(23) The Milwaukee Road line from Boulder Jct. The soft pine forests of northern and central Wisconsin provided a seemingly endless supply of raw material to urban markets. Retrieved 2-4-2018. In Manitowish Waters, residents had the unique opportunity to use pike poles to reach up to 20 feet in lakes to retrieve logs that sunk during earlier steamboat rafting operations. Some histories suggest that Peter Vance and his Ojibwa wife Sarah Mitchell Vance were the first long term settlers of Manitowish Waters during the logging era. Historic and Archaeological Sites of Oconto County In the lake states the examination of timberlands became a highly skilled trade. Rintelmans Journal-Focusing on Clear Lake with detailed histories of the Devine Family and early tourism. Vilas County. These northern woodsmen herded unruly logs downriver to their destination.(53) E Houghs article in 1895 contrasts loggers behavior and violence as being far worse than Western cowboys. 0. 2 Interview. 1. 1943. Cities such as Stevens Point and Wausau developed around mills. Time spent caring for animals was a major part of lumber camp life, as horses and oxen were the power sources that kept the logging operations running. Specifically, the 1842 Treaty codified the land cession for what would become Manitowish Waters Township. 84 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. (22) Importantly land grants from the Wisconsin Central reached the western border of Manitowish Waters, suggesting early railroad influence. Modern scholars divide logging and lumber industries into three different phases: 1) river drives of white pines 2) railroad logging and harvesting the remaining white pines, red pine, hardwoods and other trees and 3) post WWI small logging camps using trucks and tractors. Boulder Junction The Early Years: 1880 to 1950. Manitowish Waters was swept up in the national push for aggressive 19th century logging and land speculation. Page 283. But efforts to bolster the lumber industry in Wisconsin ultimately failed. Historic logging expert Paul Brenner also shares phase 1 river drive logging analysis, with specific insights regarding the stamping, driving and scaling of white pines for market. William Caxton Ltd: Sister Bay WI. Image # 98378. Images from the Loveless familys life on Alder Lake are proudly displayed at Mill Point Resort, and guests can celebrate their vacation in the context of a unique northwoods tradition. Phase 3 logging ultimately transitions into modern logging practices after World War II. It was the kitchen boat that was built on the flat below the dam: A scow with a house on top to enclose the kitchen, supply space and sleeping quarters for the cook. Humbly, avoiding drinking and brawling, Loveless worked diligently as a builder, hunter, lumber camp cook, trapper, market fisherman and guide.(82). Pages 106-107. Retrieved 2-3-18. The soft pine forests of northern and central Wisconsin provided a seemingly endless supply of raw material to urban markets. And then they'd open up the dams and what that caused was raise the river down below the dam for quite a ways and it would sluice the logs down over maybe so, Log jam and hoist/boom bewteen Vance and Sturegon Lakes. Rivers were a convenient means to transport pine logs from forests to mills. Located in the scenic Northwoods region of Wisconsin, Manson Lake is a beautiful 236-acre, spring-fed lake northwest of the city of Rhinelander in Oneida County. E: F-3: 642: 5/14/1933: Park Falls: Fifield: Riley Creek 16 mi. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Michael J. Dunn, III. Logs floated or skidded on ice to the mill pond were efficiently moved by log hoist to the saw mill. In 1862, the original land surveyors documented that pines on Rest and Benson Lakes were soon be taken to market (most likely illegally), marking the start of logging in Manitowish Waters. Paul Brenner. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters volume 79, No. Wisconsin Logging Museum:Home of the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp - Tripadvisor Consequently, Manitowish Waters created a private fire company run by town citizens, which remains as one of the few private fire companies in the state of Wisconsin. Koller Library. 37 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. 1905 marked aggressive competitions for logging railroad access to the communities in the Manitowish Waters area. 46 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. 27 https://mwhistory.org/secretary-of-war-journal-2nd-rest-lake-dam-1880/. (33) Recent research of deeds in the area of the Rest Lake dam suggest Weyerhaeusers Mississippi River Lumber Co. actually owned the land on Rest Lake until 1902 and only transferred ownership to the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company because the Mississippi River Lumber Company was to be dissolved in 1909. Additionally, you can visit the Lumberjack Steam Train website or Facebook page. Loveless family journals and accounts portray Robert Loveless as a highly resourceful young adventure, who reached the shores of Big Trout Lake in the dead of winter of 1891, with 36 cents. