Book Review-History is Our Heritage

History Is Our Heritage

By Col. W.G. Hoar

History/Logging

1968

144 pages

White Birch Printing Company

Former Glory: The Shell Lake Lumber Company

What a cool book! This title is for anyone who is looking for an in-depth view into the logging history in Northwest Wisconsin, especially as it relates to my hometown of Shell Lake, WI. The author, Colonel Walter George Hoar, was born in Shell Lake in 1898 and lived many happy years amongst the St. Croix and Chippewa Rivers. After his formative years, Walter joined the military and saw a fair amount of war. Some of the details and maps of his service are included in the last chapter of this book.

Speaking of chapters, this book has them, but the layout is a bit sporadic and does not always follow a straight line. There is some hopping around in the book, though the first four chapters detail the expansive logging industry in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The book gives great insight to the business dealings of Frederick Weyerhaeuser as he cut his teeth in the mill towns of Stillwater and St. Croix Falls. It would be Weyerhaeuser and a few others, namely the Lamb brothers that would go on to establish both the Barronett and Shell Lake Lumber companies as well as oversee the building of their respective mills.

Included are artifacts of the time like postcards, photos, and letters from the lumber company managers. Perhaps the most noteworthy are the maps! Not only do the cover inlays display colored plats of cutover lands in Washburn County, but there are also fold-out maps with a level of detail about Shell Lake lumber history here-to-fore unknown to many in my generation. Should you get your hands on a copy of this book, you’ll get to view Wisconsin as it was mapped in 1852, the entirety of the Crescent Springs Railroad and its many logging roads around Shell Lake, the original plat of Shell Lake, WI, and an incredibly detailed plat of the entire 60 acres of works at the Shell Lake Lumber Company.

The Perfect Spot, Naturally

The St. Croix River Valley was rife with wildlife and Shell Lake was no different. When Shell Lake was first mapped by European explorers, the natural bounty of frogs, clams, and trees was well known by the Ojibway people. There is reference in these pages of a well-established trail that led from the west shore of Shell Lake and connected to the old Mail Route that extended from St. Paul to Bayfield. As with many trails, this “mail route” was previously wagon trail, and before that is was a native trace known as the “Grand Footpath”. The trail had been used regularly to avoid the worst parts of the wild.

One of the more interesting quotes about natural wonders in the book is from Daniel Greyson DuLhut’s narrative of his explorations in 1680. His crew travels from Lake Superior, down the Burnt Wood River (now the Brule River) and then portages to the St. Croix River. He casually mentions that during the eight leagues of travel on the Brule he, “Had broken about 100 beaver dams.” I don’t know if I’ve seen 50 beaver dams in my life let alone on one trip down a river. Imagine the pelts! Where there’s beaver, there is wood…

As the Northwoods were conquered, axes first flowed up the rivers and their tributaries. Being the only way to move logs, rivers regularly became clogged with lumberjack mishaps. Much of the initial push in cutting timber within the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers was met with constant delays. In addition, they were limited to cutting only softwoods because they could be floated. When the pine along rivers and their tributaries became exhausted, movement of lumber on railroads was expanded. Thanks to these new railroads, heavier equipment could be hauled deep into undeveloped and forested lands. Instead of traveling logs hundreds of miles downriver to be processed, mills could be built where the trees stood, and they could cut valuable hardwoods like oak and maple. In short, when railroads were added to the mix, it was a whole new level of competition for mills on the riverways. Enter Shell Lake, WI.

Shell Lake Lakers, or Shell Lake Loggers?

There are no two ways to split it, Shell Lake was founded as a logging and mill town. Right down to the railroad positioned on the west side of the lake that would transport the goods from the soon-to-be-built depot, Shell Lake was a factory town at birth. Early in the development of Wisconsin’s layout, Weyerhaeuser, Lamb(s), and Company saw the getting was good; and they got all they could. The book does an admirable job explaining in detail both the machinations of developing mills in Shell Lake but also how it relates to their navigating the burgeoning lumber industry in the St. Croix River valley.

To catch up those unfamiliar with logging history in the United States: from 1840-1900, Wisconsin supplied as much as 25% of all the timber in the country. Our old growth white pine was a godsend after years of picking through the forests of the east. Up and down the sandy river outwashes the pine barrens of Wisconsin birthed tall straight trees that made perfect fodder for newly minted mills. Our timber was sent around the country and world constructing railroads, boardwalks, and mast poles.

Both Shell Lake and Barronett mills were plated in 1880, but it was the smaller Barronett mill that was finished first. Thanks to its reduced size, the Baronett mill was nimbler and was used to cut all the timber for the behemoth to be erected on the west shore of Shell Lake. By summer of 1881 a state-of-the-art, 80’x176’ sawmill began cutting some of the finest logs in the state and would do so for the next 20 years. Paired with a massive double boiler power plant and equipped with the most advanced machinery of the day, the Shell Lake sawmill could cut big logs, fast. And they did, by the millions of board feet (200,000 per shift)! Electric light and steam heat were provided to all buildings throughout the 60-acre site. In addition to the hundreds of mill workers, they also built lumber camps surrounding the lake, and for three years they filled the water with logs. A steamboat called the ‘Crescent’ was employed to gather and push logs to the mill. Perhaps this is first “Laker” on our waters.

