Michael J. Dunn, III. For the purpose of clarity and consistency going forward, the Weyerhaeuser entity controlling the Rest Lake dam properties will be cited as Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company to align with nearly all modern historic accounts. (42) A Dingle took about 2 weeks to build and could house dozens of lumbermen mostly during winter and spring. Pioneers would then need to legally establish squatters rights under the Preemption Act from 1841-1891. Sometimes railroad spurs (both narrow and standard gauge) were built by mills in addition to the railroads; so owners of numerous rail lines could charge loggers for a single job. Visiting groups can choose from a wide variety of environmental, outdoor education and recreation programs and activities. Sometimes nuclear families operated logging camps with a few hired loggers creating some exemplary logging communities. Lisas uncle Cal LaPorte claimed that the LaPorte family led the last river drive of white pines in the early 1900s. Retrieved 2-3-18. Wisconsin. During that time, it's open 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday. My grandparent,s met in a logging camp .grandma was a cook. Eagle River Historical Society Museum. Launch ExpertGPS, click Open on the File menu, and select the GPX file you just saved to your computer's hard drive. State Board of Forestry /Report of the state forester of Wisconsin for 1911 and 1912. During the earliest Vilas County logging operations, long log drives from Eagle River to Stevens Point on the Wisconsin River, were matched by longer log drives from Manitowish Waters to Eau Claire on the Flambeau/Chippewa River system. Below, Michael Dunn provides an excellent overview of seasonal logging practices supporting Manitowish Waters phase 1 white pine river drive logging: The Chippewa Lumber and Boom Co. opened the logging age here. During Phase 2 railroad logging Manitowish Waters transition to a secondary logging area, and was only accessed by tertiary rail routes and logging spurs. With all of their power, in 1874 Ezra Cornell and Henry Putnam continued to struggle with timber stealing both in the forest and in court proceedings, because judiciaries were sympathetic to locals over out of state speculators. At the Rest Lake Dam there is, I have a series of pictures here that show the Rest Lake Dam. 13 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/maps/id/19986/rec/1. Boulder Junction The Early Years: 1880 to 1950. 44 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. Historic logging expert Paul Brenner also shares phase 1 river drive logging analysis, with specific insights regarding the stamping, driving and scaling of white pines for market. The Wisconsin Central or Soo Line railroad grant most impacted Manitowish Waters. State Board of Forestry /Report of the state forester of Wisconsin for 1911 and 1912. Robert Connor Lumber Company, Auburndale. Wisconsin trees were made into doors, window sashes, furniture, beams and shipping boxes. Forest and Stream. An authentic replica of an 1890's logging camp. (7) Typically 2 trees were marked for each corner sections; the specific species and location of each tree was recorded precisely in field notebooks. .P. Rosholt writes: Each teamstercurried his own horses, fed and watered them. Wisconsin's furniture, paper and leather industries required more lumber as they grew. Koller Library. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Emerson Camp Loggers Logging Wisconsin Postcard Circa 1890's at the best online prices at eBay! The loggers built a series of dams to raise the water up considerably and they had one at Rest Lake which is where Manitowish Waters is now. This particular picture shows a man that was both scaling the log which means that he was measuring the board feet that were in the log and at his toe you can see a small hammer. These timber abuses did not go unnoticed by anxious land agents, speculators, logging interests, universities and out-of-state (absentee) capitalist. (4) By 1854, treaties had thoroughly divided northern Wisconsin into tribal reservations and government lands, all of which were to be surveyed by the mid 1860s into numerous, mostly unpopulated townships. Retrieved 1-26-2018. The lumber industry had previously relied on pine trees and spared hardwoods. Eventually the VCLCo was one of the largest Sawmills in Wisconsin at the time, with a: double band saw with a capacity of 80,000 board feet - a Planning Mill - a Shingle Mill - a Lathe Mill - and a large Engine House that generated. The notion that the 1862 Homestead Act empowered ordinary Northwoods citizens to fairly benefit from 19th century government land policy was laughable. Thiswas almost a sacred rite because the teamster tookpride in the appearance of his horses, argued aboutthem, and lied about how smart they were. Wisconsin Reports 164/Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin 1916-1917. Filter our offerings by your group type to help you pick your schedule. More specifics regarding logging communities, mills, practices, technologies and traditions need to be explored, utilizing the thorough document by historians Paul Brenner, Michael Dunn and Malcolm Rosholt. Contextualizing, Manitowish Waters historian Michael Dunns respectful insights regarding the popularity of area lumberjack taverns: the great logging days, a swashbuckling era during which you might have seen stuck into the ground in front of a tavern the pike-poles or canthooks of a hundred or more lumberjacks drinking inside.