Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-02-06

dairy farming, is the mission in a nut
shell of the Wisconsin Valley Advance
ment association.
Here is found the natural location for
paper mills, wood pulp mills, sulphite
mills, tanneries and hardwood manufac-
tories and the supplies for all abound
on the very banks of the Wisconsin
river. Hemlock in forests, wood for
decoration, wood for furniture, wood for
building and granite for decoration,
stone for building, and kaolin.
And there is power enough going to
waste TO furnish transportation, power
for manufacturing, for lighting and
heating an empire. A Lowell could be
lighted, heated and its railroads and
public and private institutions run by
electricity with the water powers of the
Wisconsin river.
The Wisconsin Valley Advancement
association will build an stectric freight
and passenger railway down the Wis
consin River Valley from Eagle River
to- >Rhinelander. to Tomahawk, to Mer-
rill, to Wausau, to Mosinee, to Stevens
Point, TO Centralia, to Grand Rapids
and then to Port Edwards.
Where will it get its revenue?
From the food of freight and pass
enger traffic which is burdening the
many lines of steam railroads that trav-
erse and cross the valley; from the log
ging camps to which spurs will be built
for log transportation, and from the
power it will furnish the manufacturing
concerns that are rapidly filling up this
resourceful valley.
When the Pine is Cone
"When the pine is gone. what then?"
asks the man in Chicago or Boston.
Old residents, who for thirty years
have listened to that dire foreboding
cry have tired of giving ear to it, as
each succeeding output of pine from the
Wisconsin valley increased.
We will admit that the pine is all
gone for arguments sake, and in its
stead has come more valuable and
most equally important product, the
hard wood industry. Less than ten
years ago woods that are now selling at
SIS TO $50 a thousand, were burned in
piles to get them out of the way. Most
of them are now worth more than pine
was in its palmiest day. refer to the
Red Curly Birch, the Hemlock, the
Eastwood, Elm, Naples and the Oaks,
Ash and Butternut, and there are al
most inpenetrable forests of all of these
standing almost within the immediate
reach Of the proposed electric railways.
Perhaps the wood that is creating the
greatest sensation on the hard wood
market today is the Red Curly Birch,
SO common to this country. 1t is used
for the finest of interiors, parlor and
Office furniture. Indeed, it sis rapidly
taking prominence over all other indi-
genous woods and taking rank along
side. only in second place, to Mahogany
and Rosewood.
Giant Water Powers.
But in the giant water powers that
are cantering down the Wisconsin val
ley over rock bottoms and between rock
bound banks is where the Wisconsin
valley shines. I can take the prospec-
tor to dozen water powers along the
line that will develop each 5,000-horse
power and half dozen that will de-
velop l0,000-horse power, and to one be-
tween Tomahawk and Merrill, which
shows by actual survey 30,000-horse
power, Grandfather Falls, king of water
powers, even greater than the one Gre
ated by Chicago's S35, ,000, 900 waterway.
1t was the calling attention to this
wonderous resource that awoke in the
minds of the citizens of this valley the
latent energies that were slumbering
over the fortunes made in pine. The
agitation of the subject brought forth