Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-11-16
NORTHERN WISCONSIN
Passing Away OF the Pine Lum.
Der Industry.

Passing Away OF the Pine Lum.
Der Industry.
FROM TIMBER TO AGRICULTURE.
To the Children the sawmili Is Poem
and Its Passing Epochal-Sawing of the
Last Log and Closing OF the Last Mill at
Necedah-Potato Is King In the Central
Part of the State-Towns ON the Rail-
way Maps.
Madison, Wis. Nov. S.--A glance at
railroad map of Wisconsin would give
the causal observer the impression that
the northern part of the state is al
most as thickly settled as the southern.
The whole map is plastered over with
names of cities and villages. But snany
of these names are but "reminiscences,
so to speak. of a departed glory-that
of logging days. When one stops. In
riding along, he is surprised to find that
he has passed by several stations given
on his route. Had he kept his eyes
open in passing he might have seen oc-
casionally the ruins of a steam boiler
amid few heaps of sawdust and ashes.
These We're the towns given on the
they were built on a sawddst founda-
ton. not intended for permanent resi-
dence, and when the pine lumber Of the
locality had been cleared off, the ten
ants, Bedouin-like, packed up their few
belongings and moved to new localities,
leaving their crude pine "shacks' and
often their sawmills to the mercies of
the devas .ating forest fire. AS the tim
Der becomes cut off the country passes
over from timber to an agricultural
basis of production, always a slow and
difficult process.
Wood county, the home of ex-Goy-
ernor Upham, is now i'm this STAGE of
transition. Where not thickly settled 1t
presents to the travellers eye an almost
unvarying scene of desolation De-
strEctive forest fires four and six years
ago killed off nearly all the pine left
standing, so that now there are great
ruined wastes of scrubby hardwood,
dense underbrush, and enormous black
ened stumps that tell with mute elo-
quence of the great forest giants that
once lifted their tops to the skies and
bade defiance to the storms Ooca-
sionally in this desert some huge dead
pine looms up and stretches out it's
spectral arms as if In despair at the
ruin spread around it. In the swampy
recesses of these tangled stretches the
coy wild deer and the bear and porcu-
pine make their home.
The Late George HiIes.
One of the notable men of early DAYS
in Wood county was the late George
Hiles, who left fortune of a couple of
millions or more made from numbering.
He built the railroad from Babcock to
Lynn for something like 100000, which
he later sold to the st. Paul company
for about a half million more The
firm name, George Hiles Lumber COM
pany, is retained by the sons, who have
offices in Dextervi.le, Milwaukee, Chi
cago and places in the east. James X.
p. Hiies lives at Dexterville, while
Frank takes care of the company's in
terests in Milwaukee. The company
rece ntly purchased a tract of $500 acres
of hardwood from the Romadkas in
Clark county, near Neillsville, and will
log heavily on the tract this winer. 1t
expects to get out 100000 logs this
winter and is now busy putting in seven
big camps and hiring cooks and en-
The ST. Paul Railway company now has
a crew at work on an extension of the
Lynn branch of it's road to the Ronald
ka tract, along which the Hiles COM
pany will bank it's logs. 1t is believed
by many that the st. Paul company will
not only build the extension for the &C
commodation of the Hiles company but
will continue the extension through
Clark county with view to ultimately
making more direct connection with the
Twin cities and making this route the
main northwest line instead of that via
Lacrosse Crews of surveyors were
at work laying out lines all summer.
Jim" Hiles is bluff and popular fell
low resembling Governor Upham some
what in personal appearance. He has
generally let politics alone and attended
strictly to his business interests. but
two years ago he was induced to run
LUZ tliC ABSOLUTELY oAi IhC DGiuOCIdliC
ticket He made a strong and costly
canvass but was defeated by Mr.. Whip
perman of Grand Rapids, Republican.
The district embraces Wood county
This year the Democratic nominee is
Otto e. Germer of Dexterville, secre-
tary of the Hiles company, Harvard
graduate and well read and popular
man. His opponent is Peter Christian
son, a strong Republican farmer. Log
gers and woodsmen are already busy
building camps ana making roads pre-
paratory to going into the woods. The
recent heavy rains have made the
woodsmen rejoice. They have set at
rest all fears concerning forest fires and
have filled all the marshy and low
places with water which, when 1t
freezes, will make excellent bottoms for
roads. For the past three seasons the
scarcity of water has been an eyesore
to the loggers. The smaller creeks
were entirely dry and In many places
it was with the greatest difficulty that
enough water could be secured for
sprinkling the roads But logging Is
not what ii once was. The attention
of the Wisconsin lumberman is now
turning from pine to hardwood, for the
great pine forests Of the state are be-
coming a thing of the pas. Years ago
the tree that couldn't turn out a log
a foot square was passed by unnoticed,
but now all such are carefully picked
up and the "skidding," which was for
merly done with two yoke oxen, can
now be done with one horse.
Where Potato Is King.
In central Wisconsin. particularly
Adams and neighboring counties, pota-
to is king Nearly every station has a
warehouse for the tubers, and at Niece
dab, the home of Congressman j. b.
Babcock, / saw scores of teams in line
waiting to unload their produce in the
cars. Necedah is a quaint little town
on the lower Yellow river, the head
quarters of the Neeedah Land and
Lumber company. Congressman Bah
cock has large vested interests round
about there, and Ii estimated to be
worth a million or two. Necedah has
long been an important lumber town,
but it is to be so no more. The logging
operations which have been conducted
for years near the city are over. There
Will be no camps in the woods this VIM
ter, the timber is cut, the logs all sawed
ard the sawmill is for sale. This will
be regretted by many. To the children
of northern Wisconsin the sawmill l.
ss,Ner al A