![]() The pine forests were exhausted.Īt the dawn of the 20th century there were likely more than 20,000 people working in Minnesota's logging industry, according to a 1999 article by Stacy Mitchell in Minnesota History magazine. About 2 billion board-feet were harvested annually, a number the Minnesota Historical Society compared to circling the Earth with a 1-inch thick, 14-foot wide boardwalk.īut the industry slowed from there. The state's white pine was in high demand in cities like Chicago and St. The lumber business hit its apex in Minnesota around 1905. Logging shifted to northern Minnesota in the 1880s with the help of commercial trains, steam power and improved cutting technology. When the early camps had depleted resources, places like Brainerd, Cloquet, Duluth and International Falls were still thickly forested. Lumberjacks posed for a photograph alongside wanigans floating on the Mississippi River in the 1880s. It could be highly functional - or create deadly chaos. Ruts were cut for the runners, then watered down to create an icy path. Trees were cut in the winter, when icy roads made it easier for horses to lug 20-ton sleighs. Their legacy looms large in American folklore: Lake Superior, as everyone knows, was born of Bunyan's boot print. Enter Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, two larger-than-life characters that have become symbols of Northern Minnesota. And as they moved from camp to camp their lore grew. They earned a reputation over time as hardy and rugged men whose feats of strength and agility defied the common man. They didn't make much money, but they didn't spend much while doing the seasonal work. Lumberjacks lived in hastily made, tightly packed shanties where they slept two to a bed and were prone to pass bedbugs and lice. The early mills were on these same waterways - which served as highways for teeming piles of white pine.Ī sawmill on the Mississippi River across from downtown Minneapolis in the 1860s or 1870s processed logs that are floating in the water. When trees were exhausted, the camps moved on. Croix River, then in the Mississippi River Valley. Lumberjacks first set up logging camps along the St. The pine forests ceded in these treaties, including the "White Pine Treaty" of 1837, helped fuel the industry's growth in the mid-19th century. The lumber industry was heavily involved in treaties that took land from Native Americans living in the area, according to Why Treaties Matter, a publicly funded exhibit on Ojibwe and Dakota treaties. The first commercial mill was built at Marine-on-St. government built the state's first sawmill at the convergence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers in 1821. "The logs for the cabin, the shakes for the roof, and the puncheons for the floor all came from the white pine." "It furnished the early settlers with shelter," she wrote. Larson, in her 1949 history of the state's pine industry. No other wood had so many desirable qualities, wrote St. The pine was cheap, versatile, strong and easy to cut. PODCAST Listen: Why did Scandinavian immigrants choose Minnesota? The Curious Minnesota podcast discusses the reasons that Norwegian and Swedish immigrants left their home countries for Minnesota starting in the mid-1800s. one of the grandest sights I ever looked upon was in view, a veritable ocean of pine," said Richard Louis Griffin, whose recollection of the North Woods in the 1890s is highlighted in a Minnesota Historical Society online history of logging in the state. ![]() "As I stood upon the brow of Embarrass Hill. The state's abundance of white pine trees in the 19th century made for an unforgettable sight. The logging industry continues here, but without the tree that started it. Most of the business shifted to the Pacific Northwest. Minnesota's forests are now comprised of aspen, oak and various hardwoods. Nearly all of the state's white pine was harvested. Minnesota's logging industry peaked in 1905. Cities were cropping up, construction was on the rise, and by the mid-1800s Minnesota had a thriving logging industry.īut resources weren't as infinite as they first appeared. ![]() Minnesota's abundance of trees in the early 1800s was a jackpot for the lumber-minded folks who saw the potential in this seemingly endless supply of white pines. Croix River at Taylors Falls in the 1920s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |