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Glossary to accompany The Treasure of Namakagon
Animosh: Ojibwe word for dog.
Anishinabe: a-nish-i-NAH-bee. The original Native American people who lived north and south of the western Great Lakes region. Primarily Ojibwe but also Algonquin, Pottawatomie and others.
Barber chair: Slang for what is created when a tree is improperly notched prior to cutting, resulting in a tall splinter rising up from one side of the stump that makes it resemble a chair.
Bark eaters: Slang for lumberjacks.
Barn boss: Oversaw care and feeding of the animals.
Blackbird: A slang term for a log driver who was skilled at walking on the floating logs.
Blackjack: Gingerbread. A sweet cake made with ginger and blackstrap molasses.
Boom: A large raft of logs that were held together by a ring of logs connected by chains. Boom companies were formed on parts of some rivers to sort logs and direct them toward the right mills.
Boozhoo: Boo-ZHOO. Hello. Probably from the French term bon jour meaning good day.
Breakup: The spring ice melt when logs could again be driven to the mills.
Bull Cook: A worker who did many camp chores including the feeding of some animals, bringing in firewood, keeping the stoves filled, fetching water for the kitchen, clearing paths through the snow, plus many kitchen chores. Not well-paid.
Calked boots: Leather boots with spiked soles that helped men walk on the floating logs.
Camp dentist: The worker who sharpened the saws and axes.
Cant hook: A tool for rolling logs. Consists of a stout, wooden handle and a C-shaped hook. Similar to a peavey.
Caught in a bear trap: Lumberjack slang for getting into trouble.
Chain-haul team: The men who used horses or oxen and chains to load the logs onto the sleighs.
Chautauqua: sha-TAHK-wa. Traveling entertainment troupes that would set up large tents and then offer lectures, music, comedy, burlesque and theater before moving on to the next rural communities.
Chequamegon: she-WAHM-a-gun. A large bay on the south shore of Lake Superior. Also a national forest in Wisconsin.
Chippewa: Originally pronounced CHIP-ah-way. Now usually pronounced CHIP-ah-wah. French slang for Ojibwe. Also a river in Wisconsin.
Choppers: Heavy leather mittens.
Clydesdales: The largest of the big workhorses.
Cookees: Assistants to the head cook.
Corks: Calked (spiked) boots.
Cross-haul: Loading the logs onto the sleigh by using a horse or ox to pull a chain that would roll the log up a ramp mounted on the side of the sleigh.
Cross-hauler: The man who loaded logs onto a sleigh using horses or oxen and chains that crossed over the load. Chain-hauler.
Cruising: Inspecting and estimating the value of standing timber. Timber cruisers were also called land-lookers.
Deacon’s bench: A pine board attached to the ends of the bunks. It ran the full length of the bunkhouse (sleep shanty) and was usually the only seating, other than on the benches at the cook shanty tables.
Deadhead: Make a trip to deliver cargo with no prospect of returning with other cargo.
Donkey engine: A steam engine used to haul full logging sleds up steep hills.
Double Eagle: Twenty-dollar gold coin.
Double sawbucks: Twenty dollar bills.
Double-bit ax: An ax with two cutting surfaces so it will last twice as long between sharpenings.
Dray: Hauling service.
Dressed:, Gutted. Entrails removed. Cleaned.
Flaggins: Dinner carried into the woods for those men who were working too far from camp to eat in the cook shanty.
Four bits: Fifty cents.
Gabreel: A long tin horn often used to call the men in for meals.
Gandy dancers: Slang for railroad construction crews. They earned this name from the repeated, rhythmic stomping on their Gandy brand shovels when tamping crushed rock under railroad ties. This shovel-tamping technique appeared similar to dancing a jig.
Gang saws: Powerful, multi-bladed saws that, in one pass, could cut many boards from a single log.
Gee: A signal used to train horses to turn to the right. Haw turned them left.
Gitchee Manitou: GI-chee MAN-i-too. The Great Spirit.
Graybacks: Body lice. A common problem in the lumber camps.
Grippe: Any of several flu-like illnesses.
Hay burners: Work horses.
Head push: The camp boss.
Iron Belt: The iron-mining region of far northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.
Jam crew: A team of log drivers that specialized in breaking up logjams.
Kerf: The groove cut by the saw.
Lac Courte O’reilles: la-COO-da-RAY. A major Ojibwe village and a lake in northwest Wisconsin. Also an Ojibwe tribe.
Latrine: A pit or ditch used for human waste.
Log drive: Logs were floated down rivers in the spring. Men would drive the logs to the mills downstream much as cowboys drove cattle to market.
Lumber baron: A wealthy, powerful businessman who prospered from the timber industry.
Makade: ma-KAH-day. Black
Makwaa: MUK-wa. Bear.
Menoomin: men-OO-min. literally, good grain. Wild rice was plentiful in many Wisconsin waters before the logging boom altered the lakes and rivers.
