At the turn of the 20th century, logging and forest products were Wisconsin’s number one industry. First using the rivers and then extending the railroads, logging in Northern Wisconsin employed tens of thousands of men, created jobs and was the forerunner to the paper industry that’s one of the state’s most important today.
The logging industry was fickle and once the most easily cleared and accessible forests were logged and expansion out west became possible, the industry changed its focus to the vast, virgin forests of the Northwest.
A lot of logging history focuses on the height of production, but we don’t often get a look at what life was like as the industry was declining in the post-World War I Depression years. Men led migrant lives in the Northwoods, looking for work as many of the mills closed and work was scarce everywhere.The industry changed as the towns that had grown looked for new ways to use the land.
- This picture of the men working at Lugerville Mill, which operated from 1909-1933, shows the size of the operation.
Flickr/Mark Kaletka
- The logging industry has always relied on Wisconsin’s network of rivers to move the logs from the remote forest locations to cities for milling and distribution. Here’s a log jam in Eau Claire in the 1930s.
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- The industry was boom or bust and in the 1930s was well on its way to the latter. Jobs were scarce everywhere and the industry had mostly moved west.
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- Many of the logging workers were migrant workers who moved from town to town, following the work. In the waning years of Wisconsin log boom, men traveled up north looking for any way to earn money.
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- This man is working to clean up debris and clear areas that were haphazard after the logging operation had moved on.
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- Many of the towns that exist today in northern Wisconsin had their start has logging towns. The work this man is doing helped clean out the areas and make way for new uses of these lands.
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- Expanding railroads into the northern part of the state transformed the industry and allowed mills to be built closer to where the logs were being harvested.
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- Logs no longer needed to be shifted downstate, but could be moved freely through the north for processing.
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- During the Depression, men headed up north to try to find any work they could, clearing debris or salvaging logs.
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- These men are walking back into town from the forest because the job they were on was completed. They would move on to the next town looking for more work.
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The logging industry was a huge part of Wisconsin’s past, shaping many of the communities we know today, opening the Northwoods for settlement and leading to one of our biggest industries today – the paper industry.
Flickr/Mark Kaletka
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Looking for more Wisconsin history? Check out These 13 Hidden Gems In Wisconsin Hold Historic Keys To The Past.
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