The St. Croix River has a long and storied history. From Native Americans who lived and traveled on the river, to the trappers and traders passing through, and the loggers and settlers that followed. As lumbermen discovered more of this area of Wisconsin for their sawmills, the river soon became the main transportation for the hewn timber. As more and more logging companies used the river, it soon became a hazard for boats on the river and for lumber companies in Stillwater to verify the millions of feet of logs that were floated downriver.
This also became a regular scene for some amazing log jams. These jams would not only stop the work at the sawmills, but they would endanger the lives of the loggers on the river and oftentimes would halt river traffic completely. Massive log jams sealed off the river in , , , and causing not only headaches but also, more importantly to the lumbermen, a loss of profit. It was finally decided that the river needed a dam to regulate the flow of logs and the level of water on the river.
The Nevers Dam, rumored to be the largest pile-driven dam in the world at one time, was built in and was used to control the large flow of logs that came down the St. Croix River from the logging camps up north down to the sawmills in Stillwater. It was used heavily for only a short period of time, until , but was not demolished until after spring floodwaters severely damaged its integrity. The dam structure had previously withstood a foot crest of the river in , which was an all-time high.
There were an average of 30 people working at the dam during the logging heyday. This includes workers who blasted ice flows apart in winter, worked at the sawmill, sluiced the logs through and downriver, and, of course, the cooks.
Nevers Dam also held some unique features, including an electric light or rather a generator powered carbon light system installed in , which allowed work to continue around the clock.
