The Logging Era

Article

Many volumes have been written about the logging of northern Wisconsin. It is beyond the scope of this project to attempt to retell the entire story. The bibliography provides useful sources for those who want to pursue that study. Excellent books are found in all of the local libraries and bookstores. Rather this topic, as it evolves, will present information specific to Star Lake and the local area, or necessary to understand what was going on in Star Lake.

To give readers a concept of the scale of the logging in Wisconsin, consider the following from the 1932 Report of the [Wisconsin] Committee on Land Use and Forestry:

"The original forests of Wisconsin comprised about 30 million acres. The total stand of timber can only be approximated, but it is certain that it exceeded 200 billion board feet.

"In 1898, and estimate by Roth, published in Bulletin No. 1 of the Wisconsin Geological Survey, entitled Forest Conditions of Northern Wisconsin, based on census figures and a state-wide canvass, showed that to that date a total of 103 billion feet of pine had been cut. And estimated 26 billion feet of pinehad been wasted in logging and fires, and 8 billion feet of hardwoods had been utilized. Althgether 137 billion feet had been thus accounted for. Since 1898, there have been cut and manufactured 21 billion feet of pine, 18 billion feet of hemlock, 18 billion feet of hardwoods, and one billion feet of miscellaneous softwoods, a total of 58 billion feet. During this period an additional 4 billion feet was wasted. The total yield of Wisconsin forests many thus be placed at 200 billion feet.

"These figures take no account of the considerable amount of timber produced by farmers or sawed by very small mills, nor do they include the large quantities of fuel, mining timbers, railway ties, piling, ship timbers, cooperage, wagon-stock, and other products locally produced and counsumed and not included in census figures. Quite probably these uses would aggregate another 15 billion feet."

Major logging operations in the Star Lake area began with the arrival of the railroad at the end of 1894. The sawmill in McKenna, Wisconsin, owned by Williams and Salsich, closed in September of 1894. It was transported by the Milwaukee Railroad to Star Lake and reconstructed. Thus began extensive logging operations in the Star Lake area. Ghosts pp. 33 & chap. 12

However, the DNR believes that there was logging of white pine in the 1880s in the area between Star and Plum Lakes in the area which is now the Plum Lake Hemlock Forest State Natural Area. Plum Lake SNA.

Charles P. Forbes

August 31, 2009
Bibliography

Comprehensive References

Let the Chips Fly!, National Geographic World (undated clipping), Washington, . View Full Entry

Butler, Beverly, My Sister's Keeper, New York, 1980. View Full Entry

Cornell, Richard, Knights of the Spike-Soled Shoe, Lumbering on the Chippewa, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 89, #4, Summer, 2006, pp. 38 ff., Madison, 2006. View Full Entry

Dombeck, Michael, Forests that Sustain Us, Wisconsin Trails, 45 #6, Dec. 2004, pp. 44-49., Black Earth, 2004. View Full Entry

Dunn and Lewis, Eds., We Were Children Then, Volume II: Stories from the Yarns of Yesteryear Project, Madison, 1982. View Full Entry

Forest History Association of Wisconsin, Logging & Lumbering Museums in Wisconsin, Education Leaflet #2, Wausau, n.d.. View Full Entry

Gard, et al., We Were Children Then: Stories from the Yarns of Yesteryear Project, Madison, 1976. View Full Entry

Gates, Paul, Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University, Madison, 1965. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., Hurley ... lumber company closed its mill down today..., Minocqua Times, August 27, 1896,, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., The Gerry Lumber Co., of Eagle River, closed..., Minocqua Times, August 27, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Kanetzke, Howard, Ed., Wisconsin Lumbering, Badger History, 1966, Madison, 1966. View Full Entry

Larson, Agnes, White Pine Insustry in Minnesota, Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series, Minneapolis, 2007. View Full Entry

Lawrence, Lee E., Wisconsin Ice Trade, The, Wisconsin Stories, Madison, 1980. View Full Entry

Pohlman, et al. (ed.), Wisconsin Land Legacy Report, Madison, 2006. View Full Entry

Rector, William, Working with Lumber Industry Records, Wisconsin Magazine of History, 33:4, June, 1950, Madison, 1950. View Full Entry

Rohe, Randall, Evolution of the Great Lakes Logging Camp, 1830-1930, Journal of Forest History, Jan. 1986, pp. 17-28., Durham, NC, 1986. View Full Entry

Rowe, Alan, Diver's Guide to Historic Wisconsin Lakes, A: Book Three Forgotten Logging Camps, Milwaukee, 1980. View Full Entry

Whitney, Gordon, From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain, New York, 1994. View Full Entry

Wisconsin Committee on Land Use and Forestry, Forest Land Use in Wisconsin, Madison, 1932. View Full Entry

Major References

Northwoods Wisconsin, Minocqua, n.d.. View Full Entry

Star Lake Deserted, Scrobell, Early Times, 1988; Orig. Minocqua Times October 3, 1907, Minocqua, 1988. View Full Entry

