This list represents an sampling of the terms used by the lumbermen
of Northern Wisconsin during the early years of the lumber industry.
Badger (or Wilder) - Brand of chewing and smoking tobacco.
Balsam Myrrh - Ointment for healing cuts. (The way to treat a split hand was to run hot balsam pitch into the wound and light a match to it. The wound healed and didn't even leave a scar.)
Bark Marks - Cuts on the sides of logs.
Barber chair - A top heavy tree which splits for a distance up the trunk rather than breaking off at the notch.
Barn Boss - Looked after barns and animals; cleaned lanterns for teamsters.
Bateau - Graceful double pointed boat used to transport the rivermen.
Bean Hole - Hole dug in the ground in which was placed a cast iron kettle with a lid on. This was covered with live coals and sod all night.
Bearing tree - A tree blazed and marked by government surveyors to indicate exact location of corners of townships or sections of land.
Bell-ox - Boss.
Boomer - A lumberjack who only took a job long enough to get whiskey money then left.
Booms - Logs chained end to end to keep logs together in a given area.
Bull - A tree having limbs nearly to the ground.
Bull cook - An assistant cook.
Bunk - That part of a logging sleigh on which the logs rest, or the bed in which a lumberjack sleeps.
Caboose - End of shack with open hearth fireplace.
Cant - A timber squared in a sawmill.
Cant-hook - A device having a wooden handle about four feet long and a swing hook on the lower end, used to roll and load logs or "cants." Sometimes called a log wrench.
Catface - A tree with a scar or fire marks on one side.
Clerk - Had charge of the wanigan box which contained socks, tobacco, clothing, rubbers.
Coldsbut - Doughnut.
Cookee - Cook's Assistant.
Corncrib - A horse in poor condition, very thin.
Cornerbind - A chain having a ring and fidhook on one end used to chain the first log to the sleigh bunks at the corners of load.
Cross haul - A short road or clearing made at an angle to a log or logs for hauling them out of the woods.
Crowsnest - One tree which in falling lodges against another.
Cruisers - Timber lookers and estimators.
Crumb - Lice
Daylight in the swamp - The cry usually used to wake lumberjacks in the morning (6 a.m.).
Deacon's seat - Bench alongside of the bunks.
Dingle - The alley between the men's camp and the kitchen
Dinner horn - A long, straight brass horn. Also called "Gabriel"
Dish water - Coffee
Driving boots - Boots used for driving; had short, round irons three-fourths inch long, pointed like lead pencils, screwed into the sole and around the heel in three rows.
Fid hook - A hook used at the end of a chain.
Flaggins - Dinner in the woods.
FlareTorch - burning lard and kerosene used as a light in night work such as icing roads.
Froe - Special axe for making hand-hewn shingles or "shakes".
Gig - Device like a wheelbarrow except having runner instead of wheel.
Gigtrail - A path from camp to woods where men are working.
Ginpole - Single pole held upright by guy lines having pulley at top, used in loading or decking logs.
Go-devil - A sled made from two natural crooks of maple or ironwood with timber bolted across. A chain went around the log and through a ring to hold it. The go-devil kept the end of the logs off the ground as they were dragged out of the woods, taking care of the logs which were too heavy to handle with tongs.
Grabhook - Hook with narrow opening used on one end of twitching chain.
Grablink - An iron link, keyhole in shape, used to hook anywhere along a chain.
Groover - Sleigh having chisel-like blades set to cut grooves in ice roads that logging sleighs will follow.
Grub - Food.
Hayburner - Large logging horse, heavy eater.
Hospital ticket - An early form of health insurance. For $5-8 a lumberjack could purchase a years worth of hospital and doctor care.
Jams - Logs piled up on drives because of obstructed flow.
Jammers - Moveable platforms which held the ginpole and tackle used to move logs from the skidway to sleigh.