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Retrieved 1-26-2018. He was motionless, and when I went up to him I thought he was dead, but at length saw he was only paralyzed by pine woods whiskey. They shipped logs and boards downriver to St. Louis, and created towns such as Eau Claire and Black River Falls. These timber abuses did not go unnoticed by anxious land agents, speculators, logging interests, universities and out-of-state (absentee) capitalist. Wisconsin trees were made into doors, window sashes, furniture, beams and shipping boxes. If you find the first YouTube video enjoyable, this link to a Maine 1930s river drive film will be of internet as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIKCjQdxtO0. Eagle River, WI 12-21-2017. Retrieved 1-27-18. Paul Brenner. Retrieved 1-26-2018. Arguably, the most significant Manitowish Waters phase 2 logging route was the Chicago Northwestern line access to a government logging spur line for the Flambeau Lumber Company, beginning just south of the Powell depot to Little Star Lake by 1900. In 1933, using lumber donated from Dr. Mitchell's land and with the help of . May-Oct: Mon-Thurs: 8am-4:30pm. In the long run, the cutover land and dam construction modified Ojibwa traditional environments making traditional hunting, fishing and gathering more challenging.(63). The MWHS uses specialized archival software to provideeveryone access to historic images, narratives, stories, journals, maps, publications and media, both online and in paper form at the Koller Library in Manitowish Waters, WI. Bitter county tax battles followed with both sides engaging in ugly practices. This other picture is the Boulder Lake Dam. The wash cloth hung by a window above a logging camp wash basin, creating a moist and cool environment sustaining the offending bacteria. (55) Turner further argues, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave-- the meeting point between savagery and civilization.(56) Turners late 19th century scholarship guided frontier analysis for nearly a century. Eau Claire Marathon Road Closures on Sunday, April 30, 2023: Madison Street Bridge (6am-9:30am) Actually, logging companies would release and rebuild dam reserves throughout the spring to flash logs downstream. During the earliest Vilas County logging operations, long log drives from Eagle River to Stevens Point on the Wisconsin River, were matched by longer log drives from Manitowish Waters to Eau Claire on the Flambeau/Chippewa River system. Clearly, the fledging community of Manitowish Waters was emerging from the Chippewa Lumber and Boom operations and the expanded chain of lakes resulting from the Rest Lake dam. Growing-up at Alder Lake. As logging declined, logging companies began to promote northern Wisconsin's cutover land for agriculture. pp 13-31. A portion of southern Price County showing the Jump River is included. Board of Commissioners of public Lands. Retrieved 2-11-2018. (16) Early pioneers faced additional obstacles in owning their homesteads, including: liability for back taxes, recording fees, fines, and professional support to navigate survey complexities to ensure a deeds accuracy. In 1874 the Wisconsin Central (Soo Line) from Ashland, WI to just south of Fifield, WI marked the first regional railroad that impacted the Manitowish Waters area. The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University. Paul Brenner describes the Vilas and Turtle Lake Companies using railroad cars to create mobile camps on both main and spur rail lines. In addition to putting permanent camps up both the Vilas County Lumber Company and the Turtle Lake Lumber Company, which was at Winchester, had what they called car camps which were camp buildings put on railroad cars. For the purpose of clarity and consistency going forward, the Weyerhaeuser entity controlling the Rest Lake dam properties will be cited as Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company to align with nearly all modern historic accounts. pp 13-31. Vilas County. 1900's image of Rest Lake Dam and Mississippi River Logging Co. campSource: University of Wisconsin Stevens Point archives. 