Mikwam-migwan: MIK-wam-MIG-wan. Feathers of ice.
Namakagon: nam-eh-KAH-gun. A large lake in northwest Wisconsin and headwaters for the Namekagon River.
Namekagon: nam-eh-KAH-gun. An outstanding northwest Wisconsin river. On early maps, some cartographers spelled the river Namekagon and other map makers spelled the lake Namakagon. These different spellings remain today.
Ogimaa: OH-ga-ma. Chief.
Ojibwe: o-JIB-way. Sometimes spelled Ojibwa. Correctly pronounced with the long a sound. The French fur traders called most Anishinabe people who lived in the western Great Lakes region either Ojibwe or Chippeway.
Pac-wa-wong: pa-QUAY-wong. A rice-rich lake formed by a widening in the river downstream from Cable. An Ojibwe village sat on the west shore until a lumber company dam raised the lake level, killing the rice.
Peavey: A tool used for moving logs. Composed of a stout wooden handle, a C-shaped steel hook and a steel point.
Pemmican: A mix of grains, dried fruit and dried meat. A high-energy food, easy to carry and resistant to spoilage, making it ideal on the trail.
Percherons: Purebred work horses, originally from France.
Picaroon: An ax handle fitted with a short, sharp, steel pick rather than a blade. Used to stab, and then pull or turn logs.
Pinery: The great stand of virgin pines that once stretched from central Wisconsin to Lake Superior, into Minnesota and Michigan. Until 1890 it was, by far, the richest range of white pine on Earth.
Pinkertons: A Chicago detective agency distinguished for investigating and preventing train robberies in the late 1800s.
Rack bar device: A T-handled box containing a magneto that could generate an electrical charge. Used to detonate explosives.
Rail: Railroad worker.
River Pig: Log driver.
Road monkey: A worker who maintained the ice roads, trails and tote roads.
Rut: The deer breeding season when does are in heat and bucks often lack normal caution.
Sand man: The worker assigned to slow down a timber sleigh by throwing sand in the track. Straw was also used.
Sault Ste. Marie: SOO-saint-marie. A settlement and military post on the eastern end of Lake Superior.
Sawyer: A logger who felled trees using a crosscut saw. Also mill workers who ran saws.
Shaving the whiskers: Wisconsin’s pine was often compared to being as thick as whiskers. Clearcutting a forest was compared to shaving the pine whiskers from the landscape.
Shypoke: Slang for a Green Heron.
Sky pilot: Clergyman.
Slats: Lumberjack slang for ribs.
Barrels were made of thin, curved wooden slats that were held together by metal hoops. The rib cage was compared to a wooden barrel by some.
Sleep camp: Another term for bunk house.
Sluice: SLOOSE. A channel built to control which way a log can travel.
Stamp hammer: A hammer used to mark the lumber camp’s name on the end of each log.
Standing part: The free or unattached end of a rope or chain.
Star load: A very large load of the biggest and best pine.
Stove lids: Lumberjack slang for pancakes or flapjacks. Term was inspired by the heavy, circular, iron lids found on old, wood burning cast iron cook stoves.
Swamper: The saw crew member who trimmed branches from downed trees and cut any brush in the way of the sawyers and teamsters.
Top loading: Guiding the logs onto the sleigh while standing on top of the pile. Also called the sky-hooker.
Travois: Trav-OY. A device used to drag heavy items. Usually made from lashing saplings together.
Trestle: TRESS-sil. A large railway bridge
Two-man crosscut: A 5 to 9-foot-long saw blade fitted with a handle on each end. Perfected in the 1870s, it replaced the ax as the primary tool for felling trees. This greatly accelerated the harvest.
Union suit: One-piece underwear. Longjohns.
Waabishki: wa- BEESH-key. White.
Waffled: Refers to scars resulting from being kicked by calked boots during a brawl.
Walkin’ boss: A woods boss who managed several camps at once by walking to each.
Wannigan: WAHN-i-gun. Company store. Also a portable kitchen that was used to prepare food for workers who were too far from camp to return for dinner at midday.
Wenebojo: we-ne-BO-ZHOO. A key spiritual character to many Native Americans, His father was a man. His mother was the west wind. His grandmother the Earth. Wenebojo is often depicted as a half-man, half-spirit, who delights in playing tricks on and confusing people, both to demonstrate his talents and wisdom and to protect all plants and animals. Able to perform miraculous feats, but also vulnerable and capable of making thoughtless errors. He may take the form of animals, rocks and plants. Sometimes called Wenebush. Wenebojo is, to many Native Americans, what Jesus is to many Christians—the worldly manifestation of the great spirit.
Whiffletree: The rear wooden component of a horse team’s rigging that connected the team to the load. and evened out the force of the pull from two horses. Also called an evener.
Widowmaker: A dangerous tree or limb that may injure or kill a logger when it falls.
Woods Boss: Foreman of the crews that worked in the woods.
Yellowjack: Cornbread. Also called johnnycake.