Marienville District Office and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Portions of two Wild and Scenic Rivers flow through the ANF — the Allegheny and the Clarion.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry A model of an Allegheny or Clarion river log raft crafted by volunteers at the Toy Shoppe at Warren State Hospital includes a pilot sculpted by craftsman Herb West and tiny barrels turned on a lathe by craftsman Dick Walchli.

Foresters Curt Bowley and Kevin Treese decided that it would be a helpful visual aid to have a scale model of a river raft on display to help people get a feel for how big these things were. “We thought it would make a nice addition to our display at the Marienville District Office,” Bowley said. “Kevin and I thought this would also be a display that could be taken to school groups or other types of events for display.”

They couldn’t just drop a model raft on a table, so they applied for some grant funding through Eastern National Forest Interpretive Association. That grant was awarded.

Now all they needed was someone to build the raft.

“I remembered seeing a nice article that was written about the Toy Shoppe making toys for children,” Bowley said. “We presented our ideas to them. We left there hoping that they would think it over and take on the project.”

They didn’t wait long to hear that they had found their builders.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry One of the few workers at leisure stands by the cabin of the scale log raft crafted by volunteers at the Toy Shoppe for the Allegheny National Forest.

In April, Herb West and Dick Walchli got to work.

Wanting to make their model historically accurate, they started with some research.

“We went down to the Historical Society and the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum in Coudersport,” Walchli said.

There were log rafts, but most were squared off first. They went that way.

There had to be enough water to float the rafts, so most were sent in the spring. Cooler temperatures. Warmer clothing. West sculpted men wearing heavy clothes.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry A model of an Allegheny or Clarion river log raft crafted by volunteers at the Toy Shoppe at Warren State Hospital includes a pilot sculpted by craftsman Herb West and tiny barrels turned on a lathe by craftsman Dick Walchli.

The rafts weren’t tied together with rope. Flexible saplings were pegged into squared logs over rough wood braces. The craftsmen were skeptical at first, but tested the system with wire instead of saplings and found it held quite well.

There were oars — not rudders — at the front and back of each raft used to steer the rafts.

They included a cabin — where the crew cooked and kept warm — barrels that Walchli turned on a lathe for water and rum, firewood for the stove, and even a dog.

Sometimes, the rafts would be used to haul other cargo, so they stacked some finer lumber on the deck.

There are even initials in the ends of the logs. The seller/owner would mark the logs to make sure they got the right amount of money back.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry A scale log raft crafted by volunteers at the Toy Shoppe for the Allegheny National Forest includes oars pushed by two men each at the front and back, a cabin with a cook, a pilot, even a dog.

Not all of the craftsmen’s research can be seen in the model. “They never traveled at night,” West said.

“They’d find a tree that they thought was solid enough,” Walchli said. “One of the men would jump off and tie a rope around that tree.” If the raft’s inertia were too high, the tree could be toppled and the raft would keep moving. “That was a hazardous job,” he said.

“The shoes that they wore had spikes on them,” West said. “If any one of these guys fell over, it could mean drowning.”

The ANF wanted a visual and had an approximate size in mind.

“A lot of rafting was done on the Clarion and the Allegheny,” Treese said. “You see pictures of them but you can’t get an idea of how big they were. There were hundreds of these things going down the river every year.”

Rafts on the Conewango and on the Allegheny from Corydon were smaller. Once the wood reached the area where the Hickory Street Bridge now stands, large rafts were built.

“This is scaled that one inch equals two feet,” Walchli said.

At full size, their raft would be about 27 feet wide and more than 200 feet long.

Rafts of that size were sometimes lashed together when a wide enough waterway, like the Ohio River or the Mississippi, was reached. Raftsmen generally walked back from their destinations. Pittsburgh was the closest. The Gulf of Mexico was the farthest.

The ANF plans to take possession of the finished raft on Monday.

There are still some steps to take before the raft is on full display.

“We have to figure out where it’s going to go in our office, how to secure it,” Bowley said. “Kevin and his team are working on the interpretive sign that will go with the raft.”

“We want to do it right,” he said. “We want it to be there for a long time. Our goal is to have this completed by the end of September.”

The foresters are impressed.

“They were really great in building the raft,” Treese said. “We threw out a date of July 1 and they hit it. They exceeded all of our expectations.”

“They got very much into it,” Bowley said. “I think that’s why we have a museum-quality piece.”

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