The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1903-07-23
The Busy Town Of Iron River.

aOouC twenty-five men the year round
The plant has daily capacity Of
10, 900 feet. In addition to the
manufacture of lumber they retail
lath and shingles, and are doing 8
successful business. This company
will keep their plant in operation
summer and winter.
The big concern of the place is The
Alexander & Edgar Lumber Con .
pany. This mill is unlike most OF
the great mills of the northwest in
point of it's plan of operation, as il
runs the year round, and has ca
pacity of 5000, 900 feet of lumber
year. No other mill IL the north
west saws more lumber in the cours
OF twelve months. The machinery
is modern, the mill being equipped
with two double cut band saws and
resaw. A planning mill is operated
IN connection. The company EN-
ploys 5OO men in it's logging and
manufacturing business. They own
their own logging railroad, and
have twenty-five miles of rail. In
the logging operations the company
figure on getting out logs enough to
keep their mill going, and at the
present time it takes four large
numbering camps to accomplish that
task. The mill was built in 1900 to
take the place Of the old Lea Ingram
plant, which was purchased by the
company in 1899 On May 80, 1900,
the Lea-Ingram mill was burned, :
and at that time the company began
building the mill which has ever
since been in operation. The Alex
ander & Edgar Company also pur-
chased--when they began operations
at Iron River, the Lake Superior
Lumber Company's mill, which has
since been torn down. They own
their own timber anG hive several
years cutleft. The monthly payrolls
of this giant concern will run be-
tween $4,000 and $50 600, this being
steady resource of the town of
Iron River the year round. 1t takes
$50 cars and five locomotives to
handle the logging business of the
concern.
The officers and principal employ
ees Of the concern are as follows:
Alexander Stewart, president; Wal
ter Alexander, vice president; Jacob
Mortenson, secretary; Charles Ed
gar, treasurer and manager; HI. D.
Waugh, manager; M. T. O'Connell,
superintendent of logging; George
Croker, mill foreman; w. B. Nc
MILAN, foreman shipping depart
ment; L. d. Martin, head book keeper.
Iron River possesses first class
Water, Light and Power Company,
which is the property Of local people,
and is managed by j, HI. Tomlinson.
There are thirty eight street by
drants, and pressure of from sixty
to eighty pounds to the square inch
is developed. The company has four
miles of pipe and receives the water
supply from springs, guaranteeing
absolutely pure water. The power
house is brick structure, 30x40 feet
in size. Duplex pumps are used, and
capacity of l,00o, 900 gallons OF
water day can be developed. When
the pumps are in operation and ex-
ira pressure is needed force of 800
pounds to the square inch can be
developed. The water works were
put in Immediately after the big fire
of July, 1892.
The lighting plant owned by the
same concern is very complete. 1t
is located in the same building as the
pumping station and consists of two
large dynamos run by two engines,
a l25 Fl. p. Buckeye ana Is Fl. P
Corliss. They have twenty-one arc
lights and about 800 incandescent
lights in the town. The plant has
been in operation since 1897 and is
giving good satisfaction. At the
last session of the legislature the
company secured permission TO dam
Brule river and in the near future
this will be done and the power used
for pumping and lighting. Great
power will be developed. The
same company also installed a
local telephone exchange last Novem-
Der which connects with the long
distance lines of the Wisconsin Tele-
phone company, the line to Port