The Joggins Raft Company was a corporation formed in 1888 by railroad industrialist to build timber rafts. These rafts were intended to transport large quantities of timber by waterways to markets of large populations.

Background

James Mervyn Donahue, son of businessman Peter Donahue of the

San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad (SF&NP) provided the first extensive standard gauge rail service to Sonoma County and became the southern end of the regional Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Although first conceived of by Asbury Harpen ...

, and John D. Spreckels of the

San Diego and Arizona Railway The San Diego and Arizona Railway was a short line U.S. railroad founded by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels, and dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved. It linked San Diego, ...

formed the Joggins Raft Company when they incorporated it with capital on September 21, 1889. The intent of the company was to build log rafts of eight to twelve million board feet. The size was dependent on the availability of timber at a particular time. These rafts were to be towed by tugs to San Francisco, where the mills will be located to process the logs into lumber. The cost to construction an 8,000,000 board foot raft was estimated at less than $15,000. A freight rate of approximately $2 per 1,000 board feet of timber was an enormous savings over the traditional shipping methods using railways. Benson Lumber Company then could produce finished lumber at a much lower cost than the old conventional lumber companies.

References

{{reflist Logging in the United States History of Oregon History of Southern California