10 Historical Photos Show The History Of The Logging Industry In Wisconsin Bitter county tax battles followed with both sides engaging in ugly practices. Each winter, the lumberjacks occupied nearly 450 logging camps. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (32) Continuing this ownership trend, some references from Paul Brenner suggest the Weyerhaeusers Mississippi River Lumber Co. also dominated timber ownership and phase 1 river drive logging in the area. Thank you for sharing these wonderful photos and interesting history! 1943. This undated photo shows the sturdy log cabins . (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). Koller Library. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Wisconsin Logging Museum Virtual Tour 2020 - YouTube Retrieved 1-26-2018. "(19), Timber Cruiser blazing old growth trees Copywritten image published with permission. 17 Gates, Paul Wallace. Of further interest, the U.S. Census marked 1890 as the end of a continuous frontier line, as the great American Western frontier had been tamed by the completion of railroads and settlement practices. Entire maps of Wisconsin original vegetation are available commercially or electronically at the Wisconsin Historical Society based on the original survey data.(8). From 1911 to 1922, Manitowish Waters had a full time specially trained forest ranger, who completed a rigorous 2 year curriculum. View Map. The soft pine forests of northern and central Wisconsin provided a seemingly endless supply of raw material to urban markets. Page 200. (I think the working population of the Pine woods is the lowest, filthiest and most degraded class of man I have ever seen in any part of the United States). Graham Street. Typifying a pioneer familys struggles, hard work, ingenuity, and vison; ultimately achieving the American Dream. Ordinarily the independent timber cruiser also had some other occupation, such as running a logging crew, scaling timber, or guiding prospective settlers and sportsman. p. 102. Loveless steadfastly oversaw this property for 30 years, ultimately empowering him to purchase personal property on the north side of Alder Lake. (76), Phase 3 Logging Truck, Tractor, and Road - 1920-Present. In 1862, both the Homestead Act and Morrill Land Grant Act for agricultural colleges were passed opening more preferred access to government lands. Known as the waterfall capital of Wisconsin, Marinette County has more than 10 accessible waterfalls. 3 http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/transactions/WT199101/reference/wi.wt199101.i0011.pdf. We asked him what had happened to his leg and he said a tree fell on it while logging. The most colorful fixture of the log drive was the wanigan that accompanied the drive. The collusion, bureaucratic manipulation, price fixing, and specially interest abuses that followed created a powerful cartel; defining both land policy and logging into the 20th century. 57 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. Retrieved 2-3-2018. P. 12. Timothy Sasse. Chetek Map. Here's a log jam in Eau Claire in the 1930s. Randall E. Rohe. Retrieved 2-4-2018. 73 http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/USAIN/RSF/RSF191112/reference/wi.rsf191112.i0012.pdf. type=PLSS&town=T042N&range=R005E, the timber cited by the surveyors was most certainly plundered. 48 https://mwhistory.org/2016/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Forest-and-Stream-1895-logging-trapping-Buck.pdf. They took only the finest of pine, so light that it could float indefinitely and was called cork pine; in the winters teams and sleds pulled the newly felled timber to the icebound shores; in summer giant wheels were used. Michael J. Dunn, III. Some former logging towns survived as retail and distribution centers. Camps soon featured Bunkhouses, kitchens, dining halls, company stores, blacksmiths and carpentry shops. Whenever they got to wherever they were going to log they put in an extra spur and then the camp was set up for whatever length of time that they were going to log in that area. Phase 1 logging required the Rest Lake dam to maximize white pine logging and river drive operations. Fredric Weyerhaeusers Pool or Syndicate of 100 silent partners worked with Putnam and other land agents to monopolize much of the white pine along the Manitowish River basin. Logging - Encyclopedia of Wisconsin Environmental History Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Wisconsin to Buswell [area] remained in operation until 1919 serving various other logging interests and resorts on Rice Creek, Papoose Lake, Clear Lake, north of Rest Lake and Rest Lake with a spur to Rileys hoist, due north across the bay from Camp Jorn at least by 1909. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Logging and lumbering employed a quarter of all Wisconsinites working in the 1890s. 21 Gates, Paul Wallace. 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. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Ghostly post: The vanished logging post offices of Goodyear and McKenna There are two camps shown: Lehey's Camp T36 N, R5 E, Section 6, and Lehey's Little Rice Camp T36 N, R5 E, Section 22. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Enjoy a nice lunch at the Choo-Choo hut. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Papoose Lake. Vilas County. 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. Map and Download 242 Camps in Wisconsin to your GPS | Maps of all 242 Camps in Wisconsin (topo maps, street maps, aerial photos) Map and Download GPS Waypoints for 242 Camps in Wisconsin Click here to download GPS waypoints and POIs for all of the camps in Wisconsin in GPX format. In the long run, the cutover land and dam construction modified Ojibwa traditional environments making traditional hunting, fishing and gathering more challenging.(63). The Interpretive Center provides an excellent introduction to the Logging Camp with . Flapjacks were a luxury and a special inducement offered the men. (constructed in 1894) The C&NW had a job based in Lac Du Flambeau that hauled logs south from the O'Day and Daley operations at Mercer to the Flambeau mill. Robert Loveless Journal 1891-1925. Click the links to browse the full collections. 