Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-11-25
The North countrss.

me an OppOI Lui4lLy VI 56SluS AGAIN
part of wisconsin quite familiar to
me from twelve to twenty years ago.
It was one thing to know and to say
that from then until now there nave
been great changes in that country,
but quite another thing to see the
difference; to See long stretches Of
country then covered with dense for
ests Of pine, but now looking like vast
stump-coveTed prairies; to see farms
with good houses, large barns and
herds Of cattle where there were lum.
Der camps and vast piles Of logs, with
now and then a deer feeding under the
tall pines; to see here and there few
rOtting logs, heaps Of decayed saw
dust and some tumble-dOWn buildings
where once there we're busy saw mills,
piles Of new lumber and small armies
Of men known as lumberjacks.
Some Of these mills are left; there
are few lingering lumberjacks
handling sawlogs; and, with such pro
lection as the state is giving, deer are,
/ suppose, as plentiful as they were 20
years ago; yet the face of the country
greatly changed.
This part of the state is passing
rough transition period, and one
sanDOt help wondering what is to
come. To illustrate, I will speak of
one community which is a type of
many. The village of Mason is what
has been known as a lumber town. It
was built up a little more than quar-
ter OF a century ago around a mill
owned by the White River Lumber
company. The company owned every
thing store, land and houses. The
houses were rented to the workmen.
AS a rule these houses were all alike
There is no LangdOn street. There
was almost no distinction between
people, except that the families of the
pug 7oWo oUl VI sTJ7I3 7Jn 'sI00sJaAo
the store and the school teachers
were slightly suggestive of a 600"
The mill was large, and there was
population Of perhaps 500 in the vii
Iage. 1t was a busy place. The saws
hummCd from ten to twelve hours
every day and some Of the time, 1
guess, all night. Men seemed every
where n a hurry to slash down the
nearby noble forests of pine and hem
lock, get the logs to the mill made in
to lumber, Iath and shingles, and
away to market
I'm the early COS the people had a
school house two stories high with
school in the two lower rooms. The
upper story was for meetings, Sunday
school and other neighbOrhOod gath
erings.
The Mill is there yeti was once
burned but rebuiIt-One Of the largest
and finest in the great northwest.
There is new schoolhouse, up-to.
date, and with I've of the very best
teachers. l understand that they re
celVe Pretty good salaries. I visited
every room and found those teachers
giving the boys and girls from the
little nearby homes as good culture as
they could get in the most excellent
SchCOls OF Madison. I never saw
brighter youngsters or better disci-
pine. l was told that there is live
Iy graded Sunday school of more than
a hundred pupils, to which all denomi-
nations come, some Catholics even.
But the logs coming to the mill are
not nearly so good as those of wears
ago; In fact, some of them look to me
like pretty poor stuff. Yet even that
Is worth saving now, and then the
forests where these logs are cut are
away out OF sight. I could, standing bv
the upper windows of the school
house, scarcely see the tops Of anv
respectable family of pine trees. 7
was told that the mill will saw IN
everything within four years.-and
then what?
Since the mill is the only Mace of
employment, and the mill cannot run
without logs to saw, and in four years
there will be no more logs, it looks to
me as II five years from now Mason
VIII cease to be on the map. as
there can be then only little school
OF one room. Other little lumber
towns have thus gone out Of exist
ence, and there are more to follow
Every family that remains after the
mil Is some and others who come in
must begin to cultivate some patch of
ground; and thus farming will SLOWLY
come to take the place of NUMBERING
The company owning the mill at Ma
son has possession Of nearly all the
land within a radius OF several miles.
and VIII not sell it to settlers: so
there are very few cultivated farms
in its immediate vicinity. and so il is
with Drummond a few miles south
The Rust-Owen company at Drum
mond owns all that was timber land
in four townships I was told at Drum
mond that at the present rate of saw.
ing there viii be work at that min
for twelve or fifteen years vet. But
one by one the mills everywhere win
be dismantled as the years so by and
then the change must come. Every.
thing viii then depend upon the farms
and it is slow work at best to die out
farm among great pine stumps. For
all that. however. in due course OF
time this part of Wisconsin will be
forced to submit to agriculture and
general settlement
was told that the country about
Drummond is not very well adapted tc
farming. 1t is some better in the Vi
cinity of Mason. The country around
Gable, ten miles south of Drummond
vas not so heavily timbered. and it is