Star Lake Sawmill Closed, Scrobell, Early Times, 1988; Orig. Minocqua Times July 26, 1906, Minocqua, 1988. View Full Entry

Flambeau Mill: The First Hundred Years, The Timber Producer, No. 4, April 1996., Rhinelander, 1996. View Full Entry

Star Lake, Eagle River Review, May 23, 1895. p. 5, Eagle River, 1895. View Full Entry

Star Lake, the terminus of...., Rhinelander Democrat, Feb. 23, 1895, p. 5., Rhinelander, 1895. View Full Entry

The question of building a road...., Eagle River Review, May 16, 1895. p. 5, Eagle River, 1895. View Full Entry

Timber Question, The Central, Jan. 17, 1871, Wausau, 1871. View Full Entry

Aylward, Richard C., Misc. Papers of Richard C. Aylward, M.D. (Doctor at Star Lake until 1908), Star Lake, 2018. View Full Entry

Boyd, Gregory, Family Maps of Vilas County, Wisconsin, Deluxe Edition, Norman, Oklahoma, 2010. View Full Entry

Clark, James, Wisconsin Pineries, The: Logging on the Chippewa, Chronicles of Wisconsin, Madison, 1956. View Full Entry

Corrigan, George, Calked Boots and Cant Hooks, Park Falls, Wisconsin, 1976. View Full Entry

Ellis, A. G., Upper Wisconsin Country, Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. 3, pp. 435-452., Madison, 1857. View Full Entry

Ferber, Edna, Come and Get It, Prairie Classics No. 2, Madison, 1991. View Full Entry

Flader, Susan, Ed., Great Lakes Forest, Minneapolis, 1983. View Full Entry

Fries, Robert, Empire in Pine, The Story of Lumbering in Wisconsin 1930-1900, Sister Bay, WI, 1989. View Full Entry

Gard and Sorden, Wisconsin Lore, Orig. Published in New York by Duell, Sloan and Pearce [1962]. This is a paperback edition., Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1980. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., Dr. M. and Tom Harvison, of Star Lake, came..., Minocqua Times, July 30, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., The base ball game..., Minocqua Times, September 10, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Idler, Star Lake Breezes, Minocqua Time, March 19, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Kanetzke, Howard, Ed., Wisconsin Women, Badger History, Vol. XXXIII, #1, Sept. 1979, Madison, 1979. View Full Entry

Karshna, Jerry, comp., "Flambeau Mill: The First Hundred Years", Timber Producer, April 1996, pp. 34-36, Tomahawk, 1996. View Full Entry

Lapin, Carly, Plum Lake Hemlock Forest SNA, NHAL State Forest Visitor's Guide, 2018, "Natural Community Spotlight,", P. 13, Minocqua, 2018. View Full Entry

Larson, Agnes, White Pine Industry in Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2007. View Full Entry

Miazga, Vicki, White Pine Lured Lumbermen North, The First 100 Years, 1888-1988, Centennial Edition, p. 88, Minocqua, 1988. View Full Entry

Nelligan, John Emmett, Life of a Lumberman, Milwaukee (?), 1929. View Full Entry

Ring, Wilson, Timber! Lumberjacks Fading from the Northern Forest, Hartford Courant (AP), Website, 2016, Hartford, CT, 2016. View Full Entry

Risjord, Norman, Ten Events that Shaped Wisconsin's History, Wisconsin Blue Book, 1999-2000, P. 99ff, Madison , 1999. View Full Entry

Rohe, Randall, Ghosts of the Forest, Vanished Lumber Towns of Wisconsin, Volume I, Marinette, 2002. View Full Entry

Rosholt, Malcolm, Wisconsin Logging Book 1839-1939, The, Rosholt, Wisconsin, 1980. View Full Entry

Shafer, Mary, Wisconsin: The Way We Were, Minocqua, 1993. View Full Entry

Swanholm, Mary, Lumbering in the Last of the White-Pine States, St. Paul, 1967. View Full Entry

Wausau Regional Writers, Wausau Regional Writers Anthology, Volume 1, Stevens Point, 1974. View Full Entry

Wells, Robert, Daylight in the Swamp, Ashland, 1987. View Full Entry

Wells, Robert, Fire at Peshtigo, Double volume: Fire and Ice, Two Deadly Wisconsin Disasters, Madison, 1983. View Full Entry

Minor References

"...the Star Lake....", Minocqua Times, May 15, 1895., Minocqua, 1895. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., J. F. Scholtz, of Star Lake, was arrested for selling liquor..., Minocqua Times, March 12, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Hooper, C. W., ed., The Modern Woodman of America camp...., Minocqua Times, December 17, 1896, Minocqua, 1896. View Full Entry

Hooper, C.H., ed., ...Mercer has the contract..., Minocqua Times, August 22, 1894, Minocqua, 1894. View Full Entry

Phelps, Wisconsin, Chamber of Commerce, Phelps, Wisconsin, Visitor's Guide, 2012 edition, Phelps, 2012. View Full Entry

Sprayer, Star Lake Sprays, Minocqua Times, June 12, 1895, Minocqua, 1895. View Full Entry
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The Logging Era

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