Once the shanty site was established, the lumber crew, which consisted of two gangs, one as the timber makers, the other as the sawlog makers, went out to cut timber. The timber makers would go ahead of the sawlog makers and select and cut down trees suitable for square timber. The sawlog makers would follow up behind the timber makers and chop down trees and cut off their tops, and saw the trees into twelve to sixteen foot sections. One tree on average made four logs. These logs were stacked into piles and during winter, they were transported by sled drawn by horses or oxen to frozen rivers or lakes and stacked upon the ice. When spring came and thawed the ice on the rivers or lakes, the logs were let loose to float down the rivers or lakes. Most often than not, the logs would end up in a log jam and a lumber crew would have to get in there and un-jam the logs so that the logs may continue the journey to the lumber mills.

Sometimes when a rail line is near by, The logs are transported alongside the railroad tracks and loaded onto flatbed cars to be taken to a big river or lake. When these were not available, the logs were taken directly to the lumber mills. When the terrain was very rough and difficult to transport the logs overland, the logs were transported by a very long chute.

A chute was built by a crew of loggers and chute makers. They would build the chute by a river or lake, and ran the chute over the rough terrain and ended up in a big river or lake. During the building of the chute, the loggers and chute makers had to live in tents. It was also very difficult to get supplies to the chute makers because the rough terrain was inaccessible for supply wagons to reach them. It was difficult and hard work building this chute over the rough terrain. The loggers and chute makers had to make the best out of a bad situation. When the logs had reached a very large lake, they were gathered together in a log boom.

Before the age of steam, square timbers and logs were made into large rafts, with a tent and mast installed. The raft crew would live on and sail the raft down the river or large lake to its final destination, the lumber mills.

With the comming of steam power, log booms were towed, mostly by alligator steamboats. These steamboats were called alligators because of their flat bottomed, low draft structures that enabled these boats to steam in shallow lakes and rivers. These boats were also used to retrieve lost logs which got stranded along the shoreline. The log booms were towed to a lumber mill which were located by a large river or lake. The men working at the lumber mill would move the logs from the log boom, to the jack-ladder where the logs are drawn into the mill by a conveyor apparatus where the logs are cut into lumber.