5) Constant dangers from logging and river drives may have taken a psychological toll, leading some loggers to adopt a devil-may-care approach to life. How Fur Is Caught II. Robert Loveless Alder Lake saw mill c. 1920Loveless Collection held in Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Since 1934 the Wisconsin Logging Museum has invited visitors to step back in time to experience an age when Wisconsin Pine was filling out rivers and supplying a growing nation. Written histories of lumber camp life often focus on food, as it was a monumental task to keep well-fed a hundred or more hungry men who engaged in heavy physical labor in cold, wet weather for more than 12 hours a day. CL&B's headquarters camp is today the present village of Boulder Jct. Logging Camp J In the 1920's in Northern Wisconsin Pages 133. The childhood insights of Ella (Loveless) Kassien illuminates the operation and impacts of her fathers mill, in her narrative, Milling Around: Milling Around. 51. I'm sure this is when they were using it but they don't show any logs coming through it. Koller Library. Before surveyor documents could be recorded with the government, private timber cruisers had previously conveyed to clandestine loggers the, rich timber resources of our community. History of Gruettner and Flancher familys time in Manitowish Waters. Buswell was just a few miles north of the northeast corner of Manitowish Waters Township, and sprung-up immediately upon the arrival of the Milwaukee Road Railroad. In 1903 the Milwaukee Road constructed a line between Star Lake and Boulder Junction to serve land in the Boulder Junction area owned by CL&B. Michael Dunns notes on lumber company complexes and distinctive equipment. Historian Malcolm Rosholt describes breaking for meals in the cold of the northwoods in The Wisconsin Logging Book 1839-1939 (1980): The food was brought out to the crews in acompartmentalized container strapped to the backof the lunch carrier, or hauled out in a single horsesled. The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University. By this method when the logs got down to the mills they were able to sort them out, each company having their own marks.(45). 52 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. Bundle with Chippewa Valley Museum main exhibit center and historic buildings. Cynthia Stiles. 2) The abundance of both commercially manufactured and locally distilled moonshine tended to escalate violence and poor choices in logging areas. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Koller Library. Finally, shortly after the railroads departed from Manitowish Waters and just after World War I, Robert Loveless created his Phase 3 sawmill on the northwest corner of Alder Lake. Establishing a winter logging camp involved much preparation: timber rights were acquired; timber cruisers estimated the volume of timber by species; supplies, sleds, tools, and food (for both people and animals) were purchased and hauled in to the work site; a work force was hired; dams for river log drives or railroad spur lines were constructed; and finally, bunkhouses, mess halls, and other buildings were erected. At Baers Mill Point Resort the trees remain largely uncut, with the mill pond and sawmill site featured as prized elements of the property. Thank you! 66 http://mwlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/logging. (27) Ultimately, the dam was moved upstream to its present location at the outlet of Rest Lake, likely because a, Source: Charles Allen Expedition 1878, Army Corps of EngineersYellow arrow indicates original dam site with 25 feet capacityRed arrow indicate actual dam site with 15 feet of capacity, local resident like Peter Vance might have suggested the goal of a 15 foot dam could be achieved at the Rest Lake outlet site with a fraction of the construction. The companies hoped to sell their land, and local governments wanted to encourage people to remain in the regions. 78 https://mwhistory.org/2016/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/1911-12-Report-to-State-Forester-Rest-L-Ranger-Station.pdf. Life of a Logger - Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center Flancher and the Peggy Line by Michael Dunn. Leading and trailing the drives were wanigans or cook boats, built below the dam for each year's drive. But if not then they decked them along the edges of the lakes and rivers and then when the ice went out in the spring they'd roll the logs into the water and they'd float down ever so slowly but they'd float down. CCC camps and historic logging camps The harvesting of timber was an important engine of the state's early economic development, just as it is today, and camps to support logging operations were built throughout much of Wisconsin. Michael Dunn and Paul Brenner have written extensively regarding steamboat use on the chain of lakes. Looking back at the logging years. Cal LaPorte shared that during phase 3 logging residents would take 20 foot pike poles and probe the lake bottoms discovering enough timber to mill into homes and businesses. Then the loggers might gather in the bunkhouse to play music or exchange stories while they repaired equipment or mended socks and mittens. State of Wisconsin Collections. Wisconsin Laws and Joint Resolutions. Putnam, also could delay land purchases by bureaucratically