(51), Arguably, lumberjack violence, surliness and unrest may have a variety of root causes: 1) many logging camps were organized in company towns paying wages in company currency or tokens which could, Vilas County and Yawkee-Bissell Lumber Companies were area logging operations that paid employees with company "currency"Creator: Malcolm Rosholt Publisher: Rosholt House 1980 Submitter: McMillan Memorial Library OCLC number: 06829658. only be used under the monopoly of the logging camp. P. 12. By the 1850s, emerging logging operations in the Chippewa Valley followed logging practices from New England and sent timber cruisers to Manitowish Waters. As the logs moved downstream, log driving crews shepherded them to prevent jams and to get stray logs back into the flow. The logging industry has always relied on Wisconsin's network of rivers to move the logs from the remote forest locations to cities for milling and distribution. Page 164. In 1903 the Milwaukee Road constructed a line between Star Lake and Boulder Junction to serve land in the Boulder Junction area owned by CL&B. The cases above were not universal, and some camps were fair, clean, more or less moral and shared profits with workers. Page 603-604. As the keen air and exercise of walking (which latter in his case was violent) began to eliminate some of the effect of the awful liquor he had been drinking, he became first apologetic, then explanatory, then talkative, and finally belligerent. Wisconsin lumber was used to construct buildings and houses for the Midwest's growing cities. Large corporations began investing in the virgin forests of the Pacific Northwest in the 20th century. Understandably, the Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company wished to gain access to the Manitowish Waters Chain, build a hoist on Rest Lake, to access the former Weyerhaeuser land they purchased. In the spring, they drove their timber downstream to more than 1,000 mills. Looking toward the dam while seated at the Pea Patch, imagine the experiences of 1890 tourists at a river drive lumber camp. . Share. Learn about the industry that put Northern Wisconsin on the map and helped build America. James P. Kaysen. For more information, call (715) 674-3414. Possibly by 1888, and certainly 1892 the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company could hold back 16 feet or more of spring runoff to drive logs. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Rosholt, Malcolm. Again I don't know where it was. Menominee men stayed in lumber camps all winter cutting timber and hauling it by sleigh to the riverbank. Koller Library. About Robert F. Knapp (1913-1994) Robert F. Knapp was born Wausaukee, Wisconsin, in 1913, and moved with his family to the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s. This he said with an air of deepest conviction and I could only admit that he being a resident of the country, must be better acquainted with its condition and requirements than myself.(49). p. 133. Dinner (that is, lunch) was served in the forest while the men were working. Page 162. Retrieved 2-4-2018. Michael Dunn provides precise insights regarding phase 2 rail and water transport to rail hoists on the Manitowish Waters chain: Hardwood logs were partially dried to ensure their staying afloat until another little lake boat, like the gasoline poweredSkiddoo, could raft them to the two landings for loading on railroad cars. The soft pine forests of northern and central Wisconsin provided a seemingly endless supply of raw material to urban markets. 18-19. Next to the outlet of the Trout River on Alder Lake for 2 generations the Loveless family will support area logging and consumers by milling local lumber. Retrieved 2-5-18. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. (70) Early, plat maps reveal multiple logging companies using the same spur lines in the Manitowish Waters area around Rest Lake. There are many nationalities, and the feuds between the different clans always break out at the bar where the red-eye moveth itself all right. Some of the earliest properties on the chain still have operating fire bells. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. From 1911 to 1922, Manitowish Waters had a full time specially trained forest ranger, who completed a rigorous 2 year curriculum. Michael Dunns notes on lumber company complexes and distinctive equipment. State Forest Reserves. The museum was established in 1969. Some were in the employment of a lumber or land company; others were independent business men who sold their information to the highest bidder. The OCHS also helps administer the Copper Culture State Park, and the Holt & Balcom Logging Camp, and gives tours of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Since 1934 the Wisconsin Logging Museum has invited visitors to step back in time to experience an age when Wisconsin Pine was filling out rivers and supplying a growing nation. The camp was built using the classic Dingle design from the logging traditions of Maine. (1) Undoubtedly, the different phases of logging in the Manitowish Waters area dramatically defined community development at the turn of