ALMADÍAS IN EZCAROZ

The history of the almadieros is also an abbreviated memory of a good part of Navarra: the one that relates the Pyrenean towns with those of the south and all the intermediate banks through the rivers that descend from the Pyrenees to the Ebro through the Salazar, Irati, Esca and Aragón. The history of the rafts is a story of survival economy in harsh conditions and is also the memory of the bridges, locks and ports that were built in their path, of the efforts to make the rivers navigable. Almadieros and canyoners were part of the landscape and culture of this land until the mid-20th century. Being an almadiero was a way of life based on risk that gave loggers a way of life full of danger and little money: the rapids and eddies of the river, the dams and mills, the bridges and gorges, the risk of falling into the water under the raft without the possibility of coming to the surface...
The forest wealth of the Aragonese valleys of Hecho and Ansó and the Navarrese valleys of Salazar, Aezkoa and Roncal was highly appreciated for the construction of ships of the Royal Navy or for works such as the Imperial Canal, the Citadel of Pamplona or the royal palaces of Olite and Tafalla, and the river was the only means of transportation for the wood from these forests.
The rafts were articulated into several sections, generally four to six, which were joined with macerated hazel branches called “vergas”. “Twelves, thirteens and fourteens” were some of the lengths that were used to measure the logs.
The almadiera season was limited by the water level. In the Salazar Valley it began in the first days of December and ended at the end of May, when the “Mayenca” waters of the thaw began to reduce their flow. During the summer, the work was in the forest: cutting and hauling the wood to the yard. With the autumn advanced, once the raft was built and with sufficient flow to water the boat, the river marked the route to follow. Once this was finished, the rafters began their return walking towards the valley in search of a new raft. Meanwhile, women stayed in the towns in charge of the domestic economy: the family, the house, the animals and the garden.
The Salazar River rises in Ochagavía from the union of the Anduña and Zatoya rivers. On its route it crosses from north to south the Salazar Valley, the Almiradío de Navascués and a part of the Romanzado, to flow into the Irati river next to Lumbier. In order to navigate with the rafts, several dams were built with their corresponding “lisadero” -as is the case of Ezcároz, still visible today-, in which the almadieros showed their expertise with the oars.
The Ezcároz dam disappeared in 1907 due to a large flood, so it had to be rebuilt as it is today. Salacenco sailors also had to face the dangers of the spectacular Arbaiun gorge, close to Lumbier, which required permanent cleaning work to make it navigable and which led the almadieros to group together in the XNUMXth century in the so-called Society of Almadieros. to keep the Salazar River bed in good navigation condition. The almadieros used a peculiar accounting system in the sale of logs, using lines in the form of squares. And their clothing was typical of the valley's work: sandals to cover their feet and a back protector made of goatskin over their shoulders to protect them from the cold and rain.
The rafts made this journey for several centuries until approximately 1951, when trucks put an end to this dangerous trade. In those last years, the business figure of Eustaquio Udi stood out in Ezcároz, whose forestry activity generated important almadiero traffic. Félix Iribarren, Carmelo Aznárez, Victorio Iribarren, Roberto Barberena and Esteban Udi are, among others, some of the last almadieros that existed in Ezcároz