manipulating and holding records from sale. In practice, the Wisconsin Central or Soo Line provided limited service for phase 1 white pine loggers in Manitowish Waters. Wisconsin Historical Society. Click here to download GPS waypoints and POIs for all of the camps in Wisconsin in GPX format. Paul Brenners research suggests in 1888 a low dam at Rest Lake was constructed and later replaced by a high dam by 1892(36) While Michael Dunn suggests: In 1887 the state legislature authorized the lumbermen to build a dam there to pen up waters of the chain for logging and river driving. Page 1607. Archaeological sites | | Wisconsin DNR A brother to my husbands grandfather maybe worked in a Lumber Camp in Wisconsin in the beginning 1900. (13) Previously established logging interests and mill owners hated the new land grants, because central Wisconsin mills and loggers now had to share access to profitable government lands.(14). Then the rest of the water would be deep enough that the logs would float ever so slowly. Wisconsin History Highlights: Delving into the Past (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004); Nesbit, Robert C. Wisconsin: A History. 16. Wisconsin. In the lumbering regions the weapon is the fist and the hobnail. The behavior described above fueled some reform minded citizens to support temperance or even prohibition movements in this period and beyond. 1360 Regent Street #121 70 Interview: Craig Moore. Pages 74-75. Lumber camps were moved into the woods and increased in size. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Wisconsin Historic Society. 1895. (18) Honestly, in-depth analysis of late 19th century Northwoods land practices provides the perfect scheme for a rural version of the popular board game Monopoly. Where ever possible, the citations of these historians will be included to illustrate the Manitowish Waters area river drive logging. By the late 19th century, Wisconsin was one of the premier lumber producing states in the U.S.Logging was not very popular among the state's first white settlers, however. When the ice broke in spring, the logs were floated downstream to Oshkosh and other mill towns. Especially in hard times, the community benefited from local timber processed at the Loveless Mill. On the waters of the lakes, raised up to sixteen feet above their original level by the new dam, and thus spreading over a much wider area, the steamboat worked almost round the clock to shepherd huge rafts of logs to the dam. In 1878, the Army Corps of Engineersclaimed the Rest Lake dam site as one of the best on the entire Flambeau River system. Wisconsin Logging Museum-About Us Busswell Lumber Co. train Provider's name: Ticket to Buswell Facebook page URL: https://www.facebook.com/TicketToBuswell/photos/a.1635977279981942.1073741829.1635294486716888/1916015445311456/?type=3&theater, Phase 2 Railroad Logging of Hardwoods and Other Timber 1889 - 1929. Importantly, Michael Dunn has additional insights and details regarding river drives that corroborate Brenners narrative: Every few days a gate in the dam was opened and a large batch of logs was sluiced through, followed by a dose of water large enough to assure that the logs would float freely downstream but not enough to wash the logs ashore along the river's wandering course. Koller Library. Our Founding1931-1936. To conclude phase 1 logging analysis for the Manitowish Waters area a 1946 video of New Hampshire river drive logging will need to be viewed. Retrieved 6-7-22. Manitowish Waters WI 54545. Needless to say a hard work life in the woods back then. Explore a real logging camp, learn about the men who lived in them, and learn about the trees that built cities all across the country. 9 https://mwhistory.org/menu-page-for-maps-and-journals/maps-folder/original-survey-maps-from-the-manitowish-waters-area-1860s/manitowish-waters-42-05-east-1862/. 33 Doolittle, Shirley. Dirt, vulgarity, depravity, low-downness are the characteristics that meet you. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. Masking a deeper fear of death or crippling injury, loggers might live in the moment, embracing a more violent lifestyle to match their circumstances. in order to reach a large block of timber west of Papoose Lake. Another large spur branched off the main about 2 miles east of Lac Du Flambeau, 1903 Map of the Chicago Northwestern RailroadWisconsin Historic SocietyWHI Image ID 89632 OCLC number 708251495, and ran into the northeast corner of the reservation. In Manitowish Waters, the 1862 original survey citations of logs soon going to market were likely easily identified by either fresh stumpage or logs piled on the shore. Manitowish Waters Historical Society. