St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-28
TIMBER Up NORTH.
COLI. V. BROWER TALKS ABOUT
THE CUTTING PROS
PECTS.
THE RUSH FOR SECTIONS.
A FEW RICH LUMBERMEN WILL
SOON HOLD
ALL.

yesterday afternoon the G ! b G
called the attention of Col J. V.
Brewer to the prospect of timber cut
ting on a large scale up north. He
has been over the region many times,
and said:
Just below Itasca lake there is situ-
ated, at the Ka-Ka-Bi-Kons rapids
and above that point, choice water
power sites, with a limited supply of
water. The state law provides that
Itasca lake shall neither be lowered nor
raised in it's water surface, and heavy
penalties are prescribed against arti-
fetal interference with the state park
timber or the waters of its lakes. The
next considerable water power on the
Mississippi is at Shanafelt Bluffs below
the mouth of Killpecker Greek, where
the survey of the Great Northern rail-
road crosses the river. Four miles
north from Shanafelt Bluffs is another
series of rapids affording good water
power, below the mouth of Chemaun
river Thence commences a wonderful
stretch of broad blue joint meadow
bottoms. which reaches almost con-
tinuously for twenty miles or more and
to the mouth of Wakomiti creek, just
remarkable series of geological hills,
covered with a heavy growth of virgin
pine, where again exist very favorable
water power facilities. Just below the
mouth of Naiwa river, near the north
ern limit of Hubbard county, is another
considerable water power, having for
it's supply the fiowage from both the
upper and principal branches of the
haInI1- Ppt11iHji 1alya
are situated a series of hills and rapids
affording excellent sites for any num-
ber of mills with Bemidji lake above as
an ample reservoir. Other mill sites
exist above lake Elliott Cones, but the
slack water effect of the government
reservoir dam at Winnibigoshish lake,
shuts out all water facilities at Cass
lake. Between Winnibigoshish and
Pokegama lakes the water is prime
ipally shut off each year until the 1st
of August, when the flood from the
government reservoirs is turned loose.
At White Oak Point the meadows af-
ford probably 5000 stacks of hay each
year. The only available water power,
then, is at Grand Rapids, or above Cass
lake unless at a point below the
mouth of Prairie river.
lnrOuSnOuC IldI TeSlOu the SUI
woods are neither scarce nor abundant,
and damage by fire has been consider
able, but from that destructive eie-
ment, poplar timber recovers sooner
than perhaps any other growth OF the
locality.
'It is a persistent error that con-
tinuously confounds the 1tasca lake
region with Itasca county, when, by
the channel of the Mississippi, the two
localities are separated by more than
a hundred miles, and the ordinary cit
izen of the county named, knows as
little about the region of Itasca lake as
do the photographers of the New York
daily papers, for Indian reservations
and an expanse of wilderness separates
the two localities to such an extent
that the region is seldom traVersed
unless by cruisers, tedious railroad
surveyors or adventuresome explorers
and hunters, and the whole north end
of Cass county intervenes.
Concerning the drying up and
gradual disappearance of the lakes of
Minnesota the statement is only too
true. The almost criminal destruction
of the virgin forests of the state con-
tinues without cessation and the ef-
IoCI Is lllclN hAASAl q NAt'CS
of land is stripped of it's timber, the
rays of the sun and the winds strike
with rapid effect, and evaporation of
all rainfall in the locality is accom-
plished in a few days, whereas on the
other hand when the lands are shaded
by the extending branches of growing
timber the ground holds the water for
an indefinite period and slowly sup
plies the adjacent lakes with an un-
ceasing moisture sufficient to main
tain them during times of ordinary
rainfall.
THE right to remove the timber has
been obtained by patent from the gov
ernment, and the grand rush of lum-
bermen to acquire, cut and appropriate
the timber of Northern Minnesota has
never ceased and never viii while there
is a quarter section available. One
mill alone on the upper Mississippi
during 1895 cut 5S,000,000 feet of lumber
and the whole cut for the year may
be a billion feet. A few millionaire
lumbermen, is the inevitable result,
and the masses of the future will suf-
fer the consequences of a scarcity of
timber, diminution of the number
of lakes, dry river beds. a decreased
curtailed wheat fields and q
possible necessity for irriga ton
There is one remedy possible but by
no means probable by which some per-
centage of the impending calamity
may be avoided. This remedy lies in
the power of the preSident'to prompt
ly withdraw from sale every tract of
timber left standing in the state, in
cluding the Indian reservations, to be
as timber reserve for
ever. The slight chance for such ac-
ton rests upon the basis of NOR
bid society, organized upon the lines
of avarice, grasping after every dol
lar in sight. within the shortest space
Of time. Posterity can care for itself.
Minnesota forests, lakes, rivers and
streams are doomed to that minimum
1iminution already foreshadowed in
the hundreds OF dry lake beds, with
'nly a mId hole left in the pitt"