Courtesy photo Anthony Polentini, left, and Tanner Hallett, right, battle on the log during the 2021 men’s final of the US Log Rolling Open at Van Cleve Park in Gladstone. The log rolling competition is set to return to Gladstone for the fourth consecutive year as part of the city’s 4th of July celebration, with top competitors from across the country traveling to compete.

GLADSTONE — The city of Gladstone will be welcoming back the US Log Rolling Open for the fourth consecutive year as part of the city’s annual 4th of July celebration. Founded in June of 2016, the US Log Rolling Open moved to Gladstone in 2018 due to the sport’s history in the area. Located in the lagoon at the heart of Van Cleve Park, the event will host the top professional competitors of the sport as they compete in a series of match-ups to determine the best of the male and female athletes.

“For me, log rolling means everything. I started log rolling when I was a child and I just fell in love,” Katie Burke, founder of the US Log Rolling Open and co-director of the event, said. “I think of it as a great way to be outside, be active, and be involved. There is also a great community within the world of log rolling.”

When the US Log Rolling Open came to Gladstone in 2018, it was the first time the area had seen log rolling activity in nearly 20 years. The last large competition in the city was the World Logrolling and Great Lakes Lumberjack Championships in 1999. However, the sport has a generations-long history within the Upper Peninsula, influenced by both local industries and Yooper culture in it’s creation.

The sport of log rolling originated in sawmill towns across the American Midwest in the late 1800s. With lumber being the dominant industry of the time, quick transportation of timber was needed to build homes and other products throughout the United States. Because timber was being harvested in remote areas with limited access by vehicle, lumber companies transported their logs by the river systems that ran through the area.

While rivers proved to be a valuable method of transportation, they were susceptible to frequent log jams. To prevent this, groups of men were hired to walk atop the logs and unclog them. This process proved itself to be dangerous, the logs tossing men into the water as soon as they were stepped on. To maintain balance on the logs, the working men learned how to roll the logs in their favor. This process soon turned into a competition amongst the workers to see who could stay above water the longest. The rest is history.

It made sense for “birlers,” or log rollers, to gather in Gladstone and show off their athletic abilities. Gladstone was a prominent sawmill town in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with lumberers flocking to the area for its dense population of pine trees. While log rollers could be seen in the old harbor, lagoon, and along the Gladstone shores throughout these years, the city did not hold it’s first Log Rolling World Championship until 1941, four years after Escanaba had first ­hosted the event.

Gladstone went on to host the Log Rolling World Championship seven times between 1941 and 1952, with thousands of spectators lined along the harbor for the annual three-day event. Alongside log rolling, several logging sports took place at the World Championships as well. These competitions included pole climbing, a race to see who could climb a 60 ft. western red cedar pole the fastest, and “single buck,” where sawyers would compete to see how quickly they could cut a 24-inch log with a hand saw.

Plenty of log rolling records and iconic athletes were established in Gladstone during these years. The championship match of the 1942 World Log Rolling Championship set a record as one of the longest birling matches of all time, lasting nearly 50 minutes over the course of two days. 15,000 spectators gathered around the Gladstone Harbor to watch Jimmie Running of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Walter Swanson of Kodiak, Alaska, duke it out for 39 minutes on the log before organizers postponed the match due to visibility. The match continued the following morning, where Running secured the title after 10 minutes of balancing on the log.

The Upper Peninsula is home to several legendary figures in the realm of log rolling, including Escanaba native Dan McDonough. McDonough, who co-directs the US Log Rolling Open, is a nine time log rolling champion. Other talented log rollers from the area include Mary Jean Malott, who won her first of five straight World Titles in 1938, and Fred Sayklly, 1981 men’s champion. Birlers who won the World Championship were considered the “King and Queen of the White Waters.”

William “Billy” Girard of Gladstone was the 1926 World Champion of log rolling, and he helped train the up-and-coming log rollers that would define the later eras of the sport in the U.P. In fact, Girard helped usher in the series of professional logging events that dominated Gladstone waters throughout the 1980s and 90s, including the Log Rolling World Championship in 1999.

Girard and his three sons, Edward, Adolph, and Lowell, would do much more than face-off in the traditional log rolling fashion. The family performed several tricks and fancy moves, from swinging hoops between their legs to doing headstands on a chair, all while being propped on a water-borne log. Girard was a favorite for many fans of the “Roleo,” a term for rodeo on logs. In honoring Girard’s impact on the sport, the 1999 Men’s Log Rolling World Championship trophy was named after him.

Modern log rolling follows a bracket-style tournament of matches in which athletes use a number of strategies when competing to knock their opponent into the water. One strategy is switching the direction that the log is rolling, oftentimes rather quickly, in an attempt to catch an opponent off guard. Log rolling matches are played to the best of five.

“Strategy all depends on who you are playing against,” Burke said. “No matter what, you are continuously trying to knock your opponent off of the log”

The 2022 US Log Rolling Open is a Level 2 United States Log Rolling Association tournament on spike logs. The competition is set to start at 12:30 p.m. directly following the 4th of July parade in Gladstone. The men and women matches will alternate until the final two competitors from each group are left. The top three seeds from both the men and women side of the sport will be competing on the 4th. The Open is organized by Jack Pine Lumberjack Shows & KRICK, LLC.

“The US Log Rolling Open is part of our tournament series as competitors, and it will be the first Level 2 tournament of the year,” Burke said. “This event will be a good indicator in terms of national ranking as we move into July, which is a big month for log rolling.”