birling, outdoor sport of the North American lumberjack. Its origin can be traced to the spring log drives of eastern Canada and the New England states, particularly the state of Maine, during the early lumbering era in the 19th century, from which it moved westward to the Great Lakes region and then to the Pacific Northwest.
On the spring drives, when the logs were floated downriver to sawmills, the lumberjacks were required to travel downriver to manage the moving carpet of logs. From their daily work of leaping from log to log, prying and pulling to keep the logs moving and to prevent jams at bends in the river, on sandbars, rocky narrows, windfalls, and deadheads, the sport of birling developed. It consisted of hopping with an opponent on a log, spinning it rapidly in the water with the feet, stopping (“snubbing”) it suddenly, reversing its motion, and in various ways trying to maneuver an adversary off balance and into the water. Dislodging an opponent constituted a fall; two falls out of three constituted a match.
Birling rules became standardized, and camp championship contests were held, followed by intercamp and eventually intersectional contests, finally culminating in national championship tournaments, called rodeos. The contests were usually held after the logs had reached their destination. Birling contestants wore their work clothes—shortened overalls or jeans, woolen shirts, and high-topped calked boots. The first public birling match was sponsored in 1888. The first world’s championship tournament was held in 1898 at the Omaha, Neb., exposition. Competition declined in the 20th century, but exhibitions were held at riverside fairs.