The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-12-02
WILL RUN ALL YEAR.
Modern Methods In Duluth Saw Mills
! The Great Cut of Logs rIade
in Duluth District. .~.~


an enormous log crop in the country
around the head of Lake Superior and
the upper Mississippi river the coming
winter. In that section, where much of
the pine cut into boards in Duluth is
numbered, and in Itasca county, directly
west from Duluth, there will be cut the
coming winter not less then 1900, 100000
feet of standing timber. Two:th1rds of
this will be cut at Duluth and Superior
and the Itasca county cut will 20 to
points on the Mississippi river, mainly
to Minneapolis.
10 cut this enormous quantity Of pine
will be an army of $1,000 men and 5000
horses and over and these men will re.
ceive an average monthly wage of 1928
and board.
The old time method of floating logs
to mills by rivers has given place in this
region to the more modern and quicker
way of hauling by steam railway. More
than half the lumber to be sawed in the
Duluth district next year will be taken
part of the way to it's destination at
least by rail. Logging railroads, built
on the best grades of substantial charac-
ter, with heavy rails and modern locomo-
tives, thread the woods of this northern
part of Minnesota, where rivers do not
run and timber is brought out by them
that would otherwise remain until de-
stroyed by fire or age.
Under the pressure of modern demands
and conditions the old methods Of oper-
ating mills, only during the summer
season, has given way to more econon-
ical one and half dozen large mills
on Duluth harbor will be run all the
coming winter. The operation IS made
possible by the construction of "hot
pond" into which the logs brought to
the mills by rail are dumped. and where
they remain till the frost is out of them,
and they can be drawn up into the mills.
A hot pond is large Enclosure in steam
or lake into which the exhaust steam
from the mills engines is discharged,
keeping the water from freezing in any
wheather the northwest can produce. BY
the use of the steam road instead of
streams for bringing the logs to mil,
and by the use of the "hot pond" for
caring for Them when once there, contin-
uous saw mill operations are permitted.
This season Of great lake navigation
more than 1.000,0O0,O0O feet OF lumber
will go to eastern markets by lake from
Lake Superior mills, mostly from Du-
luth. The shipments of single month
low exceed those of an entire year 80
lately as 1887. A feet of 1875 lake ships
has been constantly engaged this year
in carrying lumber out of Lake Superior,
at prices that have been as much as
three times those of the preceding year.
Vessels of the lumber feet have paid for
themselves more than once during the
summer. Many instances have occurred
where boats were chartered last spring
for the year with a proviso that the
lessees might buy later at an agreed
price. In these cases such has been the
advance since the beginning of the
season, these ships have been paid for
out of the net profits made on the leases
during the summer.
Duluth district Is now the greatest
lumber producing section of the United
States, with an output this season of
about 750,000,000 feet. more than half
it's product COOS to the markets of New
York, New England and the boxmakers
of the middle states, Regular shipments
of millions OF feet monthly are made from
the mills here to such noted lumber
producing centers as Bay City, Saginaw
Menominee and other Michigan points
As result of the logging railway in
it's extension of the limits from which
pine can be brought and in reaching
heretofore unavailable supplies, the tim
Der tributary to Duluth mills is greater
in quantity than experts claimed IN
total ten years ago, and it's exhaustion
is as far off today as the prophets of ten
years ago, -.
So far pine is the only wood that has
been cut IN these forests, though they
contain pulp woods, cedar, birch and
many valuable hardwoods for furniture
making. A beginning is now making in
the use of spruce for pulp, and paper
mills are going in near here, while thous-
ands of cords are being sent this year
to the mills of the east. Cedar is in de-
mand for the first time, and 100000
cedar railway ties will be made in the
forests about the city the coming winter.
This has never been local industry
worth the name until now. A COM
nencement is under way for the use of
hardwood for furniture and finish, and
inquiries have been received the last few
days for birch timber for thread spools
for export to England. The hardwood
OF this region will be source of wealth
for many years to come.-Port Arthur
Herald.