Before steamboats came into service on the lakes, the loggers used a device called a headworks to get rafts of logs across non-flowing bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, and deadwaters. As logs were brought into the lake, they were enclosed in a boom to hold them together. The boom was attached to the headworks, which was a raft with a windlass. The 300 pound boom anchor, which was attached to a long rope, was carried out in a bateau for the full length of the rope and thrown overboard. The bateau was rowed back to the headworks. Four or more men wound up the rope using the windlass, pulling the headworks and boom of logs up to the anchor. This was repeated until the logs were across the lake.
Logs belonging to many men, each with their owner's mark stamped into it, floated down the river and eventually needed to be sorted. As most logs were destined to be sawn into lumber at Old Town, it was logical to sort them just above the town. Each owner had to keep crews and boats out night and day, building fires on the shore to make light in order to see the logs floating by in the darkness. In 1825, The Penobscot Boom Company was formed. They operated three sorting booms above Old Town - Nebraska, Argyle, and Pea Cove. Here, rafts of logs were formed and held until buyers from mills in Old Town, Milford, Stillwater, Orono, Veazie, Bangor, or Hampden looked them over and purchased them.
