Noisy Mabel

The Noisy Mabel was a support boat or Wannagan that would move from one logging camp to the next – ready to feed and house the men moving logs in Mabel Lake.  In the early 1900’s, streams, rivers and lakes were the “highway” used to transport logs to the valley sawmills.

Logs could be piled along the river bank by farmers or loggers, ready to be collected into log booms.  Chutes were used in the winter to send the logs onto the ice-covered lake.

Moving logs on water was a common method of log transport until around 1967 when it was no longer permitted.  Protecting the spring salmon fry hatch became more important to the fishing industry than to the logging industry, especially since truck transportation became a more viable option to transport logs.