The Art of the Sluice

The wood and earth dam raised the water level of this lake where spruce logs that were cut during the winter floated. The caretaker of this structure told a journalist from Le Nouvelliste in 1948,

We haven’t sluiced all day (…) but the wind is good and we’ll put out close to 80,000 logs.

Sluicing is a term used in log driving, and it refers to the act of opening the gates of a dam to let water and logs pass through. Although the drivers directed the logs towards the dam opening, the wind also played an important role. When the wind blew the right way, the logs were pushed towards the lake’s outlet.