John Schroeder was a successful parent, church leader and business person. Historical records of his community, church and family attest to that fact. As time passes, the depth of written history is often made more intense and personal due to the work of those who search for stories and facts found in personal accounts, letters, diaries and newspapers. The intent of this book is to use the story of John Schroeder to look at the places and events involved in logging around Lake Superior at the turn of the 20th century.
Telling how John Schroeder logged pine, other softwoods, and hardwoods in northeastern Minnesota and the Apostle Islands lends color and vitality to the past. Towering white pine were cut, rafted and pulled by tugs across Lake Superior to Schroeder's lumber mill in Ashland, Wisconsin. In addition, pine, hardwood, and pulpwood from Oak, Michigan, Outer, and Stockton buoyed Ashland's economy for more than 30 years.
At the Cross River in northeastern Minnesota, pines were cut and stacked through the winters of 1901 through 1905. In order for the Schroeder Company to get logs from the back country, changes were made to the Cross River. Seven dams were constructed to hold back water from the spring ice melt. This water transported the logs out of the woods. Wooden chutes and sluiceways were constructed through gorges and down the waterfalls to minimize log jams during the river drive. The top of the Cross River waterfall was dynamited and sheared flat to reroute the flow of water. Each spring, when the water was high enough, the river floated the logs down to Lake Superior where they were caught in a holding boom, then rafted to Schroeder's Ashland mill. Schroeder cut two hundred million feet of white pine from Lake and Cook counties in northern Minnesota. When this area was cleared, the company focused on the Apostle Islands.
FOREWARD
by Senator Eugene McCarthy
In some ways, this book fills out a family story about my grand-uncle, Jim Harvinson. Around the turn of the 19th Century logging in the pinery of the North Woods was second only to farming as a means of making a living in Minnesota. Like many men in my native state Harvinson worked at both. He was, by report, a big man, six-foot three or more and well over 200 pounds, and a bachelor. He worked his Minnesota farm in the summer. Winter, with his axes in a sling, Jim always headed north to work in the lumber camps until spring. I was also told he was a famous wood chopper, which implies many things the reader of this work will be able to appreciate as Mary Bell's descriptions of life in the logging camps unfold.
This book is also a historical fulfillment. It reports on an aspect of the economic development and to some extent the exploitation of the resources of the upper midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) for a period of almost 75 years, from 1850 to 1927. It tells of the initiatives of one businessman, John Schroeder, and the men--the lumberjacks, horse drivers, tug men, cooks, bookkeepers--who operated his enterprises. Common men doing the customary work of their times, like men of any other time, building their lives, and a country, from the things at hand.
REVIEWS
"An engaging, well-illustrated account of turn-of-the-century logging of Lake Superior's virgin pine and hardwood forests, as exemplified by John Schroeder and his company of Milwaukee, and their operations on Minnesota's North Shore and Wisconsin's Apostle Islands. Fun history!" --John C. Green, Department of Geology, University of Minnesota, Duluth
"Readers interested in the Great Lakes will find Cutting Across Time: Logging, Rafting and Milling the Forests of Lake Superior a useful and readable addition to the historical literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mary T. Bell's descriptions of the business of finding, cutting, and transporting trees and then turning them into lumber products help us understand how the western end of Lake Superior was developed economically and how it was radically transformed in the process." --Nina M. Archabal, Director, Minnesota Historical Society
"Cutting Across Time is a valuable addition to forest and conservation history in the Lake States." --Steven Anderson, President, Forest History Society, North Carolina
READERS' COMMENTS
"Cutting Across Time is a fine production, a splendid book, beautifully illustrated, wonderful use of color, in fact it goes far beyond my expectations when we first embarked on this project. You should feel wonderful satisfaction for producing such a fine product, and I am sure it will be a reference volume for many years to come. Everything about it is excellent." --Elmer L. Andersen, Former Governor of Minnesota, February 8, 1999
"In my humble opinion you are to be commended for not only writing a very accurate, but also extremely interesting biography of my grandfather, John Schroeder. After reading Cutting Across Time I now have a much better knowledge of my grandfathers full and active life and in particular his success in logging the difficult Cross River timber area. I am sure that my grandfather's present living descendants will enjoy reading your fine work." --Frederick J. Schroeder, Jr., March 6, 1999
"I just finished Cutting Across Time and want to commend you for an excellent book. It is easy to read and non-judgmental in terms of practices of 100 years ago. All we can say is . . . times have changed." --Paul M. Olson, President, Blandin Foundation
