Logrolling is a uniquely American sport with a colorful history. It started as a necessity, a job. In the 1800s wood was a very important resource in early America, most buildings and cities were made almost entirely of wood. Lumberjacks would harvest the trees and then transport them by floating them down rivers toward sawmills. However, there were so many logs on the rivers that they would jam and clog the river. The logs had to be unjammed, but it was very dangerous work, the most dangerous in the camp.
The men hired to do this dangerous work were called river drivers. They would keep the logs moving down the river and unjam the logs. Because the work was so dangerous they were very skilled and respected. These men are the ones who created the sport of logrolling. Being able to stand and move across the slippery logs was an important skill, so they would often challenge each other to see who could stay on top of a log the longest. He was then named the best river driver in the camp. They then kept the sport alive even after logging lost popularity by passing the skills on to their children.
• Until 1985, people competed with spiked shoes for traction
• Original river drivers also used spiked shoes and long spiked poles
• Now people compete in tennis shoes on smooth logs
• Two athletes stand on each side of the log that is floating in water
• There are two goals in the competition: to stay on and to make your opponent fall
• They do this by springing and kicking the log
• The last person standing on the log wins
• It takes a lot of balance
• There are four different sizes for logs used for competition, they are color coded
• The sizes are based on diameter and are 15 inches, 14 inches, 13 inches and 12 inches
• The U. S. Logrolling Association is the national governing body of the sport
• The smooth logs are usually placed in lakes or ponds
Logrolling is just one sport that evolved out of the American Lumberjack tradition. There is an entire group of sports called Timber Sports or Lumberjack Sports. These sports mimic the many jobs in the lumberjack camps. Other sports include sawing and chopping wood, ax throwing and pole climbing.
