Remembering Our Ancestors Through Genealogy

A History of Iron County Michigan by Jack Hill Published in 1955, "A History of Iron County Michgan" gives the history and other interesting facts about this Upper Peninsula county. The book was originally printed in two columns. In order to improve the readability of the pages on a web browser it was converted to single column by combining every two original lines. With this exception the transcription was done without changes or corrections. Chapter 8 - Lunbering In Iron County

34     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     Chapter VIII   LUMBERING IN IRON COUNTY      In order to enable the reader to a better understanding of the early lumbering history of Iron County, it is fitting at this point to brief- ly review the beginnings of the industry in the Upper Peninsula as a whole, early market demands, types of forests available, trans- portation, etc.    The greatest contributing factor leading to the exploitation of the forests of the Upper Peninsula was the rapid expansion of settle- ment throughout the middle western states during the last half of nineteenth century. This created a strong demand for durable building materials of all kinds and at reasonable prices. The stock for this material was available in quantity in the local regional forests, the first choice and selection being the white and red pines and the cedar. In addition to durability and ease of manufacture, these species were of sufficiently light weight to withstand trans- portation by floating down the network of streams of the watersheds to the deepwater outlets on the Lakes. From this point the forest products or manufactured materials could readily be transport- ed in lake freighters to the markets of the lower lake ports.    The local forested area being situated in the Lake Michigan watershed, we thus find the first small waterpowered sawmill be- ing erected on the Marinette side of the mouth of the Menominee river in 1832. The enterprise was headed by Farnsworth Brush who reportedly dispossessed the local Indian trader of his post site for their mill. It will be remembered that this date was four years be- fore the Indian title to the Menominee River basin lands was clear- ed by the Federal Government and also twenty-one years before the government officially opened same for purchase. The second small sawmill to be stationed at this point was one erected by Charles McLeod in 1841. The third mill was one of six million board feet annual capacity that was constructed by a Dr. Hall in 1844.    While the lumbering industry of the Upper Peninsula appears to have had its beginnings along the mouth of the Menominee River, the first major milling operations in the Peninsula were actually conducted at Flat Rock near the mouth of the Escanaba River. This was in part due to harbor facilities for here the lumber could be placed directly on the lake sailing vessels whereas, at the mouth of the Menommee River, all shipping necessitated handling on barges or smaller craft over the bar to the freighters anchored in deeper waters.    Some three years before the first government lands were opened to sale along the eastern end of the Peninsula in July 1848, we find Jefferson Sinclair, Daniel Wells and the Ludingtons, Nelson and Harrison engaged in the lumber   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     35   industry along the Escanaba River. Several years later came the Stephenson brothers, Isaac, Samuel and Robert, William Holmes and others. These gentlemen were mainly young men from the forest operations of New Brunswick, Canada and northern Maine.    In 1846, the Sinclair & Wells Company were cutting timber twenty-five miles up the stream. By 1852, the work had advanced to within thirty miles of the new village of Marquette and the com- pany supply road became the connecting link between that outpost and lake transport at Escanaba. In addition to the manufacture of lumber, the operators specialized in the procurement of spars and masts for the shipping and other industries. Due to excessive length, these masts were lashed to the sides of the freighters in transport to the lower lake ports.    Until the year 1850, all the sawmills were water powered and oxen and horses were used in woods work. All shingles were made by hand up to this time, the stock being transported in the form of four foot long bolts to the company owned yards in Milwaukee and Chicago for processing. Horses were maintained on the lake boats to power the winches for loading and unloading cargo and during storm periods, they were securely lashed to the decks to prevent the possibility of being washed overboard.    The relatively untouched timber lands along the Menominee River were opened to public purchase through the Government Land Of- fice at Menasha in the year 1853. The minimum price asked was $1.25 per acre and the Escanaba operators and others immediately made purchases of timber lands and began the construction of up- to-date mills of large capacity. The operators selected the mouth of the river for their mill sites, the northerly shore community becoming known as the village of Menominee.    The panic of 1857 retarded development for several years and it was not until the inflationary period of the Civil War that removal of the pine was undertaken on a large scale. In 1858, the lumber market was nearing bottom when first grade pine lumber was selling in Chicago for $7 to $8 per thousand board feet. Many of the woodsworkers of this time were of German descent. There were also woodsmen of various nationalities that had followed the trade from the earlier operations of Maine and Pennsylvania. The first Scandinavians came to the outposts in 1848.    It is well to bear in mind that the settlement frontier of 1860 extended almost due west from the town of Green Bay and into the state of Minnesota. With the exception of small settlements at Escanaba, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette and Houghton, the Upper Peninsula had less than two inhabitants per square mile. Meno- minee County was organized in 1863 and the total vote cast in an election of that year was 55.    