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. After the war he started a successful lumber . Program Overview & Guide. State Conservation Commission of Wisconsin for the Fiscal years of 1921 to 1922. All Rights Reserved. Historically, some unscrupulous logging companies took advantage of Ojibwa lands often supported by Indian Agents interested in transitioning American Indians into commerce and economic activities of the Euro-American culture. 39 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. 42 Interview. Pages 74-75. Now I think they raised the water up in the fall so that once they started getting ice they could put logs right on the ice if they could get to the lakes because of the banks. Located in the scenic Northwoods region of Wisconsin, Manson Lake is a beautiful 236-acre, spring-fed lake northwest of the city of Rhinelander in Oneida County. Early dam operation in support of logging ravaged the original shores of Manitowish Waters. The ownership, construction, location, regulatory authority and jurisdiction of the Rest Lake dam has been debated since its inception. Importantly, Robert Loveless broke the strangle-hold of lumber companies and speculators on pioneers, by completing a land contract from the Wisconsin Bluegrass Land Company for 80 acres on Government lots 3 & 4 of section 25 on the north shore of Alder Lake in 1909. 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. Railroad Commission-State of Wisconsin: Rest Lake Dam 1914. LaFave family histories are populated with stories of travel up Rice Creek to Buswell. These northern woodsmen herded unruly logs downriver to their destination.(53) E Houghs article in 1895 contrasts loggers behavior and violence as being far worse than Western cowboys. Erosion from dam operations during the logging eraFlancher Collections Manitowish Waters Historical Society, Back at the dam here, when each drive was over, two and a half billion gallons of water had been penned up and then released; the lakes were down to their original pre-1887 levels; and raw, ugly scarred new margin of erosion and stumps marred fifty some miles of the shoreline.(46). This website is a great search place to get all of your own history stuff or even things you will need to know about famous people, Looking for information of a smaller logging camp north of Washburn, Wisconsin. The soft pine forests of northern and central Wisconsin provided a seemingly endless supply of raw material to urban markets. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin: Madison. 75 http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/USAIN/RSF/RSF191112/reference/wi.rsf191112.i0009.pdf. 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). 11 http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/news/local/history/cornell-connection---new-york-university-founder-picked-up/article_01bdab05-9c99-542a-9bfb-eaddf72e07b4.html . 67 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/2786/rec/9. Koller Library. One can mingle with clean wickedness without personal discomfort, but dirty vulgarity is far worse in consequence. E: F-3: 642: 5/14/1933: Park Falls: Fifield: Riley Creek 16 mi. Koller Library. Eagle River WI. 1878 as a lumber mill . (75), At this point, the timeline of phase 2 logging in the Manitowish Waters area is mostly complete. One ran north through the Powell Marsh area to Little Star Lake operating by 1900, and the other ran south almost to the north shore of Flambeau Lake. 7 http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/SurveyInfo.html. 12 Gates, Paul Wallace. Wisconsin's furniture, paper and leather industries required more lumber as they grew. Save the GPX file on your desktop. In 1872, the Omaha Railroad began service to Chetek, the Knapp-Stout logging camp was established, and the first log schoolhouse was built. Sundays were also the best days for photographers to visit, and many of the surviving photographs from lumber camps were most likely taken on Sundays, according to Kathryn W. Kennedy in her paper The Iconography of the Chippewa Valley Lumberjack 1869 to 1913(1983). Retrieved 1-26-2018. Retrieved 2-7-2018. Launch ExpertGPS, click Open on the File menu, and select the GPX file you just saved to your computer's hard drive. 47 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging, Paul Brenner, interview continued. Later water held back by the dam formed a mill pond, a cove where booms of chained logs were held for milling. Rosholt, Malcolm. Library of Congress 3. In the early 1900s, across Alder Lake, on the west shore, a railroad spur line entered by the modern DNR campsite. 1943. p.61-71. Thats something to learn from! In the spring, they drove their timber downstream to more than 1,000 mills. 24 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. Wisconsin Historical Society. Some took the opportunity to bathe and shave themselves as well. The bottom of Manitowish Waters lakes are littered with logs that never made it to market. Land surveyors documenting the township of (what would become) Manitowish Waters in 1862 followed a national model. In the winter of 1895, during the transition between both phases of logging, an early sportsman, E. Hough documented the drunken and violent behaviors he witnessed while visiting Manitowish and Woodruff. This map was . At Baers Mill Point Resort the trees remain largely uncut, with the mill pond and sawmill site featured as prized elements of the property. (33) Recent research of deeds in the area of the Rest Lake dam suggest Weyerhaeusers Mississippi River Lumber Co. actually owned the land on Rest Lake until 1902 and only transferred ownership to the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company because the Mississippi River Lumber Company was to be dissolved in 1909. After the stock market crash, the 1930s ushered in hard times for the Northwoods, but some local loggers still continued operations to fulfill local demand. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Needless to say a hard work life in the woods back then. For more information, call (715) 674-3414. Page 112. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters volume 79, No. One spur was located at the end of the Milwaukee's Papoose Lake Branch. View a 1937 guide to CCC camps in Wisconsin and a 1939 recruitment poster elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin: Madison. Vilas County. 19 Fries, Robert F. Empire In Pine the Story of Lumbering in Wisconsin. Joseph Dessert Lumber Company, Mosinee. 35 Register of Deeds, Eagle River Courthouse. 13 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/maps/id/19986/rec/1.