 Huge log rafts were floated down the river from Wisconsin and Minnesota, cut into lumber at Clinton, then shipped to the growing communities via the river and the railroads.Companies owned by the W.J.Young, Chancy Lamb, George M. and Charles F. Curtis (Curtis Bros. & Co), David Joyce, Silas W. Gardiner Lyons, and Friedrich Weyerhäuser families soon became among the largest in the nation.