In 1866, there came into existence an organization of wide in- fluence in pine logging circles and whose authority eventually ex- tended to the very sources of the streams of Iron County. This was the Menominee River Manufacturing Company or more com- monly known as the "Boom Company", that was formed for the purpose of driving, sorting and dividing the logs of the various companies. The original company was organized by Harrison Luding- ton, Isaac Stephenson and Augustus C. Brown.    In 1872, this company was reorganized, expanded and incor- porated and by the year 1881, the company embodied most of the milling concerns when H. Ludington was president, I. Stephenson, vice president, J. Ellis, secretary-treasurer and H. Ludington, I. Stephenson, F. Carney, A. C. Merryman, S. M. Stephenson, Jesse Spaulding, A. A. Carpenter and W. O. Goodman comprised the Board of Directors. In the year 1874, the affiliate companies of this organization were in possession of between Eighth and Ninety thousand acres of Iron County timber lands. These lands were,   36     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, NTICHIGAN   however, still a part of Marquette County at the time.    The Boom Company associates constructed numerous small dams on the feeder streams to augment the forty major dams of the parent company and in this manner removed the bulk of pine timber from our county. Only the best logs were taken and in the waste- ful days of 1889, the logs sorted at the Menominee boom, many of which came from Iron County, averaged 192 board feet. It is in- teresting to note that in 1916 when the Boom Company was dissolved, the average log scaled 31 board feet. At its height, the company handled over seven hundred million board feet of pine annually and during its lifetime of fifty years, over eleven billion board. Each spring when the drive was completed, the Menominee river was covered with a solid mass of logs above the booms for a dis- tance of between eight and ten miles.    For purposes of identification at their destination, each company or shipper had an individual log mark. The only log mark recorded in Iron County was that of the Oliver Iron Mining Company which had a star closely fitted within a circle. Other operators were earlier shippers from other areas and had their marks record- ed elsewhere.    It is extremely difficult to trace accurately the advance of lumber- ing operations into the lands of Iron County. Land purchases be- came common, especially along the streams where the logs could be readily transported, immediately after the Civil War. In the absence of controls, large blocks of government lands are reported to have also been unlawfully denuded of their timber resources.    The earliest record available however, is the construction of eight mile road for logging purposes from Badwater on the Meno- minee river to the Michigamme river by Crawford & McKillop in the autumn of 1875. While some logging may have been done prior to this time near the confluence of the Brule and Paint rivers and the Michigamme and Menominee, this appears to be the first record- ed entry.    It is known that the early mineral explorers encountered aban- doned logging camps near the site of the St. Paul railroad depot in Iron Mountain in the year 1879. In the same year, the firm of Hamilton & Merryman had an active camp on the Brule river north of Florence. In 1881, Carney Dam on the Brule river east of Pentoga was noted by the first settlers on their way to Iron River and pine logging operations were in progress at the moment.    In 1882, the Iron river was cleared in preparation for log trans- portation by the Menominee River Lumber Company. This company started the removal of the pine during the following year when camps were erected and the logging begun on the Resthaven Cemetery flats. The first logs went down the stream in 1884. The Iron River area was somewhat behind the Crystal Falls district in timb- er removal for in the latter year, some thirty camps were in opera- tion from that railhead.    The lumbermen appreciated the extension of the railroads into the county and large warehouses stocked with supplies were main- tained at Crystal Falls. When the railroad was completed from Iron River to Watersmeet in 1887, the companies placed their ware- houses near the Elmwood station. The Kirby, Carpenter Company, one of the larger operators in that area, had their headquarters camp some six miles north of the station on the North Branch of the Paint River. The site is now occupied by the Phil Boyington summer cabins.    This company completed their operation about the year 1898 and the pine logging era was rapidly coming to a close. One of the large pine mills of the county was situated at Atkinson and is covered else- where in this work.    Until the year 1890, the skidding and much of the other heavy work involved in logging was done in large measure by oxen. The Kirby, Carpenter Cornpany maintained a summer rest camp for their oxen   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     37   and horses on the lower Paint river in Section 25, Town 42, Range 32. When good draft horses became more plentiful, the slow mov- ing ox was retired and they became a rarity after the year 1900.    One logging railroad was used in the county for the transportation of pine logs. This was the narrow gauge road constructed by William Holmes and Son in 1886. The line extended from a point south of Sagola in a northwesterly direction to the Michigamme river and was used for a period of six years to move the logs from the woods to the river.    As the end of the pine era neared, the lumbermen turned their attention toward the utilization of other species. The next to come under the ax were the elm and basswoods. Most of this timber was manufactured into cooperage stock by the Buckeye Stave Com- pany that located in Iron River in 1897. These species were found scattered throughout the hardwood stands and required consid- erable and widespread search in their removal. Much of this stock was shipped by rail to upper Wisconsin mills for manufacture in later years.    