the 20th century. Retrieved 1-26-2018. resort on the northwest shore of Alder Lake, by both water and roads his family created a small but well-engineered system. (22) Importantly land grants from the Wisconsin Central reached the western border of Manitowish Waters, suggesting early railroad influence. Importantly, Cornell University was able to acquire 500,000 acres of land in the Chippewa Valley to sell for agricultural education in New York. 1943. Leahy was a veteran of the 35th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. The final river drives were concluded in 1904, as the Milwaukee Road spur reached the northern part of the Manitowish chain in 1905, joining the unique Little Star Lake spur built for the Flambeau Lumber Company which had begun logging operations in 1900. Throughout most of the 1830s, logging was carried out on a small scale around Prairie du Chien, Portage and Green Bay. Their collective historical writings, images and narratives will further illuminate phase 2 logging culture in the Manitowish Waters area and the Chippewa River basin. Star lake country northern Wisconsin. But to accommodate the lack of pine, lumbering began to focus on hardwoods. (13) Previously established logging interests and mill owners hated the new land grants, because central Wisconsin mills and loggers now had to share access to profitable government lands.(14). The U.S. Government lacked cash resources to promote settlement, infrastructure and agriculture education; turning to granting government lands to qualifying interests as a subsidy for development. Eau Claire Marathon Road Closures on Sunday, April 30, 2023: Madison Street Bridge (6am-9:30am) Immediately where the outlet of the Trout River enters Alder Lake is in full view as I write from my home. Here in the logging camp we findthree large buildings made of rough boards.This one is the blacksmith s (60) 5 years after the Little Star Lake spur hit the southern shores of the chain, the Milwaukee Road arrived on the northern shores and surrounding lakes of the Manitowish Waters with improved and direct rail service to Rice Creek, Big Lake, Clear Lake, Buswell, and later Rest Lake. Within a few months of the branchline's construction CL&B sold its entire holdings in the area to the Yawkey-Bissell Lbr Co. (80) In Manitowish Waters, fire prevention and suppression has always been a community effort. project. State Conservation Commission of Wisconsin for the Fiscal years of 1921 to 1922. So huge were the trees that often just one log could fit on a sled. northwest through the modern airport almost to Benson Lake, The Turtle Lake Company began operations out of Winchester in June of 1909, Turtle Lake Lumber Company, which was at Winchester, car camps which were camp buildings put on railroad cars, Flambeau Lumber Company operated two lines, remained in operation until 1919 serving various other logging interests and resorts, serviced numerous lumber companies on the same rail lines and railroad spurs, Buswell on the southeast shore of Papoose Lake, sprung-up immediately upon the arrival of the Milwaukee Road Railroad, http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging, http://content.mpl.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/mcml/id/3757/rec/1, target poplar as pulpwood for paper mills. Possibly the most revealing maneuver illustrating the systemic shifts of phase 2 railroad logging technology was river drive lumber giant Weyerhaeuser begining to liquidate its Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company (CL&B) lands. Therewas no hour off for lunch, but twenty minutes atthe most with scarcely time for a smoke. From the dam gates opening, to sluicing logs, river pigs navigated logs through torrents of water with amazing precision. These other species do not float as well as the white pine, so there was always a sense of urgency in rafting them, and rafting sometimes went on day and night. Be sure to look at the charming, well-done murals throughout the building. 60 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/1572/rec/4. 64 http://sassmaster.tripod.com/vilas.html. The childhood insights of Ella (Loveless) Kassien illuminates the operation and impacts of her fathers mill, in her narrative, Milling Around: Milling Around. Koller Library Dunn, Michael. In 1865, a land office agent cited, One third to one half of the best pine lumber on the Chippewa had been cut off by trespassers wherever it was most accessible.(10), Competition for the newly surveyed land in the Northwoods was both intense and rigged. The Manitowish Waters Historical Society has several images from local collections illustrating the paddle wheel boat. First, creating wagon access at Woodruff in 1888, one year later. Looking back at the logging years. In Wisconsin, they cleaned forests of slashings left by lumber companies, planted new trees, controlled forest fires, and helped build state parks. Starting in 1888, white pines would be driven and/or rafted by paddlewheel steam boats from upstream of Alder Lake to the Rest Lake dam, attempting to fulfill the insatiable demand of Weyerhaeusers phase 1 river drive logging operations in Chippewa Falls. 