Arden Barnes’ functioning Russel tug boat is monument to an era

In the early days of local paper manufacturing, the first step of the process was floating logged trees into “booms” on Rainy Lake where they merged with thousands of others for the journey west.
These booms made their hurdled journey around Rainy’s bottle necked island points and narrowed rock passages until they reached the wide open spaces of Sand Bay.
The boom was towed with the help of tug boats and strong men, who after reaching the Ranier bridge, would sluice the pulpwood through the treacherous rapids overnight. The final leg of the journey was down the Rainy River to the “sorting gap” at the mouth of the paper mills to await their destination.

Russel Bros. in Fort Frances
From the sorting gap area (where Highway 11 East begins International Falls and forward), there’s a clear view of the north bank of the Rainy River in Fort Frances. That shoreline has changed significantly over the years.
From 1907 until 1937, it boasted the Russel Bros. marine business which was paramount in the local log boom work.
In 1907, Ottawa brothers Colin and Jardine Russel had heard that a river dividing Canada and the United States was bustling with industrial progress. A hydroelectric power dam, sawmills, paper mills on both sides, work and pleasure boats, and a new railway system called out as a prospective location for their machine shop.
They set up in a shed on the north bank of the Rainy River on Front Street between Armit and Crowe Avenue, in the area where the Fort Frances hospital stands today.
Replacing the era’s plain old animal horse power, the company produced the wooden, steam-powered “gators,” tow boats used by lumber companies of the time. But the brothers would go on to define an industry with their design and production of steel, gasoline-powered winch “bugs” and warping tugs (1912) as well as larger vessels for specialized environments.
The Russel company built the flat-bottomed steel tugs that groomed Rainy Lake log booms up until 1973. The boats could also self-pull over land. And Russel built (1940) the powerful “Hallet,” the primary towing vessel on Rainy, originally captained by legendary Canadian log-boom man, William Martin.
Now a museum piece, the “Hallet” is dry-docked at Pithers Point in Fort Frances.

Ranier woman only
U.S. owner of functional Russel boat
Eventually, the business would become Russel Brothers Limited with public shares, and the working water craft and engine-building business would be moved in 1937 to Owen Sound for the more profitable eastern market in Canada.
The family company, which would create the trademark “Steelcraft,” would play an impressive role in marine manufacturing (see box page 7A) until its decline and sale in the 1960s.
Arden Barnes of Ranier is the owner of one of those little steel tugs used by the M&O Paper Company to herd log booms in local waters. Built in 1942, “Tug No. 156,” named “The Mother Lode” by Barnes, was the 448th boat built by Russel Bros. (after their move to Owen Sound).
Tug No. 156 was captained by Alfred Woods of Fort Frances during her sorting gap years on Rainy. Barnes purchased the retired vessel about 15 years ago. She is the first female to hold a Rainy Lake captain’s license as well as a towing endorsement.
Originally powered by a two-cycle, 20-horse power Capital engine, the winch tug is now powered by a 271 GMC diesel engine. “She is the only functioning Russel boat on the U.S. side,” Barnes said. She uses the boat as a pleasure craft.
“Boats have always been a part of my life,” said the 80-year-old. Barnes is the daughter of Rainy Lake pioneers John and Gina Erickson who owned and operated numerous freight and pleasure boats on Rainy Lake during their lifetimes.
Barnes also owned the wooden “Ethel B.,” once a landmark in Ranier until deterioration required her demolish. “That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Barnes said. The boat was a childhood gift from her father. The Ethel B. has a long, rich history which includes escorting the body of John Rottenwood to his grave on Squaw Frank Island where more Rottenwoods would join him.
Barnes is currently looking for a permanent place to display The Mother Lode — “so everyone can enjoy her.”