A Railroad of Our Own: Crescent Springs Railway

There were so many pine trees surrounding Shell Lake, the lumber company had to build an entire railroad just to collect the logs and bring them to the mill. The Crescent Springs Railway was responsible for the trestle works over Corbitt’s Bay and built right-of-way’s all around Shell Lake. The Crescent sent tracks south of town, nearly to Barronett and spreading aast to Bear Lake and Sarona, and finally west out Sand Road well past Long Lake to Leach Lake. Thanks to the constant supply of timber fished from the woods by the Crescent, the Shell Lake Lumber Company could display its dynamics in ways other mills could only dream about.

Never before have I seen the plat of the Crescent Springs Railway in the kind of detail this book presents. Not only do you get to see our current roadways that were built by the lumber company, (“D” is a major one) but also labeled are many lumber camps and villages that sprung up (Skunk City!) This railway was a celebrity in its own right as it was often used for weekend outings and light travel by the locals. The sawmill expanded and so did the Crescent, and after a decade it would cover hundreds of square miles. This sprawling connective tissue of the swiftly growing town seemed to be unstoppable, but that all came to an end when forest fires began to eat away at timber tracts.

Firey Old Days

In the early 1890’s the 500-person mill town of Barronett, Wisconsin was as wild a place to live as anywhere in the great Northwoods. Comprised solely of a lumber mill, and housing for the workers to run it, Barronett was as rough as they come, but it was intrinsically tied to Shell Lake. Like many of the new towns sprouting up alongside railroads in the late 1880’s, Barronett had a singular focus, milling timber. Being new, small, and unincorporated, Barronett had no waterworks, nor could it boast a lake it to help keep flames at bay. Barronett did not know it, but it was a sitting duck for the hungry fires of 1894. In fact, they thought they were well positioned to weather hazards of the woods.

Burning slashing piles and logging debris was common during these decades and Barronett was no different. There had been years of drought and the whole summer of 1894 was dry, it was only a matter of time before these conditions gave way to a maelstrom of fire. The winds were right on that 1st day of September; rather, they were wrong. Dozens of out-of-control fires had been reported, and despite cutting a one-mile firebreak around the town, there were too many floating embers to keep the fire contained. Without a waterworks to speak of, total evacuation was the only route to survival. Once the fire caught in Barronett, in razed the town in minutes.

Luckily the only loss was to property, but it was ALL the property in town. Some of the inhabitants of Barronett fled south to Cumberland, others pushed north to Shell Lake. When the same fire spread north toward Shell Lake, some had to flee north yet again to Spooner. 53 houses in Shell Lake were claimed by the fire, along with a church and a few barns. It would have been far worse but for the 250 men of the Shell Lake Lumber Company, who’d worked for hours pumping, spraying, and clearing timber in preparation for the blaze. When all was said and done the Shell Lake Lumber Company mill was spared, but the entirety of the Barronett lumbermill, sheds, barns, depot, and every house and support structure were destroyed.

The Beginning of the End

Once the fires had subsided and proper examination of the burned over acreage could be analyzed, it was found the losses to the Shell Lake and Barronett Lumber companies were immense. Between the two, they held thousands of acres of unburned timber, but many were costly to cut and difficult to access. The remaining tracts of land owned by the logging companies would not be enough to plan for a future in Wisconsin. Since they hadn’t planted any new trees upon the first wave of cutting, there would be no lumber for the mill unless more timberlands could be acquired. At a meeting in 1895 it was decided not to rebuild the mill in Barronett, and all remaining timber would be brought to Shell Lake for milling. Without a sawmill to work, there was little reason for citizens to return to Barronett this ostensibly killed the town, for a while;)

Though the writing was on the wall, the Shell Lake Lumber Company trudged on. In the late 1890’s the company tried a pivot to focus on hardwoods, but another forest fire in 1898 destroyed more timber and eroded the patience for a waning industry. The planing mill stayed open for a while, but in October of 1902 the Shell Lake Lumber Company shut down the entire sawmill for good. Cut over and cleared tracts of land were sold to farmers and soon the agrarian state of Wisconsin would rise.

Disappearing Past

Sadly, little remains of either the Cresent Springs Railway, the Cresent steamboat, or the Shell Lake Lumber Company. All the narrow-gauge tracks were pulled up before the company left and engines from the railroad were relocated by Weyerhaeuser or sold. There is a photo in the book of the last run of the Crescent Springs Railway hauling valuables from the logging camps. The Crescent boat fell out of service and was beached for a number of years. Photos in the book show the waylaid vessel as a popular picnicking spot for a time. There is a rendering in the book explaining that the anchor from the Cresent was to be the center piece of a memorial yet to be constructed. Does anyone have information of that?

The mill was eventually sold and turned into a boat factory. Tragically, that structure burned in 1910. There are tales of the old mill whistle passing hands until finally being scrapped during war time. I for one would love to see the glory of the old days up close, the 37 saws, the anchor, and whistle. Until someone builds a museum to properly recognize this era of Shell Lake, this book will more than suffice.