In the year of 1900, more than one-half of the virgin timber of the county was still practically untouched. These consisted of the hardwood stands that covered the heavier soil of the highlands. Due to the density of most of this timber, it could not be floated to the mills. The railroads had however, provided an outlet with extension, across the county to the north and west and in the latter year we see the entry of the first large-scale logging and milling operators.    This was the Hood & Mahoney Company. This company secured possesion of a large tract of timber lying south and east of Chi- cagoan Lake and set up a large mill on the railroad thus founding, the Village of Pentoga. Two years later, a very large hardwood milling works was erected at Crystal Falls by the Crystal Falls Woodenware Company. This company specialized in the manufacture of butter dishes and clothes pins. Many mills of slightly lesser capacity were in operation at various points throughout the county in the following two decades. While their total output was great, it was merely a fraction of the quan- tity shipped as logs direct to the mills of Iron Mountain, Hermans- ville, Menominee-Marinette and many other points in the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin.    To facilitate the removal of timber from the more remote areas, several of the lumber companies constructed their own rail- road systems to their tracts. The logs were then loaded direct on the cars in the woods and moved to the main line by Company owned locomotives.    By the year 1930 the bulk of virgin hardwood stands had been removed and about all that remained were isolated tracts of in- ferior quality and some holdover reserves of several corporations. During this period, the swamp lands were also cleared up, the balsam and spruce being in demand for pulp, the tamarack for mining timber and the cedar and hemlock mainly for railroad cross ties.    Like the pine logging of the preceeding generation, the hard- woods were also removed on a clearcut basis and nothing of merchantable value was left on the land. No thought was given to forest conservation practices until the last few years of this era when several of the larger operators inaugurated programs of selective logging. This was rather an experiment over small areas and was insignificant in relation to the total area devastated    The lumbermen now turned their attention to the scouring of former slashings for any merchantable stock that may have been overlooked and the removal of natural reproduction, especially those of the fast rowing aspen species that had recently come into general demand.    Drawing conclusions from the actual experiences of the author in various branches of the log-   38     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   ging industry during its height, it may well be said in respect that the wasteful practices employed were most unfair to our forests. The policy followed by all alike was to cut out and get out. Had we but preserved only those stalwart and sound young trees that went into the manufacture of railroad cross ties and those that were consumed as car stakes in railroad transportation of logs, our forests would now be far advanced toward the modern objec- tive of a sutsained yield.    Local logging operations have always been more or less seasonal in nature. This was especially true during the days of the sleigh haul when it was necessary to maintain many miles of roads along the wet lowlands and water coures in a deeply frozen state to sustain the weight of the heavy loads.    In logging one    section (640 acres) of timber, the preparatory work was ordinarily begun during the months of July or August. This work consisted of surveying the lands, estimating the tract for volume and species, marking out the roads and determining the camp site.    The surveys in the virgin timber were not difficult as the line markings and corners established in the original surveys of 1851 were in most cases, readily discernible. Where greater accuracy was desired, the field notes of the General Land Office surveys, which are on file at the county seat, were referred to. Many wit- ness trees bearing the iron marks of the original surveys, may still be found throughout the County, deeply imbedded in the century of of growth.    The methods often used to determine the volume of timber on a tract were the strip cruise or the spot check. In the former, several compass lines were run across the area and all trees estimated with- in a specified distance along both sides of the line. In the spot check, an estimate of all the trees within a specified radius would be made at uniformly measured points along the compass lines. From the results of these estimates was computed the volume by species and total volume for the tract.    The plan followed in laying out the roads was that of making a complete circuit with the main road, within the tract to be logged. From this circuit, branch roads or spurs were advantageously situat- ed at approximately 600 foot intervals. All roads were planned with a view of maintaining the least resistance to the transportation of the logs during the skidding and hauling operations. Roads properly constructed and maintained in a well iced condition permitted one team of horses to transport twenty ton loads of logs with ease.    The objectives in selecting a camp site were a central location for convenience of operation and the availability of water. Most of the earliest camps were situated on lakes or streams. These re- quirements however, have been modified with the advent of trucks and tractors into the logging operations in recent years.    Construction of camps was usually started in the months of August or early September. In order to remove the timber from one section of virgin forest, accommodations were required for sixty men and twenty teams of horses. The camp of this size usually consisted of two bunk houses for the men, a combination kitchen and mess building, two stables, a blacksmith and repair shop and an office building.    