Johnny cake - Corn bread
Light's out - The call given at 8 o'clock signaling time for bed
Loaders - On the ground they were the send-up men or ground moles; on top they had the dangerous job of top loader or sky hooker.
Loading Line - Long chain for putting logs on sleighs with swamp hook at the end.
Logging berries - Prunes
Murphys - Fried potatoes
Muzzle loading bunk - A bed that had to be entered from the foot end. Usually filled with straw and balsam boughs.
Outlaw - Logging sleigh having longer than fifteen-foot bunks. Once outlawed by the state of Wisconsin because of overloading of teams.
Peavy - Canthook with a spike at the end.
Piececutter - A lumberjack who cuts logs or pulpwood at so much per stick.
Pike Pole - Long pole with a spike at the end.
Pregnant women - Dried apples
Red horse - Corned beef
River Pig's Nose Box - A tin lunchbox strapped to the back of a lumberman while moving logs downstream
Road Monkey - Repaired roads and kept hay on hill to slow loads.
Root House - The same as all pioneers had for storing vegetables.
Rutters - Two runners which cut the ground or ice to make ruts in the ice road.
Sacking - Work done by men wading in water moving logs off of sandbars and from sloughs where the water was too shadow to float them out, at rear of drives.
Schoolma'am - A tree with short divided trunk. Also applied to a cut to include both forks of the crotch.
Shanty boss - He got the wood, water and did chores.
Sheer booms - Booms used to keep logs in main channel and away from snags and rocks; were invented by Levi Pond of Eau Claire.
Shoepacks - Rubber footwear like high moccasins which were used in the woods in dry, cold weather; used with several pairs of socks.
Skidders - Drivers of horses or oxen who hauled the logs from where they were cut in the skidways.
Skidding tongs -They were like ice tongs, but larger; used by skidders to fasten on logs.
Skidways - Two long logs on which to deck logs for loading.
Sky Pilot - Priest or minister.
Sow Belly - Salt pork.
Sorting works - Where logs were boomed and sorted for different companies; the final work of the drive.
Splashes - Each day a man drove from camp to the nearest dam upriver to notify at what time to open gate to give a 'splash' to raise the water for a drive.
Squawlink - A double-ended grablink used to connect the loose end of a broken chain as temporary or emergency repair.
Stag Pants - Heavy pants cut off just above the high-top boots
Stamp Marks - Marks put on the end of logs with the stamping iron, for identifying owners of logs.
Standard - The main brand of chewing and smoking tobacco; also there were Peerless, Climax and Spearhead.
Stovelids - Sourdough pancakes
Strip - That particular part of a forest assigned to a certain cutting crew.
Swamp auger - Mythical creature of lumberjack folklore.
Swampers - They cut limbs from logs, made bark marks and cut roads for skidding.
Swamp water - Tea
Swaybars - Poles hinged to ends of bunks or logging sleigh to keep them in proper relationship to each other at all times.
Sweep - Low hanging branch of tree across road; Tote road - For hauling supplies to camp.
Turkey - Pack sack used to carry personal belongings
Twitching chain - Short chain having roundhook on one end and grabhook on the other, used in skidding logs.
Undercutters - They went ahead of the sawyers and cut brush and notched trees to keep them from splitting when sawed.
Wanigan - The wanigan was the floating restaurant of the logging rivers. These cook houses were from thirty to seventy feet long by about fourteen feet wide and when large had two cooks with two stoves; a meat cook at one end and a pastry cook at the other. The boats were either rowed or poled.
Walking boss - Over-boss of several camps who traveled from one camp to another.
Water Wagons - A water tank on sleigh. Had a tongue at each end; was used for icing roads. The helper was called the conductor.
Widowmaker - Green pole bent over by a falling tree, sometimes called a springpole.
Wood butcher - He repaired sleighs and made axe handles.
Wonder Worker - A liniment used for broken legs or toothache.
Wrapper - A chain to go all around a load with a swamp hook on the end