Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-11-23
One HI IL n Ire d Twenty
eight Men are at Present
Employed on 325-Acre
Tract of Land.

cry of 325 acres located in Sturgeon
Lake township in Sections 25-26, 21a
miles north of Willow River and the
same distance south of Sturgeon Lake,
is now under way. It was established
there because of the natural soil and
growing conditions of the jack and
Norway pine trees. r. w. Mandel,
superintendent of this work, came
from Hibbing in September and is
busy arranging for the nursery build
ings and getting the ground in shape
for planting.
Mr.. Mandell will also have charge
of the dam construction across Will
low river at the old mill dam site
and the construction of about 35 miles
of telephone lines into and around
the nursery grounds. This is large
amount of work to perform and will
take about three years to complete.
Many Workmen.
H. H. Williams, WPA foreman of
Brook Park, has charge of crew
of 1913 men at the present time, all
local except about 26. Their numbers
include carpenters, masons, mechan-
les, engineers and general helpers.
They are at present making cement
blocks with a hand machine.
These are made in suitable form
and when taken from the machine
are on a small wooden platform the
size of the block. This is placed in
drying room and sprinkled with
water and taken care of in this way
for several days before being placed
in pile outside the building for fur
Their drying. The blocks are pro-
cessed in this way for % days before
they are strong enough to place in a
building.
Roy Wood and Joe McLevis are
busy repairing j. l. Case steam
engine and when ready to run will
be the power for large cement block
machine. They will need about
10000 of these blocks to complete
the proposed buildings.
The Proposed Camp.
The kitchen, building about
4OX1O0 feet, is under construction
and the main building, 90x20O feet,
to be located in the center of the
plot, will be used as a storage room
for trees, carpenter shop, general re-
pair shop and pumping plant. The
basement is eXcavated and other work
will go on as soon as possible.
There are two drilled wells, one
ia feet and the other 80 feet deep
They have repaired the old farm
buildings that will be used until new
ones are built Mr. and Mrs. Roy
Peterson and children are living in
the house. The log barn was re-
paired for tractor sheds and other
buildings are used for making these
cement blocks. The whole place has
been properly brushed" and slash
ings have been piled and burned
Every tree has been saved where
possible. Suitable windbreaks have
been left and plans for other wind
breaks are in progress.
Large Forest to be Seeded.
Five million trees of the jack and
Norway pine varieties will be seeded
in the spring on the 46 acres where
all stumps have been removed, and
the land plowed and treated with
pulverized peat. When the stumps
are taken out, all roots are cut off
and the stumps are used for fire wood
and the roots are piled and burned.
These seedlings will be protected
from rabbits and other small animals
by fine mesh wire fence. AS rab-
bits are destructive to small trees,
that animal will be destroyed when
ever found. However, there will be
some game such as a tame deer,
woodchuck and fox, brought in and
protected. These seedlings will be
Watered by overhead automatic
sprinklers about $50 feet apart. The
main road will be 80 feet wide with
a space of so feet for place to plant
trees for the purpose of windbreak.
A Temporary Camp.
The temporary buildings now in
use were brought here from Togo,
sleeping structures with about seven
hunks in each. One cook camp is
managed by Lloyd Henderson, cook
from Grand Rapids, who has been
in the State Forestry service for
period of ID years, at times working
in other departments other than cook
ing.
VI
for lighting the buildings and for
other purposes. About one-half mile
north of the B. B. Prachar farm road
is the main entrance to the nursery.
At that point modern residence will
be built as will also an office and a
warehouse. This will all be land
scaped and will be one of the beauty
SDOtS alOn0 the hiohWav