All were made of logs, hastily put together, with low walls and small windows. Queen post roof covered with lumber and sealed with heavy tarpaper. were provided to withstand the weight of accumulated snow. Several skylights on each structure furnish- ed additional light and ventilation. In many of the camps the mess building and bunk house were erected end-to-end with a roofed storage space for wood and other supplies situated between them. With the completion of the camp in September, work was be- gun on the roads. In the days of the pine logging, this was a con-   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     39   siderable task. The loads that were hauled were of sixteen foot width and therefore required a minimum road width of twenty feet. The grading of the roads was done by hand labor or with the aid of teams and scrappers. With the beginning of hardwood logging, load widths were reduced to twelve feet. During the progress of the road construction through the area to be logged, the sites of the rollways were cleared and prepared for the logs.    In the latter part of September or the first days of October would begin the cutting and skidding operations. Strips of timber, sever- al hundred feet wide were allotted to each gang of sawyers, who felled and cut the trees into logs. All logs were cut to ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen foot fengths.    As the felling advanced, the team would follow to skid the logs to the rollways where the teams was engaged in decking them into piles twenty feet in height.    With the arrival of snow and freezing temperatures, the roads were plowed and iced. The soft swamp sections of the road were reinforced with pole corduroy and tramped by foot to aid the freez- ing process. The icing was generally carried on during the colder temperatures of the nights.    The tank used in this work was constructed of plank, and was twelve feet in width, sixteen feet in length and having a depth of six feet. The runners of all the sleighs being spaced eight feet apart, two vents were therefore provided to release the water along the path or the runners as required. A single horse was used at the watering hole to draw up the barrel which was used to fill the tank Many nights of icing were required to build a six inch depth of ice to sustain the heavy loads to come.    In January, when the snows became deep and the cutting and skidding were about completed, the hauling commenced. All the hauling sleighs being of uniform width, a rutter was drawn over the iced roads to cut grooves into the ice. These ruts served to keep the loaded sleighs on the road.    Extra sleighs were provided for loading crews in the woods that the haul teams may not be detained in keeping an endless stream of logs moving to the landing. The length of daylight ordinarily governed the working hours of the loading crews while the haul teams returned to camp at late hours of the night.    Additional icing of the roads was done currently as the needs required. At the landing, the, logs were again decked into high roll- ways along the bank of the stream that they may be readily released into the floodwaters of spring at driving time. The hard- wood logs which were removed at a later period, were generally decked along a spur track of the railroad or immediately loaded for shipment onto the cars from the sleighs.    The cook was one of the important men in camp. His word was law in the kitchen and mess room. If for any reason however, he failed to prepare adequate and well prepared meals, he was in- vited to leave the premises by a delegation chosen by the crew.    In the preparation of the meals, the cook was assisted by one or two cookees whose other duties consisted of serving the meals washing the dishes and general kitchen and mess room main- tenance.  A standard rule of the mess room was that no one engage in conversation during the course of the meal and was strictly ad- hered to.    Other personnel of the camp included the barn boss who tend- ed the horses and the bullcook or chore boy filling the water bar- rels, maintaining the lamps, sweeping and scrubbing the floor and delivering and serving the noonday meal to the crews in the woods.    As a rule, the hauling was completed before the warm spring sun made the roads impassable. On some occasions however, it be- came necessary to haul during the cooler temperatures of the night   40    HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   in order to remove the last of the logs.    The early logging operations of the hardwoods were carried on to a large extent like that of the pine. In the ten years following 1915 however, four logging railroads were constructed to facilitate the removal of the timber from some of the larger holdings. These were the Weidman Lumber Company railroad situated in the extreme northwest corner of the county the J. W. Wells Lumber Company railroad in the Hagerman Lake area, the Patten Timber Com- pany's road northeast of the Village of Amasa and the Sawyer, Goodman Lumber Company road in the southeast corner of the county.    Following World War 1, the mechanization along all industria lines brought about revolutionary changes in logging also. About the year of 1920, the steam hauler and large tractors, capable of hauling an amount equal to the loads of twenty teams of horses were introduced. These however, were only of some ten years in use when they were replaced by trucks and logging became less de- pendent upon the seasons in its operation.    Large bulldozers replaced the horses in road making and other heavy work and small tractors took over the skidding of the logs. Gasoline operated jammers unloaded the trucks and placed the logs on the railroad cars, work formerly done by horses. Electric light plants have replaced the kerosene lamps and in recent years, power saws have been introduced for felling and cutting the trees into logs.    With the logging of the hardwoods came also the more exten- sive utilization of the swamp timber species, the spruces, bal- sam, cedar and tamarack and upon their removal, the denudation in most areas was complete.