The Wisconsin's Lumber Industry

The Wisconsin identity has been shaped and molded throughout its history largely due to the lumber industry. Lumbering, at one time, was the backbone of the Wisconsin economy. It brought forth other industries such as paper, leather, and furniture; it even brought hundreds of thousands of people to the state in search of occupation and opportunities. The development of this industry can be largely contributed to the geography and resources that Wisconsin has to offer. From the idea of honest work along with the location and sizes of it’s cities, Wisconsin has become the way it is because of the history of the logging industry.

At one time, white pine was the most desirable wood across the nation. Its lightness allowed it to be easily
transported across water easily, and since it was an easily workable wood it was a huge asset to carpentry. Around the 1830’s, white pine was being lumbered in the eastern part of the United States, but eventually the supply decreased which resulted in people moving westward in search for larger quantities of it. According to Forest W. Stearns, a member of the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame, “as the nation expanded, so did the demand for lumber” (5). This demand as manifest destiny occurred across the United States and is the reason that the Great Lakes Region became inhabited so quickly. Once settlers found these patches of white pine across this region, companies began to pop up all over the state, mills popped up along the rivers, and logging camps were created in order to harvest all of the precious pine.

What made Wisconsin such an ideal place to start logging was its geography and available resources.
At the beginning of the lumber era, Pine and Mesic forests ran across the northern part of the state. In an article written by the Wisconsin Historical Society, it is stated that, “The amount of pine harvested from the Black River Valley alone could have built a boardwalk nine feet wide and four inches thick around the entire world.(add page number)” That was just the wood taken from one section of Wisconsin; the amount of pine taken from the whole state is significantly more. It is because of these huge forests though that made rivers such an important geographical element to logging. The rivers that ran throughout the state connected everything together and encouraged settlement upon them. The most influential river for settlement and transportation was the Wisconsin River. It connected the Northwoods to the cities of Madison, Chicago, Dubuque and St. Louis. A majority of the wood coming down from the Northwoods was packed onto rafts and shipped downstream to the mills and cities along the way
(Stearns).

Although the geography was crucial, it also added some hardships. Initially, logging camps were set up next to the rivers, and it was easier to get the logs onto rafts or down by the river to ship downstream. However, as more and more trees were cut down, the further into the forests they had to go. In the same article by the Wisconsin Historical Society, it points out that, “Long distances between supplies and markets, bad transportations and roads made lumbering very difficult.” The more that the industry spread across the northern frontier of Wisconsin, the harder it became to haul the huge logs out of the forests and get supplies to those camps.

Even without the geographical challenges, lumbering was not an easy task. Everyday the dangers of logging presented themselves to occupants in this industry, but there was no way to prepare for them except to do the job perfectly. These tragedies include, but are not limited to, drowning, being crushed, or even falling due to illness, and all of these are induced by the slightest error. For instance, in the life of a rafter, rocks, rapids, currents, and terrible storms were life threatening. As a rafter on the Wisconsin River, Simon Augustus Sherman re-accounts tragedies associated with all of those things; more specifically, he recalls, "the raft ahead of ours struck Notch Rock and turned the whole rapids piece bottom side up, breaking it to pieces" (174). The potential for danger did not phase these men, however, as it was simply regarded as part of the job. As a result of the dangers, men in this industry had to be tough.

Logging was a very labor intensive, high stress, low reward job. It was a job that most people across the nation would not consider working today but it was a job that they took pride in and all the hard work that was poured into it. An average day for a logger consisted of a lot of hard work and close to no time off. As Recollection WI, a website that hosts Wisconsin history, puts it, after heavy physical labor for 12 hours in freezing, wet weather without even having 20 minutes off for lunch “the work day did not end with supper.” Loggers spent their time after dinner sharpening their saws, repairing paths for skidding and drying their clothes, and it was while they were doing these tasks that they were able to take time to talk and joke around. (Wisconsin Logging Book 1839-1939)

Wisconsinites have always prided themselves in honest, hard work and has become a mindset that has been passed down through generations. Despite mental and physical hardships of the lumber jobs, between 1840 and 1900, the majority of occupations held in Wisconsin were lumbering jobs. In the 1890 Wisconsin census, about 23,000 men worked in logging, 32,000 men worked in sawmills, and there were 450 logging camps stationed throughout the state. Although these jobs are not as common anymore, many Wisconsinites have farming occupations. Farming is an extremely difficult job that takes a lot of hard work, but Wisconsin has been well known for its agriculture and dairy industries. Today, residents maintain the mindset of honest work. (Wisconsin Historical Society)

The state has been majorly changed since the logging era.
Around the early 1900s, there was not any pine remaining. Logging companies had cleared the Great Lakes Region of its pine. Companies tried to log hardwood forests, but were not as successful as they were during the pine era. Overtime, the little towns that were booming during the logging times of success shrank and struggled, and it took a while for the economy to boom again. They also left behind an aftermath of stumped fields for “agriculture.” According to the “Industry that Changed the State” by Wisconsin Historical Society, “immigrants were invited to the area and encouraged to try to turn acres of pine stumps into farms. They had little success.” As it stands today, majority of Wisconsin is non-forest, but in select parts there are small Maple, Aspen and Birch forests. Agriculture/dairy have become the major industries in the state, which is a huge 180 degree turn from what it once was. (Forest W.
Stearns)

Logging was the industry that has shaped our state into what it is today. Wisconsin’s opportunities for success was the draw for people all over the world. Although it was a difficult, it was a job that changed the Wisconsin culture to a mindset of hard, honest work. It has brought upon new industry throughout the state such as dairy and agriculture and has physically changed the state into a hardwood state. The effects of this industry on the state often go unnoticed, but is the reason why Wisconsin has become the state it is today.