The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1902-08-14
Northern Wisconsin Has Unhounded
Resources.
a GREAT AND GROWING REGION
Unfolding of Possibilities of Frontier Por-
<tion of state has Been Gradual-No
Boom = Lumber Industry Has
Given place to Farming

The editor of THE TINES bad an
article in an issue Of the Milwaukee
Journal last week, which was as
follows
So much has been written within
the past year of Northern Wisconsin
and lis prospects and advantages as
an agricultural region that it is not
uncommon to fiad people in other
sections Of the state obtaining the
Impression that all this agitation IS
the result Of the per sistent efforts Of
land boomers and land agents.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Tie fact is that there is an
army OF men who have lived in North
err Wisconsin for years, who have
watched the lumberman as he
stripped the country of its valuable
forests, and had the great logs manu-
featured into lumber and timber al
the mills; they have been a part os
the busy lumber industry, and
whether engaged directly in it or not,
have viewed it as the great support
aud maintenance of the people of this
section. There are those who have
watched towns spring up within a
few weeks, and have seen busy work
men throw together lot of boards
and timber, and the result has been
a lot of places called "houses
Lumber Industry Uncertain.
Sawmills have been built in every
niche Of the new north. and have
giten employment to large numbers
of men, and saw mill towns have
been found everywhere from Tar
south of the Chippewa River to Lake
Superior on the north There has
been a temporary aspect to most Of
these places. Towns have doomed,
and business men have prospered in
many localities, and then with but
little preparation for the future these
business interests have witnessed
the pushing farther north of the
numbering industries, and the little
towns and the people who were sit
uated so that they could not follow
the procession of the numbering in
dustry, lave suffered in consequence.
General Decentralization has been the
history of many of these places.
Place Faith in Farming
But this sort of thing could not 60
on indefinitely. A people with any
foresight must sooner or latter find
a solution for this Sort of thing, and
prevent its recurrence. The people
found the farm must take the place
of the mill. Twenty years ago there
was general belief at Eau Claire
and Chippewa Falls that the great
north was a barren waste, fit for
nothing except the value of its great
forests. There was but little farm
ing north of those points, which
were then the headquarters for all
the great lumber operations along
the lines of the Wisconsin Central
and Omaha Railroads. Thousands
of umbermen made the two towns
their headquarters in the spring and
fall of each year But the delusion
regarding the great northland has
been broken. There is not a country
from Minnesota on the west to the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan on the
east, and Lake Superior on the north,
which is not at present experiencing
a substantial settlement of its lands
by actual settlers.
Day of Experimenting Past,
The day of experimenting with land
is practically thing of the past
the character of the soil has been
proven beyond question, and in the
region mentioned you cannot travel
without seeing the openings of the
settlers in the woods, and here and
there are the homes they have built
for their families. Pioneering in
hCippewa County and some of its
close neighbors long ago ceased to
be, and the old log houses have
heen replaced with new frame and
brick structures. In the far north
as well, many of the new farm houses
are of the most substantial character.
but the greater portion of them are