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin: Madison. Retrieved 2-5-18. Government surveyors systematically recorded on bearing or witness trees both township & range coordinates, as well as section numbers. Map of Wisconsin treaties, including the 1837 and 1842 treaties with the Ojibwa, Modern historian Ronald Satzs exhaustive research reveals the disingenuous and manipulative treaty process that ultimately ceded most of the northern half of Wisconsin to the Federal government. Famed historian Fredrick Jackson Turner from the University of Wisconsin suggested in an 1893 groundbreaking speech entitled, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", that American democracy was mostly a product of the frontier experiences. (70) Early, plat maps reveal multiple logging companies using the same spur lines in the Manitowish Waters area around Rest Lake. Therewas no hour off for lunch, but twenty minutes atthe most with scarcely time for a smoke. Whenever they got to wherever they were going to log they put in an extra spur and then the camp was set up for whatever length of time that they were going to log in that area. Men who made it their trade to examine forest land for others were known as "land workers "or "timber cruisers." 2. Share. To keep ahead of the cold, the menate fast, standing up, or seated on a windfall. If anyone want to have contact with me for more information my mail is: anita.omsjo(at)telia.com. The challenge of concluding Logging Impacts on the Manitowish Waters Area and Land Policy is no small task. From 1909 until 1926 there were several spurs built off of Milwaukee lines in this fashion. Forest and Stream: How Fur is Caught II 1895, Forest and Stream: How Fur is Caught V Sayner-Star Lake 1895, Forest and Stream: How Fur is Caught I 1895, Forest and Stream: How Fur is Caught IV 1895, The Wisconsin Laws and Joint Relolutions 1899-Upper Trout River Dam, USGS Water Power in Northern Wisconsin 1906-Regional dams and basin data, Outers Magazine- Fish That Bite and Get Away by Harold W. Pripps with early details on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, Outers Magazine-Up to Lost Lake and Back -A Fishing Trip Without Fish 1918 by Harold W. Pripps. Phase 3 loggers needed a local mill to process their lumber and Robert Loveless had the perfect operation. Possibly by 1888, and certainly 1892 the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company could hold back 16 feet or more of spring runoff to drive logs. project. Our History - Lumberjack Steam Train Wisconsin Logging Railroads. In the spring, they drove their timber downstream to more than 1,000 mills. Pants rabbits, crotch crickets and seam squirrels cohabitated with many loggers during their tenure in the wilderness. electricity for the Sawmill complex and the village. Map and Download 242 Camps in Wisconsin to your GPS | Maps of all 242 Camps in Wisconsin (topo maps, street maps, aerial photos) Map and Download GPS Waypoints for 242 Camps in Wisconsin Click here to download GPS waypoints and POIs for all of the camps in Wisconsin in GPX format. Plat books make use of the Public Land Survey System to represent land ownership patterns on a county-by-county basis. By 1914 early court documents regarding a dispute between Manitowish Waters residents and the Chippewa & Flambeau Improvement Company regarding dam operations evidenced the dam was in terrible disrepair and needed to be fixed immediately. This was developed by me (Emily) with contributions from Joe Hermolin, president of the Langlade County Historical Society in Antigo. Both ends of the logs were usually marked anywhere from one to ten times depending how big the logs were. $20 Kid's BOO-gie Run) Wisconsin Logging Museum (Paul Bunyan Logging Camp) in Carson Park *8:15 am--Group Photo with Paul & Babe *8:30 am5K & 10-mile run/walk start *10:30 amAwards ceremony & Halloween costume contest . They had little success. Rail access to nearby Manitowish and Powell rail stations provided both supplies and passengers to support a budding tourist industry all before 1900. Fredric Weyerhaeusers Pool or Syndicate of 100 silent partners worked with Putnam and other land agents to monopolize much of the white pine along the Manitowish River basin. (26) Interestingly, after extensively researching and documenting a 25 foot head of water at the original dam site located a few meters downstream of the outlet of Vance lake, in 1880 the U.S. Congress changed the height of the dam to 15 feet. Open Saturdays 10 a.m.-3 p.m., July and August, or by appointment, call 715-276-3505. Wisconsin Historical Society. Historically, some unscrupulous logging companies took advantage of Ojibwa lands often supported by Indian Agents interested in transitioning American Indians into commerce and economic activities of the Euro-American culture. I'm not sure how much sorting, originally they didn't do any sorting when they went through the dam, but I suppose after they were going to the different hoists they may have been sorted, the logs may have been sorted at these booms.