Lumber Crew Building Lake Rafts

At the edge of a pine-ringed lake, a lumber crew ties together a raft of freshly cut logs. Axes and wooden mallets lie scattered across the sandy bank, coiled rope waits beside stacked timber, and two tall masts strung with triangular pennants rise from the half-finished deck. Workers in checked plaid shirts kneel to knot lines, haul planks into place, and steady the rigging against the pull of the current. Out on the bright water a second raft, already afloat, carries its own crew toward the far shore, passing rowboats drifting near the reeds. Dense spruce and pine crowd the shoreline beneath a sky streaked with clouds, and wildflowers dot the sand among curls of wood shavings. The scattered tools and half-tied knots leave each raft's construction easy to trace, plank by plank, log by log.