HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 23 -The Forests


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Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and
Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the
Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People,
Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State;
Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial,
Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief
Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the
Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875.  Free
Press Print.  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

CHAPTER 23 -The Forests

Next to the fertility of its soil, the great West owes its
development and prosperity to the forest abounding near the
sources of the grand river by which it is drained, together
with those on the tributaries of the Great Lakes, and very
much of the soil of Wisconsin would be utterly worthless and
incapable of sustaining even the sparsest population, where
are flourishing villages, were it not for the advantages
derived from the near presence of a vast forest of pine,
hemlock, oak, maple and other valuable timber, in the
northern and northeastern portions of the State. And
although reference has frequently been made to the business
of cutting and manufacturing this timber into lumber, in
these pages, it is believed that a more extended and
detailed account of these operations, particularly of the
people engaged therein, modes of life, methods of
prosecuting the work, face of the country, etc., would
constitute and interesting chapter in this work.

A line drawn from the northern extremity of Lake St. Croix
to Kilbourne City would describe the general course of the
boundary between the prairie, or measurable timberless
region, on the southwest, and the unbroken forest extending
in the opposite direction to the great inland seas; varied,
however, by the occasional projections "of timber into the
meadows," as the big woods on the Eau Galle, and the
peninsula of pine woods on Robinson's Creek.  As we ascend
any stream crossing this line, the sold along their banks
becomes sandy, the grass and other vegetation stunted, black
pine take the place of oak timber, the beds of creeks and
sloughs change from the sluggish, muddy appearance of the
Western prairies to a clear, crystal sand or gravel, and the
water a pure, limpid rivulet. These sandy plains are
frequently of considerable extent, but, as before stated,
partially covered wit a certain kind of pine called 'Black
Jack,' are not the kind of soils on which valuable White or
Red 'Norway' pine timber grows, but may be said to mark the
boundary between the timbered and prairie region of the
Northwest. Bogs and abrupt, sandstone peaks, and ridges and
other indications of a characteristic change in soil, and
its productions, but the soil best adapted to the growth of
sound, white pine timber is a damp, heavy, rocky clay. But
the production of pine timber has not been solely dependant
on the nature of the soil, although this is an essential
element, but upon many concurrent circumstances; for no tree
grows in our forest that has so many enemies as the pine.
Towering in its best estate high above all other timber, the
fury of the winds, pay high carnival with its stately forms.
The lightening, too seems to delight in driving its shafts
down its tall, spire-like top, and shattering its trunk by
the subtle fluid that mock all human control.

Many diseases fasten themselves upon this tree during the
long centuries required for its maturity, and, like all
other trees, suffer much from being too much crowded
together, and as the feeble ones die out and fall against
their fellows many injuries are inflicted, causing decay
that extends to the whole tree, sometimes affecting the
'heart' and eating out the interior, year after year, as
successive layers or grains are formed on the outside.
Something in the soil, also, seems to favor this center rot,
or, as the choppers say, causes the tree to be 'hollow
butted,' for it frequently happens over an area of forty
acres, almost every tree of suitable size is hallow near the
ground. In other localities, great numbers of trees will be
found to be afflicted with 'ring rot,' where giant streaks
of decay, in alternate and consecutive circles, extend
around the tree, indications of which are pretty sure to be
discovered on the outside, or bark, in the shape of 'punk
knot,' and requiring long experience and mature
discrimination to distinguish the sound from the unsound,
for, like men, their outside appearance is often deceptive,
and hence the pay of a veteran timber hunter, like that of
experts in detecting other counterfeits, is very liberal. In
many other respects the pine tree is liable to receive
injuries that depreciate its value as lumber, where no rot
exists. Owing to some peculiar characteristic in the tree
itself, or the soil on which it grows, or, as some say, to
the force of the winds, the trunk becomes 'shaky,' the
grains, or annual formations of wood, being separated, and
destroying its value for any purpose as lumber. But the
worst of all enemies is fire, and when we consider the great
length of time required to grow one of these stately
evergreens, the wonder is so many attain a growth so perfect
in size, symmetry, and usefulness. Some pine trees are of
very rapid growth, while other mature very slowly. Of more
than a hundred trees suitable size for logs, the consecutive
annual grains or rings, of which I have on different
occasion counted, the indications were that a period from
one hundred and fifty to sixteen hundred years is required
to grow one of these noble plants to full-size treehood.
Only think of the tine seed that floated heedlessly down
from the lofty bough of some parent stem, when Christ was on
earth, and nestling under the falling foliage of deciduous
trees, found protection until the genial influence of spring
opened the germ and it took root in solid earth, and through
summer's heat and winter's cold and all the dangers of its
situation, in spite of storms and lightning's subtle shaft,
the stem that was once so feeble that a breath would have
wilted it, now stands before us a majestic tree, and all to
provide the ungrateful children of men with lumber to build
their houses. But the men who chop down these giants old
trees regard not their age nor the lessons they teach, nor
do they, or the men who own the land on which they stand,
nor those who manufacture their trunks into lumber, see
anything but money in or about them; so much per thousand
feet 'stumpage,' so much for hauling, and so much in the
raft for sawed timber.

