The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-03-09
EARLY /, NUMBERING
Pine for Fort Smelling Cut at Dutch
Mans Grove on the Rum
River in 1921.
First Commercial Sawmill in the State
Built at Marine on the
St, Croix in 1889.

This interesting article on the incep-
ton of logging and numbering in Min
nesota is taken from the Minneapolis
Sunday Journal:
When the first sawmill in Minnesota
began to operate the state had a total
population of less than 5000, in
GLIDING the soldiers at Fort Smelling.
1t was little thought at that time that
logs some day would become legal ten
der for a population Of many thousand
people there. But so it happened, and
the way it came about makes very
pretty romance.
The history of Minnesota was for
many years the history Of it's saw
mills.
In 1921 the national government
saw fit to establish fort at the juno
ton of the Minnesota and Mississippi
rivers. There was plenty of hardwood
to be had close at hand, but the gov
eminent was accustomed to build OF
pine, and pine the new fort had to
be. A saw1nill was built at the nearby
falls and the necessary pine was cut
short way up the Mississippi at what
was known as Dutchman's grove, on
the Rum river. This was the first
logging done in Minnesota, but it can
not be considered to be the beginning
a of the lumber industry. That did not
begin until some years later.
There was a good reason for this.
The country still belonged to the In
dams, and no one wished to risk the
wrath which surely would follow the
destruction of the old hunting grounds.
Even at that, there was no lack of in
terest in the timber There were in
that little settlement men from Maine
who knew the value of logs, and they
looked toward the timber with longing
eyes while a tardy government bar
gained for the land with the Indians.
Since the land west of the Mississ-
ippi was not included in the transfer
this search was very naturally con-
fined to the St. Croix. The first party
made it's way up the valley by canoe
as far as Taylors Falls and, assured
of plentiful supply of pine, returned
to get mill and on the way down
selected a millsite at what is now
Marine. They hurried on to the Mis-
sissippi and Immediately took the boat
for St. Louis, already a well estab-
lished settlement of some consequence.
Here a suitable mill and logging out
fit were loaded on a chartered boat and
the party steamed away on it's weary
trip up to Marine.
It must have been a curious looking
party; little water power mill with
a jigsaw such as the owner of the
poorest portable mill would laugh to
scorn today, two or three yoke of low
ing oxen and some axes. Not a saw
not horse, not sleigh in the outfit
But crude as the outfit was it had beer
some accomplishment to get it there
and it served it's purpose. On Aug. "a
1889, the mill was up, the logs were
ready, and saving began. This was
the first commercial sawmill in what
is now Minnesota. It continued to op.
crate on that same site for just sc
years, and during that time sawed 1877
100000 feet of lumber.
Five years later the first mill was
built at Saltwater.
In 1843 an accident pointed the way
to more extensive development OF
the logging industry. The boom al
Saltwater broke and the winters GU
of logs scattered over the Mississippi
to be collected at the lower river towns
This was the beginning Of the grea
log rafting business wildly described
by Mark Twain in his Life on thu
Mississippi" and led few years late7
to the establishment of sawmills a
Red Wing, Wabasha, Winona, Du
buque, Galena, St. Louis and othe:
river towns, practically all of then
supplied with logs from the St. Croi,
and the upper Mississippi.
So it was that the logging industr,
had obtained start in the St. Croi,
valley before any mills were estab
lished on the Mississippi. That terri
tory was waiting for the government
to obtain the cession of the lands OF
the west side of the river. Negotia
tions were very slow and there was a
least one man who could not wait 70
their completion. FRANKLIN Steele
who held the claim at the waterpowe
site on St. Anthony Falls now occu
pied by the Minneapolis flour mills, dc
cided to build a sawmill in 1947, tim
Der or no timber. The timber estims
tor who went to see Mr.. Steele abor
the logging speaks Of landing in S
Paul and driving from the boat to tn