36 Doolittle, Shirley. Thats something to learn from! Please excuse the unvarnished portrayal of laborers in lumber camps, possibly undermining the romantic view of lumberjacks often shared in books and films. The Ojibwa did receive opportunities to work in the short term and actually traveled off the reservation to conduct logging operation in Manitowish Waters and Winchester. 5 http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/transactions/WT199101/reference/wi.wt199101.i0011.pdf. Buck & Son resorts. Looking back at the logging years. All the hotels are small, and the bar in each is the biggest half. In 1884, Peter Vance claimed to settle on Vance (Dam) Lake after traveling by canoe from Menomonee WI or Eau Claire WI as a timber cruiser. Lumbermen on the Chippewa. Established one year after the lumber community of Buswell burned, the new ranger and his men were certainly welcomed to help protect our communitys prized forests and properties. They had little success. Begin or dive deeper into researching your family tree, Learn about the spaces, places, & unique story of your community, The largest North American Heritage collection after the Library of Congress. In 1905 the Milwaukee Road Line was extended from Boulder Jct. This map was . This manuscript map of Taylor County, Wisconsin, shows the township and range grid, lakes and streams, "Chippewa trails, Indian trails," Indian villages and encampments, pine logging dams as of 1866, pine logging camps, and first homestead patent in the county. Most of Wisconsin's major cities were built on rivers. The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University. Owners Lisa (LaPorte) Hopkins and her husband Barry encourage visitors to use the deck or walk toward the river and witness the many pilings that remain form the logging era. But new methods completely cleared forests of all useable trees, and even revisited areas that had already been cut over. Interestingly, in the publication, Boulder Junction The Early Years 1880s to 1950s, one historic account claimed that River pigs were, the north countrys counterpart to the Western cowhands who presided over cattle drives. Ronald Satz. Page 441. Griffiths defining work mirrored national efforts of environmental leaders like Gifford Pinchot, and utilized forestry management models from Europe and New York State. 40 https://mwhistory.org/wisconsin-reports-164-cases-determined-by-the-supreme-court-of-wisconsin-1916-1917-rest-lake-dam/. Phase 3 logging ultimately transitions into modern logging practices after World War II. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collections. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Michael Dunn identifies the Loveless sawmill as a multigenerational business and unique to meet regional lumber demands: The lone sawmills to operate after that era in the area were operated by Bob Loveless, who cut timber in the few pockets of virgin forest during the 1920's, and Marvin Loveless, who ran a small mill into the 1940's or 1950's. (84), Mill pond and chain driven track into the Loveless SawmillLoveless Collection from the Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Wisconsin. From 1909 until 1926 there were several spurs built off of Milwaukee lines in this fashion. All Rights Reserved. Pages 106-107. Retrieved 1-26-2018. 28 https://mwhistory.org/the-wisconsin-laws-and-joint-relolutions-1899-upper-trout-river-dam/. Wisconsin Street to Madison Street. Wisconsin's oldest standing logging camp in its original location. 17 Gates, Paul Wallace. Outside you can walk through an old barn, blacksmith shop, bunkhouse, cook shanty and heavy equipment shed depicting logging camp life. 2. Grand Avenue to Barstow Street. Railroads enjoyed numerous railroad grants from 1850-1870s. Retrieved 2-15-2018. While traveling from the town of Manitowish to Circle Lily Lake to check a trap line with local guide Fay Buck, the author shares: On this first day, as we were going along the logging trail which lead out of Manitowish, we came upon a man lying on his back on the snow in the middle of the road. Boulder Junction The Early Years: 1880 to 1950. Malcolm Rosholt. 11 http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/news/local/history/cornell-connection---new-york-university-founder-picked-up/article_01bdab05-9c99-542a-9bfb-eaddf72e07b4.html . Melinda I would like to have permission to visit your website about logging industry in Wisconsin. In our case the logs went all the way down to Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. Retrieved 2-5-18. Wisconsin Logging Railroads. 16. These data points were meticulously recorded, providing historic and modern investigators a wealth of information regarding the density and distribution of trees in the Northwoods. meeting lumber demands for a growing tourist community. See and touch history at Historic Sites, Museums and special events, Restore your historic home or property, get tax credits, renovation tips. These hammers have raised letters or numbers or all kinds of things. (54) In both these references, the authors link phase 1 and phase 2 Northwoods logging with American Western frontier. Even more notable, the alleged trespassing and timber stealing occurred while the United States was shifting human resources to fight the Civil War, limiting enforcement of timber trespass laws. Paul Benner. Randall E. Rohe. Wisconsin Logging Railroads. Phase 1 Logging River Drive White Pine Logging - 1863 - 1906, Since the earliest European explores arrived on the