A typical logging camp scene from 1889 is depicted, with several men identified in writing on the photograph itself as John VaHaNiemi, Sackri Tan, and Eli Albertson, who was labeled as "The Boss" in the photo. One of the largest logging operations in the area, it was known as the Albertson Camp and was located on the west side of Church Avenue near its junction with the North Cloquet Road.
This photograph of the A.M. Miller sawmill and crew in front of the mill building shows water barrels on the roof. The barrels were used to attempt to put out fires. Some crew members are sitting on a lumber pile located there. Andreas M. Miller's sawmill was located approximately one mile north of the Village of Thomson on the Midway River.
This photograph depicts the A.M. (Andreas M.) Miller sawmill and a large crew on the mill grounds, with railroad tracks in the foreground. A.M. Miller's mill was located approximately one mile north of the Village of Thomson on the Midway River.
The proud employees of the Arrowhead Co-Op Creamery Association pose in front of a fleet of six or seven Arrowhead trucks. The man in the truck is John Antilla; on the hood of the truck is Walter Stenman. From left to right, in the upper row, are Frank Rooney, Ben Mallinen, Hjalmer Mattinen, Anton Oak, Elmer Oak, Orrie Stenroos, Clarence Stenman, and Arvid Peterson. The men in the lower part of the photo are Erick Mattson, Bill Mattson, Benharte Pentilla, ? Juntelinen, Hugo Sarkela, and Carl Hultberg.
The photograph shows the Arrowhead Co-Op Creamery Building with 14 Arrowhead Creamery trucks, plus the staff, in downtown Esko. To the far left is a portion of the Lincoln School. The photograph was taken on the north side of present day Highway 61, looking south. As of 2011 the site is occupied by the Esko Post Office building and its parking lot, as well as a part of the museum site. The figures in white appear to be male employees of the Creamery, except for the one on the farthest to the right with the shorter white skirt, who appears to be a woman, perhaps a secretary or a office worker.
The proud staff of the Arrowhead Creamery are posed in front of their fairly new delivery truck. From left to right at Charles Marks (or Charles Markus, as his name is written on the back of the photo), the chairman; Charlie Stenman, Albert Olson, Evertt Mylymaa, Niila Seikula, Andrew Wolanen, Nels Johnson, Charlie Antilla, Oscar Johnson, A.L. Winterquist, and T. Larson, Manager.
The Esko Co-Op Store, depicted in this photograph, was located at the intersection of Highway 61 and the Canosia Road. Note the cars parked around the store, from 1948 to 1955 models. The two men are not identified.
This is a photograph showing the first storekeeper of the first general store in the area, Henry Ruikka, and his family on their farm located on the edge of the Village of Thomson.
The center figure in the photograph is Henry Ruikka standing in his general store that was located in the Village of Thomson, Minnesota. Located 3.5 miles from the town center of present day Esko, it was much easier to travel by horse-drawn wagon to buy supplies here than to make the arduous, day-long round trip to Duluth. This was one of the first stores in the area, and early Thomson Township and Esko residents traveled to the Village of Thomson by horse and wagon to buy their home and farm supplies. The Village post office was also located in this store. It was reportedly the first Finnish business establishment in Carlton County, having been established in 1891.
This is the house of the first store keeper in Thomson Township in the very early days, Henry Ruikka, his wife, and their eight children, with two bicycles in front.
Depicted are several men inside the first Co-Op Store in Esko in the early 1930s. The larger man, second from the left, is Jalmer Hannula, and the eighth man from the left is Erick Raisanen. The store, built by the Cloquet Co-Op Store Society on property acquired in 1926, was on the north side of Highway 61 West. Although the framing mentions the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Canaletto View in Vence, it was mounted in a frame that had previously housed this Venetian scene, exemplifying the thriftiness of people during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
This photograph shows a logging crew, consisting of Henry Perttula, Jonas Perttula, William Perttula, Emil Kangas, Waino J. Heikkinen, and an unidentified man. Sitting are Abel Palkie and Adolph Peterson.
This photograph shows Albertson's Logging Camp Crew and horses at work in the woods. It is one of a series of 41 photographs titled "Logging on the Midway."
Local woodsman Mike Mattila is standing in a large pine stump which appears as if it is going to devour him. The fact that this massive stump was hollow indicates its core had rotted out by the time the photo was taken. Whether Mattila felled the tree himself is not known, but if he did, he most certainly used something other than the tool in his left hand.
Depicted in this photograph is A.M. Miller's sawmill and yard in Thomson, Minnesota. The Midway River can be seen in the background. Andreas M. Miller operated his sawmill here from 1872 to 1891.
The top photo on this panel shows Waino Heikkinen, to the left, and Ed Tan, right, renovating the Palkie gristmill in the gristmill building at the museum in Esko, in 1963. The second photograph shows, from left to right, Andrew Maunu, Eli Juntti, Jack Holm, and Charles Anderson finishing landscaping work at the Palkie gristmill building and the Finnish memorial monument at the museum. The bottom three photos show the historical society members re-assembling the gristmill wheel in the gristmill building at the museum, again in 1963. The original spelling of the surname was Palkki, and the Americanized version is Palkie.
Esther (Sarkela) Huuima wrote that this photo was from a sawmill in Thomson. She identifies her father and her brother, Hugo Sarkela, in the photo, as indicated by the two ink check marks. The check mark in the back center of the photo marks the father, and the checkmark in the front center indicates Hugo Sarkela. Note the four fire fighting water barrels on top of the roof, as well as the teams of horses and wagons. The man in the back with a black suit is probably the boss of the operation.