Goodbye, Stillwater Log Jam; hello, Lumberjack Days (again)

Lumberjack Days is returning to Stillwater, but it won't be the big regional celebration that people remember.

The City Council's decision to approve licensing of the name puts to rest four years of uncertainty over who actually owned it, and restores what city leaders say is the name most associated with Stillwater's logging heritage.

"Now we've got the name, we've got the history, it's perfect," Mayor Ted Kozlowski said Wednesday.

Tuesday's 5-0 vote means that the city's newest summer festival, Stillwater Log Jam, is now renamed Lumberjack Days. A nonprofit group, The Locals, started the smaller, community-oriented Log Jam in 2014 and held a second festival in July of this year. The three-year contract with the city includes a third festival in 2016.

Until it ended in 2011, Lumberjack Days under promoter David Eckberg was known for large and often boisterous regional festivals, attracting tens of thousands of people to downtown Stillwater. Eckberg's signature event for each festival was a free concert by a major yesteryear rock band such as Chicago, the Grass Roots, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Three Dog Night, and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Next year's festival under the Lumberjack Days name will continue in the tradition intended when it started in 1934, Kozlowski said, meaning no more rowdy celebrations. "Nobody has any taste for that," he said.

The rights to the name were pried loose from Eckberg when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion this spring. In the plea agreement arranged by the Washington County Attorney's office, he surrendered the name to the city.

"It's really on us to educate people," he said Wednesday of perceptions that returning to Lumberjack Days means returning to a regional celebration. "Be prepared for a good time, but understand that this is a more community-focused, family-friendly event."

The city struggled to put the turmoil of 2011 to rest. That was the last year of Lumberjack Days under Eckberg's guidance, and a disastrous one. Many people complained to police that Eckberg didn't pay his bills, while Eckberg countered that stormy weather and the recession diminished attendance and slashed into profits.

The City Council, tired of the controversy and uncertain what residents wanted in a festival, declared a moratorium for two years before giving The Locals a green light.

Before his conviction for tax evasion, Eckberg pleaded guilty in 2014 for issuing tens of thousands of dollars in worthless checks after his final Lumberjack Days.