Each of these classes of individuals have their
peculiarities, but in one respect are very much alike; they
all require tools to work with, and the speculator in pine
lands generally makes use of a pretty keen set. Their method
of communication is sometimes very shrewd, and like the
Irish lover's dream, 'always goes by contraries,; so that
outside are always in the dark as to their real meaning. The
agent and timber hunter, however, is a free and easy fellow,
aside from his business, and, unlike his employer, spends hi
earnings with the recklessness of a sailor. But the boys who
chop, saw, haul, and drive the logs are a jolly, independent
set of fellows, the old line veterans especially, whose
winters work, but disdain all other kinds of work, spending
a few months of each and every summer in prefect idleness.
But when the time comes for them to go up the river, in the
fall, the highest wages are always given to these
experienced woodsmen. Those men plan or lay out the work for
the ensuing winter, erect the camps, open the roads, bout up
supplies, and make all the necessary arrangements for the
winter campaign, and with them everything is reduced to a
perfect system; they require no 'bossing,' for every man
knows his own business, and every man works without the
presence of an overseer.

With the march of progress in all the various industries in
the country, the logging and lumber interest has kept more
that even pace, and as compared with the management of the
same kind of business in Mane and the Canada some forty
years ago, the improvements are very great; and no
particular are they more apparent than in the mode of
living, the construction of the camps being more house like,
with comfortable cooking and sleeping apartments separate;
the tables being always well, even sumptuously, furnished,
and the beds well supplied with blankets. In tools,
bobsleighs, and all other implements, there are marked
improvements which enable operators in this business to
perform a greater amount of work in a given time than
formerly. And when these are combined with the wonderfully
improved machinery and facilities for manufacturing logs
into lumber, it is not surprising that the business is
overdone, and that our pine forests are slaughtered with a
rapidity and recklessness painful to contemplate.

Man's destructiveness is so prominent, and his disposition
to appropriate what nature has already provided so greedy,
that all of its bounteous provisions none are so unsparingly
sacrificed as the trees which have required ages to grow,
and the time has now come when the people of this valley
should consider these things with a view of greater economy
in the destruction of timber. In New York and Pennsylvania,
in many localities, hemlock has taken the place of pine, --
the latter have long since been cut away - and for many
purposes is found to be an excellent substitute. For
scantling and all kinds of square lumber, hemlock might be
used by our mills, which would save so much pine for future
use. Large quantities of this valuable timber are utterly
wasted, chopped down and pealed for tanbark, consumed in
clearing land, and thrown down in felling pine timber,
causing constant waste that our children will have reason to
deplore.