The booms and the boats
By 1973, local paper companies started by E.W. Backus had changed hands several times and were then owned by Boise Cascade. Responding to the times, the company abandoned logging in much of the Rainy Lake tributary region which brought an end to the log booms. It meant retirement for the Hallett and small winch tugs like The Mother Lode.
There may be a few hands-on people left from the log towing era. And many remember the large “bags” of logs floating in the river. But manipulating enormous amounts of wood by water to the mills during those times required critical skills, courage and experience.
A tow of logs was floated inside boom timbers, each about 30-feet long. These timbers were chained end-to-end in a long string. About 120 boom timbers were required to surround a tow, twice that amount to double wrap.
The winch boat would leave the boom and run ahead of it about a mile. It would then drop a large anchor (fastened to the fore-mounted winch cable) over the bow.
The tug would then turn and run back to the boom of logs. A short length of cable was fastened between the tow post on the after-deck and one of the logging chains that connected the boom timbers. The winch was then engaged and the forward-cable wound, thereby moving or “warping” the boom of logs in the direction desired.
When the boat had wound in all the cable, the anchor was lifted back onto the deck and the procedure would be repeated until the logs were at the mill.
Depending on the wind which was the biggest variable in time management, this was done at a speed of about a mile an hour.
While this may seem a crawling rate of speed, it was an efficient and an economical method of bringing large booms of logs to the mill. A small winch boat powered by only 20 horsepower could move one million feet of logs. With normal weather, up to 5,000 cords were delivered routinely in about seven days.
Requiring real boom savvy was manipulating the narrowed passages and submerged rocks, and the final obstacle — the Ranier bridge. Martin likened that formidable task to “pulling a bag of sand through a knothole” where forcing it would cause a choke; but with patient ushering, it could slowly be done.

End of an era
Eventually, wood could be more efficiently transported by truck. There would be less loss from runaway and sinking logs. And the increasing number of pleasure boats on Rainy Lake made the booms a hazard.
Rainy River would be emptied of wood and the old boom pilings removed. The Hallet would be permanently dry-docked, and the small tugs all retired and sold off.
But little Tug No. 156 goes on; painted from her original gray to red, white and blue by Barnes. While the noisy, grumbling engine echoes the industry of an era now gone, the silhouette of this old relic should be a rare and revered reminder of times never to be seen again on Rainy Lake.

Information from the Web site www.russelbrothers.com contributed to this story.
Arden Barnes was called upon for her contribution to the Russel Brothers Centennial (1907-2007) site, and she and The Mother Lode are featured in its extensive archives and history of the log boom era.
Purchase of a DVD Rom is also available at this site.

1942 Tug “Winch” Boat of Local Log Booms, Built By Russel Bros. Company
Who Began on Shores of Rainy River:
• A large cable winch allows it to be “amphibious” and enables her to cross short portages.
• A unique cooling system allows the vessel to travel on land as the diesel engine powers the cable spool on the winch.
• A steel cage surrounding the propeller prevents logs from damaging the propeller and shaft.
• A very heavy steel hull and cabin enables the boat to endure rough use and ice. It carries a number of battle scars.
• Weight: 5.5 tons; Length: 26 feet; Draws six feet of water.
• Travels eight miles per hour without load. Consumes one gallon of diesel fuel per hour.

Historic Marine Business With Local Origin Made Waves:

• Russel Bros. first in North America to have commercially built electric-welded steel hull boats.
• They built the first boat that ever climbed "The Cedars." the worst rapids on the St. Lawrence.
• Many Russel boats participated in the Allied landing in Europe on D-day 1944.
• Their 80' ice breaker tug, the “Atomic” won the International Tug Race on the Detroit River.
• Russel Bros. built two Niagara Falls “Maid of the Mists” for the gorge below the falls.
• They designed the first electro-hydraulic steering gear in Canada.
• Russel's diesel expertise assisted with the first diesel powered locomotive in Canada and the first diesel powered switching locomotive in Canada.
• Russel boats grace the Canadian one dollar bill from 1974-1989.