The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-04-20
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III U11S M1llIlCSOId SoIAoS1FdtloAi4ot, WA4VSo
very entertainingly of THE Future of
Our Lumber Industry" He says:
When we think of the early lumber
ing days in Minnesota, we think of the
time when the saw mills were the prin-
cipal industries in Winona, Winton,
Little Falls, Saltwater, Minneapolis,
Duluth, CloQuet, Spooner, Baudette,
Tower, Virginia and International Falls.
In each of these places as many as a
dozen large saw mills were operating
at the same time. Some of these points
produced as much as a billion feet OF
lumber a season.
The woods were full of the ungainly
but picturesque lumberjacks. On pay
days, these lumberjacks could be seen
staggering along the streets OF nearby
cities, the object of amusement not
only of small boys but even men and
women. They drank not until the sup
ply of liquor ran out but until their
supply of money ran out. When they
had no more money, they went back to
their lumber camps-again to work,
again to get paid on pay day and again
to get drunk to the gillS."
The old lumberjack, as We used to
know him, is gone-gone more COM
pletely than our forests of white and
Norway pine. The real old-fashioned
lunberjack is like the wild pigeon or
buffalo, a species never to be replaced.
We think, as We read the pages OF
early Minnesota history, that working
in the woods was fun. It was the
exact opposite of fun. I remember the
time when President Mckinley was
aSSaSsinated. We were coming out OF
the woods where Alger Smith had a
logging camp. A group of old lumber
jacks, riding on the logging train, We're
discussing what ought to be done with
McKinley'S assassin. One suggested
claiming him to a tree and letting the
mosquitoes eat him up. There was I'M
animous consent, however, when an old
IriShman in the rear of the car said
that the punishment he would pre-
scribe would be to send the assassin
up in the woods for Backus for six
weeks of hard work.
To say that our forests were cut down
permiScuously with no thought of the
future as it effects either the industry
itself or the welfare of the entire
state, is to repeat something that every
body knows. The resentment against
this permiscuous destruction of the
forests was evident at an early date.
A certain incident, still in our early
numbering days, stands out very vividly
in my mind. It occurred at a picnic
held near the City of Duluth, one of the
first cut-oVer sections. Standing in the
shade of a few balsam trees which,
by some strange work of fate, were
spared from the lumberjack'S axe, a
Swedish preacher, delivering an in
vocation, became particularly eloquent
when he prayed; Let us raise our
voices to the Almighty God in fervent
thanks because Alger Smith was in
duced to spare these few trees so that
they could cover our heads while in
prayer" Alger Smith, by the way, was
one of the very early operators in the
City of Duluth where he had two large
Sawmills with an annual capacity of
200 5000 board feet.
The lumber industry started in
Michigan, the first great lumber-pro-
ducing state in the Middle West.
Michigan's great lumber heydey was
from 1870 to 1880. In those years
Minnesota was virtually untouched by
numbering operations. Casting about
for new fields to conquer, the lumber
mems eyes fixed themselves upon Min
neSota and Wisconsin wonderful terri
tory to exploit. The industry in Min
neSota and Wisconsin flourished until
about 1920 when the pricipal supply of
lumber, white and Norway pine, came
practically to an end.
Resentment on the part of the public
against destruction of our forests were
largely justified. In making our plans,
however, for the future, recrimination
should play no part; we should concern
ourselves only with determining what
were the mistakes of the past and in
benefitting from them. The lumber in
dustry as well as the entire state SUI
fered from these mistakes. If the in
duStry is to be restored, it must be on
the basis of permanency, not only re-
storing our forests to supply a per-
petual lumber industry but developing
the recreational and other values of the
forests as well. In such a plan, wild
life management must play very i'm
portant part.
According to survey recently made
by the Lake States Forest Experiment
Station, under the direction of DR..
Raphael zon, there are today approx
mately 100000 acres of what might
be classified as forest land. The
original forest area in Minnesota was
38,000,0O0 acres but of this 5000, 900
acres were cleared for agricultural
purposes and the remainder is land put
to park, resort and like uses. Nearly
a million acres are waste lands unfit
for forest production.
The forest cover today is vastly diff