Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-06-07
THE ROSS LUMBER CO.
a VISIT TO AHBOR VITAE,

Last week Il representa- tive OF this
paper spent Il couple of Gays at
the village Of Arbor Vitae. Right
here it would be proper to say, for
the benefit of those who DO not know
it's location, that it is situated Oh
Lake Arbor Vitae, in town forty,
north OF range seven, east. about two
and one-half miles from the station
OF Woodruff, on the Hurley branch
OF the Chicago and Northwestern
road. Besides the saw mill plant OF
the Ross Lumber Co., boarding.
house, store, meat market, barber
shop, etc, it contains sixty dwelling
houses, fine school building and no
saloons. Incidently we might re-
mark that the people are firm heliev-
ers in the efficacy OF the 'Litllc lted
School House" and one of the first
things done after they located there
was to provide q school house and
they did not forget 10 paint it red. y
This was our first visit to the vii
lage and as we walked through the
extensive plant and allowed our eyes
to lingel' On the neat dwelling houses
and the long rows CT lumber piles, it
was difficult to realize that ali this
was the work Of only one year, that
less than one year ago the virgin
forests were unbrollen and covered
the present site OF the village, and
that whore now the hum OF the busy
workers and the buzz OF the nachin-
cry res0unds or all sides then was
only heard the chirp CT the chipmunk
and the twitter Of birds, but such is
the case
On the eighth day OF last June the
Ross Lumber Co, arrived at Wood
ruff with the lumber and machinery
for their saw mill and began the task
OF cutting Il road in 10 Arbor Vitae
Lake where they had determined to
locate it. At that time the blow of
an TX had not been heard en- the
banks of shat beautiful lake and its
placid waters had only been disturb
ed by the boats OF tourists Since
that titae a THIRTY wing village has
sprung up as if 10y magic. They have
built and now have il operation one
Of the finest saw mill plants III North
ern Wisconsin; have built and have
in active operation over five miles OF
logging railroad equipped with twelve
cars and two locomotives and have
just completed ii fine large planning
mill. During this time they have
stocked the mill with logs and have
now sawed out and piled,in their
f,ard over twelve million feel ofchoice
.~1r, three million shingles, three
LllTIlion lath and one hundred and
sixty thousand picket, all OF which is
in prime condition.
The resident members OF the COM
pany rightly take very great pride in
their fine plant and corteously offered
to show us over it. We first visited
THE SAW MILL.
which is located on the south bank Of
the lake. The building is 6S 40
with a detached brick and iron fire
proof boiler house, 36 G6, and is
what is known as double MILL hav-
ing a band saw and q double circular
1t has the usual equipment of n mill
OF this size and is fitted out With a
double edger and trimmer. One
thing that claimed our attention in
particular was the substantial and
thorough manner III which every
thing was put up aud the roominess
OF the mill, This was the work Of
Geo. Upper who has been head mill
wright for the company for the past
six years, and is now engaged in
finishing off their new planiag mill. |
and is considered one of the best men
i'll the country in his profession.
In connection with the saw mill |
they have also Il shinele mill and Il
picket mill, The shiRgle mill is fitted |
out With {, Challoner double block |
shingle machine, but as they are cut
ting an excellent grade of logs, they |
get. comparatively speaking, very
little single timber, and SO most of
the time only run one side OF the
double block. All Of the refuse OF the
mill is taken by elevator to an iron |
brick-lined rsfuse burner. This burn
er is one hundred feet high and TWEEN |
ty-siS feet in diameter, fitted with a |