Logging has been a part of the Crystal Falls area from the beginning of the settlement. The Paint, Net, Fence, Brule, Deer, Hemlock, and Michigamme Rivers served as highways to transport the logs out of the woods to sawmill landings.  The logs were moved to the rivers from the wood lands by horse drawn sleighs in the early 1900’s.

The above picture is of an early sawmill once located on the north bank of the Paint River just across from the site of the present day power plant.  The logs were "driven" down the river to the sawmill by  "log sailors" who repeatedly risked their lives to move the product to the sawmills.

Today, modern machinery has made the practice of logging much more efficient and safe. The City of Crystal Falls experiences daily the transport of many tons of trees over the main highways that cut through the town as logging trucks, many with trailers behind, haul their product for processing to paper and sawmills in nearby towns.