Retrospect--Meed of Praise.
It is hoped that the foregoing pages have thrown some light upon the
peculiar occupation of the pioneer woodsman as he is related to
lumbering in the Northwest. There has been no attempt to do more than to
give a plain recital of some of the events that have occurred in the
experiences of one man while pioneering in this special field of the
great timber and lumbering industry of the Northwest. Another, engaged
in the same pursuit, might easily relate his personal experiences of
equal or greater scope than have been herein portrayed, for not all has
been said that might be of the woodsman's secluded life.
The occupation of this type of man is fast being eliminated, and soon
his place will be known no more. In fact, the time has already arrived
when there is no longer any primeval forest in the Northwest into which
he may enter and separate himself from others of his own race. Railroads
have been built in many directions into these vast forests, and the
fine, stately pine trees have been cut down and sent out over the lines
of these railroads. Men and their families have come from various states
and from foreign countries, and are still coming to make for themselves
homes on the lands now denuded of their once majestic forest trees
towering high, and overshadowing all the earth beneath with their green
branches and waving plumage.
[Illustration: "Prepare their fish just caught for the meal, by the open
camp fire." (Page 180.)]
The neigh of the horse, the low of the cow or the ox, and the laugh or
song of the child is now heard where twenty years ago in summer time,
stalked fearlessly the moose and the deer, where roamed the bear at
will, unmolested, safe from the crack of the white man's rifle.
The schoolhouse springs into existence, where a year ago were stumps and
trees. The faithful teacher, fresh from one of the normal schools or
colleges of the state, comes into the settlement to train the minds and
to help mould the characters of the future farmers, mechanics,
statesmen, or financiers; of the doctors, lawyers, judges; or honored
wives and mothers. From this ever increasing supply of the newly-born
Northwest, are coming and will continue to come, some of the most valued
accretions of good citizens to the commonwealth of Minnesota.
Farms are yielding their first crops to the sturdy husbandman. Pleasant,
comfortable homes meet the eye of the tourist from the city in summer as
he motors over the fairly good roads of the northern frontier. He enters
little towns carved out of the woods, and finds, now living happily,
friends whom he had known in the city, who are ready to welcome him. He
camps by the roadside on the shore of a lake, or on the bank of the
Mississippi whose waters flowed on unobstructed in the earlier days
herein recorded, but now are harnessed for the better service of man.
Here he brings his family and friends to fish and to lunch, or, better
still, to prepare their fish just caught for the meal, by the open camp
fire. He continues his journey through this unbroken wilderness of less
than a generation ago, over improving roads, to the very source of the
Mississippi River that is within five minutes' walk of Lake Itasca. Here
is a refreshing bit of natural pine forest, owned and preserved by the
state of Minnesota, where he and his friends may find shelter for the
night, and for a longer period if desired.
In concluding this subject, I am actuated by a desire to manifest my
appreciation of the fine manhood possessed by many men whom I have
known, the best part of whose lives has been spent similarly to my own,
in the extensive forests that once beautified and adorned the great
Northwest.
The occupation is one which demands many of the highest attributes of
man. He must be skillful enough as a surveyor to always know which
description of land he is on, and where he is on that description. He
must be a good judge of timber, able to discern the difference between a
sound tree and a defective one, as well as to estimate closely the
quantity and quality of lumber, reckoned in feet, board measure, each
tree will likely produce when sawed at the mill. He must examine the
contour of the country where the timber is, and make calculations how
the timber is to be gotten out, either by water or by rail, and estimate
how much money per thousand feet it will cost, to bring the logs to
market. The value of the standing pine or other timber in the woods is
dependent on all of these conditions, which must be reckoned in arriving
at an estimate of the desirability of each tract of timber as an
investment for himself, or for whomsoever he may represent.
Possessing these qualifications, he must also be honest; he must be
industrious; he must be courageous. He must gain the other side of
rivers that have no bridges over them, and he must cross lakes on which
there are no boats. He must find shelter when he has no tent, and make
moccasins when his shoes are worn and no longer of service, and new ones
are not to be obtained; he must be indefatigable, for he will often be
tempted to leave some work half finished rather than overcome the
physical obstacles that lay between him and the completion of his task.
On the character of this man and on his faithfulness, his honesty, his
conscientiousness, and on the correctness of his knowledge concerning
the quality, quantity, and situation as to marketing the timber he
examines, depends the value of the investments. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars are invested on the word of this man, after he has disappeared
into the wilderness and emerged with his report of what he has seen. The
requisitions of manhood for this work are of a very high degree, and,
when such a man is found, he is entitled to all of the esteem that is
ever accorded to an honest, faithful, conscientious cashier, banker, or
administrator of a large estate.
[Illustration: "He continues his journey ... to the very source of the
Mississippi River". (Page 180.)]
Is he required to furnish an illustrious example to prove the worthiness
of his chosen occupation, let him cite to the inquirer the early manhood
days of George Washington, who penetrated the forests from his home in
Virginia, traveling through a country where savages roamed, pushing his
course westward to the Ohio River in his search for valuable tracts of
land for investment, and surveying lands for others than himself.
His occupation is an honorable one, and those who pursue it with an
honest purpose, are accorded a high place in the esteem of those whom
they serve, and with whom they associate.
The Pines.
"We sleep in the sleep of ages, the bleak, barbarian pines;
The gray moss drapes us like sages, and closer we lock our lines,
And deeper we clutch through the gelid gloom where never
a sunbeam shines.
Wind of the East, Wind of the West, wandering to and fro,
Chant your songs in our topmost boughs, that the sons of men may know
The peerless pine was the first to come, and the pine will be
last to go!
We spring from the gloom of the canyon's womb; in the valley's lap
we lie;
From the white foam-fringe, where the breakers cringe, to the peaks
that tusk the sky,
We climb, and we peer in the crag-locked mere that gleams like
a golden eye.
Gain to the verge of the hog-back ridge where the vision ranges free;
Pines and pines and the shadow of pines as far as the eye can see;
A steadfast legion of stalwart knights in dominant empery.
Sun, moon and stars give answer; shall we not staunchly stand
Even as now, forever, wards of the wilder strand,
Sentinels of the stillness, lords of the last, lone land?"
Transcriber's Notes
Inconsistencies in the placement of quotes before or after periods have
not been changed.
Pp. 36, 123: "fiancé" changed to "fiancée".
P. 93: "empounding" changed to "impounding" (the necessity of impounding
the waters).
P. 169: "sufciently" changed to "sufficiently" (I moved just
sufficiently).
P. 181: "similarily" changed to "similarly" (similarly to my own).