eastern seaboard, North America virgin timber ranked as one of the most prized commodities of the new world. Empower curiosity about the people, places, and stories of our past. Later, two other phase 1 river drive dams were constructed upstream of the Rest Lake Dam on the Manitowish River: one at the outlet of Boulder Lake on Highway K and another creating a flowage below Fish Trap Lake. 1913. Image # unknown. One spur was located at the end of the Milwaukee's Papoose Lake Branch. Koller Library. Farwell Street to Whipple Street. One of the most storied narratives regarding lumberjack traditions were the antics of hard drinking and brawling loggers. I especially liked the way you used links to other resources, too. E: F-3: 642: 5/14/1933: Park Falls: Fifield: Riley Creek 16 mi. (18) Honestly, in-depth analysis of late 19th century Northwoods land practices provides the perfect scheme for a rural version of the popular board game Monopoly. In 2010, an environmental historian completing his doctoral dissertation shared that an episode of eye syphilis had plagued a large logging camp during late 19th century in eastern Washington State. The mills used huge saws powered by the rivers to cut the logs into boards. Now at the time that all these dams were built there were many companies using the same rivers and lakes and they had to have a way of sorting the logs after they got down to where the mills were. On the waters of the lakes, raised up to sixteen feet above their original level by the new dam, and thus spreading over a much wider area, the steamboat worked almost round the clock to shepherd huge rafts of logs to the dam. "History". Ordinarily the independent timber cruiser also had some other occupation, such as running a logging crew, scaling timber, or guiding prospective settlers and sportsman. 65 http://sassmaster.tripod.com/vilas.html. p.61-71. His time spent waiting for his camera revealed more lumberjack behaviors and culture which would cause civilized citizens great pause: The village of Woodruff, Wisconsin is in the fishing season the port of entry for Trout Lake and the Manitowish muscallunge waters, and at that time it has a sort of transient life. This revealing narrative then degrades into a nasty exchange of swearing (----), which illustrates the deep nativist and ethnic prejudice which was common at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time the Milwaukee Road Line extended its rail line west to Boulder Junction in 1903, and then in 1905 raced to Papoose Lake creating the logging boom town of Buswell.(64). Investigations by the camp doctor revealed the disease bearing vector for the outbreak was a communal wash cloth for washing loggers hands and face. (61) 1n 1905, Chicago Northwestern Railroad matched the Milwaukee Road push to the rich timber lands north of Manitowish Waters with a new line out of Mercer WI. After the war he started a successful lumber . Humbly, avoiding drinking and brawling, Loveless worked diligently as a builder, hunter, lumber camp cook, trapper, market fisherman and guide.(82). Interested readers are highly encouraged to explore more local logging history from Brenner and Dunn at: http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. 70 Interview: Craig Moore. 35 Register of Deeds, Eagle River Courthouse. Retrieved 2-7-2018. The Wisconsin Logging Book, 1839-1939. Wisconsin railroad timeline: 19th century. Judicial documents reveal in 1887, the Chippewa River Improvement and Log Driving Company under the ownership/authority of Charles Henry received legislative charter to build the Rest Lake Dam. A question: what was the role of alcohol at these camps? 67 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/2786/rec/9. However, many Wisconsin . I told him he was correct, and for quite a while he was silent, but at length broke out with a snort of rage. 38 https://mwhistory.org/2016/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1914-State-of-Wisconsin-Railroad-Com-Rest-Lake-Dam.pdf. "D ye mind, I wuz waitin fur a felly, see? One can mingle with clean wickedness without personal discomfort, but dirty vulgarity is far worse in consequence. Looking back at the logging years. Who did this? Page 486. (41) The Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company camp where the Pea Patch Saloon property is currently located was the areas most documented lumber camp. During the prosperity boom of the 1920s the last of the phase 2 logging ended and phase 3 loggers were in full swing, meeting lumber demands for a growing tourist community. An important logging practice that facilitated both phase 1 river drive logging and phase 2 railroad logging was the use of steamboats to raft logs over slack water on the Manitowish chain to be sent either over the dam or loaded by hoist to rail cars. The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University. The most intense white pine river drives in Manitowish Waters took place between 1888 and 1897. Importantly, Michael Dunn has additional insights and details regarding river drives that corroborate Brenners narrative: Every few days a gate in the dam was opened and a large batch of logs was sluiced through, followed by a dose of water large enough to assure that the logs would float freely downstream but not enough to wash the logs ashore along the river's wandering course.