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Lumberjack World Championships draw competitors from more than a dozen states to northern Wisconsin

By CNN

WI: LUMBERJACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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    Wisconsin (WCCO) — For 66 years, the Lumberjack World Championships have brought the world’s best to Hayward, Wisconsin.

The skills that helped shape this region have become a test of strength, speed, and balance.

More than 100 competitors from around the world are here this week, chasing world titles in chopping, sawing, speed climbing, log rolling and the boom run.

Organizers say it’s a connection of the past and present.

“We have everything here. We’ve got the full complement of events, secondly is the history. This actually was an old holding pond for the sawmill back in the 1800s,” said Samantha LaSalle, event director for the Lumberjack World Championships.

For her husband, Adam LaSalle, who grew up in central New York, that history connects him to his family’s logging business.

“The athletics side of it, with the natural resources side of it. I grew up in a rural area with a family logging business and grew up cutting trees. That’s something that I thoroughly enjoy,” said LaSalle, who has been a professional lumberjack for over 20 years.

Others grew up just down the road.

Deven Blair from the town of Winter, Wisconsin, still chases speed climbing records.

While Connor Birdsong has spent years mastering the delicate balance of log rolling and the controlled chaos of the boom run.

“Your head, your feet, your core, everything needs to be involved to really be successful at it,” said Birdsong, a professional log roller and boom runner.

For six-time Boom Run World Champion Meredith Ingbretson, who was born and raised in Hayward, it’s simply home.

“It’s just a part of my heart and so being able to share what our community in town can offer people from across the world, it’s just really special,” said Ingbretson.

That sense of community is felt by the competitors representing 16 states and nine countries.

“Everybody supports everybody. Win or lose, we’re all happy. We all love what we do,” said Deven Blair, a professional lumberjack.

For generations, these waters have been part of a Northwoods tradition. These athletes know how to navigate them.

The party starts with comedian Charlie Berens performing Wednesday night.

The festival and competition begin on Thursday with finals on Saturday.

You’ll find more information and tickets at: lumberjackworldchampionships.com

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Book excerpt: Modesty on the line in ‘The Summer of Death’

Pegasus We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. In 1936, America suffered a devasting heat wave that resulted in five thousand deaths. But not all civic responses to the health emergency were reasonable. In "The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America" (published by Pegasus Books), author Geoff Williams recounts the actions taken in one Kentucky city with regard to the heat – namely, setting out to arrest women whose warm-weather attire was considered too revealing. Read the excerpt below, and don't miss Mo Rocca's interview with Geoff Williams on "CBS Sunday Morning" August 16! Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.KentuckyA group of guys patrolled the streets, seeking teenage girls and women dressed in shorts and halter tops on the streets of Covington. These men weren't being creeps per se. A woman police officer named Elizabeth Cohran requested that her colleagues keep an eye out for any girls or women wearing any clothing that was deemed too revealing.Miss Cohran was a product of her time, and the girls she was trying to look out for were a product of theirs. Cohran was a rarity in 1936 — a female police officer, known then as a police matron. The unmarried former nurse handled situations that the city government believed needed a woman's delicate touch. For instance, if the authorities were looking for a teenage runaway girl, Cohran would get involved. If a young woman was pregnant and needed to find a home for her baby, Cohran was on the job. If a woman was the victim of abuse, you'd call Miss Cohran.She did a lot of good in Covington, but this summer, she arguably went too far. She wanted any girl over the age of ten cited for indecent exposure if they were caught outside wearing scanty outfits, such as shorts."The heat of the past few days has brought them out," Cohran told a reporter. "Now, I think the shorts and halters are perfectly lovely in the right place. The streets, however, are no place for them."She had been on a crusade against hot-weather garments since late the previous year. Not everyone in the area agreed with how Cohran saw things."I don't think that under the law, shorts and halters would be defined as contributing to indecent exposure. They seem to have become an accepted custom," said John Ames, acting secretary director of Cincinnati, in an interview.Still, Cohran may have had a point, if you look at it from the viewpoint of a woman born in 1891. Maybe she encountered a lot of male deviants who couldn't handle women wearing skimpy clothing. Cohran was living in an age in which masculinity and youth were prized (she shaved four years from her age when she applied to the police force). She probably believed she was saving young women from predators by ensuring they were well clothed.Excerpted from "The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern Day America" by Geoff Williams. Published by Pegasus Books, June 2026. Reprinted by permission. Get the book here:"The Summer of Death" by Geoff WilliamsBuy locally from Bookshop.org For more info:"The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America" by Geoff Williams (Pegasus Books), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats
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