05/29/2026
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By the early 1900s, the Payette wasn't carrying rafters — it was carrying logs.
In 1902, the Payette Lumber & Manufacturing Company picked up 33,000 acres of timber up in Long Valley and built a massive splash dam below Smith's Ferry. Twice a year, they'd open the gates and send millions of board feet of Ponderosa pine roaring downriver to the mills in Payette. Wild to think the same water we're paddling today used to be choked with logs headed for railroad ties and lumber yards across the West.
The river has stories. We just borrow it for a few hours at a time.