The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-10-22
A TOWN THAT WAS
ORDERED OFF THE MAP
Cass Lake, Mimi, as 1t Ap.
peared in 1899.
A Description Of the Pioneer Days of That
Northern Village and Of the Beautiful
Lake and Grand Forests That
Are Near BY.
BY Buck

My hrSt venture In gong away
from home to work on country
newspaper was to Cass Lake, Mimi,
In 1899.
1t was about seven o'clock in the
evening during the first part of June
that | arrived there, and as | stepped
from the train thought that / had
never seen such forlorn looking
collection of houses as that town re-
presented at that time; and how it
could support newspaper was be-
yond my comprehension.
There was one street to the town,
which faced the depot, and along
that thorougbfare, on one side only,
were built, or rather thrown to-
gether. lot of buildings in which
were housed hotels, stores and other
places of business. with few dwell
ing places here and there. Some
we're two stories high, but most of
them only one.
The town was squatter town.
That is: the land all belonged to the
Cass Lake Iudian reservation and
the people just simply came and
built their houses on the land with
out asking anybody's permission,
with the expectation that the govern
ment was going to give up or sell it
to them at some future day. The
only people who had any legal right
there was the Great Northern Rail-
road Co., and the Scanlon-G Gibson
Lumber Co.; the former having es-
tablished sort of terminal, con-
sistipg of the beginning and ending
of three divisions-one to Duluth,
tone TO Grand Forks and one to
Sauk Center.
The establishment of terminal
here by the railroad company was
the cause of the town springiDg up
at this point.
The next morning after | arrived
| went over to the Times office
where | was to be employed as a
straight matter compositor on that
paper. The plant was a pretty fair
one for town of that kind, con-
sisting of Washington hand press
and medium size Chandler and
Price Gordon job press. There
was fair assortment of type and
other necessary equipment necessary
to get out four-page six column
newspaper and whatever job work
there was to be done. AS for the
two men who owned the paper, they
we're about as fine men as | ever
worked for.
Not long after | had been in Cass
Lake, the people of the town COM
menced to have trouble with the
, government and the Indians over
their rights to stay where they were
and considerable apprehension was
being felt as to what attitude the
government would take in the mat
ter, and 1t wasn't long before it be-
gan to be realized that it was only
, question of time until the govern,
ment ordered the town off of the
reservation. Several of the leading
citizens went to St. Paul to inter-
, view Senator Davis and Senator
!. Nelson and try to secure their infiu-
ence with the government to have
the Interior department open up
one section of land for townsite
purposes, but for a while nothing
could be done, as it seemed the In
terror department was anxious to
have the town removed from there,
and accordingly, about the first OF
J, July, 1899, there was notice post
ed up that the citizens of Cass Lake
were to remove themselves and all
their effects within the space of
thirty days.
j Well, that notice caused cessa-
tion of all business and good many
of the citizens began to pack up
their belongings and otherwise
made ready to get out of there as
soon as possible. But the majority
decided to stay until the last minute
to see if there wouldn't be some
kind of favorable solution reached
in the matter at the negotiations GO
!, ing on at ST. Paul and Washington.
i D. c.
j Before any decision had been reach
] ed, however, favorable or otherwise,
my Job on the Times had come to a
sudden stop. For. with the stoppage
!, of business all over town, my en-
}, ployers couldn't see their way clear