Tie Drives

Green River tie drivers after another successful annual run.

 Believe it or not, The Green River was once totally choked each spring with tens of thousands of "ties".  Yep, railroad ties! Ties drives were a huge Big Deal not only on The Green but also The Wind River and all of the Utah streams than drained out of forested land.  However, The Green's tie drive were arguable The Biggest and The Best of them all.

The quoted text below is from the last page of a "Self-Guided Tour of Historic Green River". (NOTE: Note publication date, author's credit or any other pertinent info is given in the publication. We found the publication on our most recent trip through Green River 20 years ago.)


"The remains of the tie booms in the middle of the river and the remains of the tie dock can be seen in the north bank of the river downstream from the Wyoming Highway bridge in Green River. The drives were an annual affair each spring from 1868 until 1941. The ties were needed to build and maintain the railroad. Ties were cut on the headwaters of the Green River. Each spring, they would float down the river with the high water run off, and were corralled in the river at the town of Green River. They were taken out of the river, loaded on flat cars, and shipped for treatment. The water- soaked ties were too hard to treat when they were wet. This ended the tie drives, and they were hauled by truck.

The tie drives were a big event, having 75 tie-hacks, driving 300,000 ties little over a hundred miles in 50 days. The pay was $5 per day per man. The drive involved five boats: a lead crew boat, a cook boat, a supply boat, a bed boat, and a rear crew boat. The lead boat cribbed sloughs and headgates to keep ties from jamming and getting sidetracked. The lead boat also set up camp for the night. The rear boat took cribbing down and picked up men working the shore lines. The men worked a 10-hour day.

Residents from the towns met the tie drives along the river to eat dinner with the boys. The local bar owners would meet the drives in the evening with kegs of whiskey and beer. When the drives got to Big Island, about 20 miles up stream from Green River, the local bar owners and the local "fallen doves" would meet the boys with beer and liquor and all had supper with the crew. One lady called "Sweetwater Martha" had a bar west of Green River, near the river. All the men liked her because she was a nice woman and treated the boys well. The "boys" usually spent all their wages before leaving the town of Green River." For a great 48-minute video about Wyoming tie hacks and tie drives see:

https://youtu.be/JkjXqmmaP-U?feature=shared





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