(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels:
Logging was an important New England industry. Lumberjacks cut down trees in the winter. They trimmed the logs and dragged them to the river. The logs remained in a holding area until a large number had been collected. In the spring, when the current was strong and the water was high, loggers floated the logs down the river to a sawmill. Loggers posed for this postcard at the Oxbow on the Connecticut River near Holyoke, Massachusetts. An oxbow is a bend in a river. It gets its name from the way it resembles the u-shaped collar that oxen wear around their necks when they are yoked together. Oxbows are more commonly found in older rivers like the Connecticut, which has changed its course many times in its 200 million year life.