Lawrence Schmalzbauer's logging and sawmill plant at Kingsdale, Minnesota, provided seasonal employment for New Brighton area men who needed work in the winter. In 1925, a forest fire in the area roared out of control and destroyed Schmalzbauer's uninsured sawmill, bringing the enterprise and employment to an end.
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."
View up the Rainy River showing the proximity of Canadian log sorting booms, mill site and adjacent dwellings in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada to the Minnesota border (in upper right corner). Photo taken from the Canadian National Railway bridge at Baudette, Minnesota.
MacGillis & Gibbs Company employees in 1925 with their horses. Much of the early heavy work was done by horses and hard-working men. MacGillis & Gibbs Company and Bell Lumber and Pole provided employment and added to the economy of the community for many years.
MacGillis & Gibbs Company employees with their horses as they transport telephone poles. The company specialized in the treatment, production and distribution of telephone poles from 1919 and employed many New Brighton men. The firm treated telephone poles and lumber with chemicals to preserve the wood, which ultimately contaminated the soil and made its way into groundwater. In 1984 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared both MacGillis & Gibbs Company site and an adjacent pole company, Bell Lumber and Pole, as a Superfund site. The cleanup continued until 1993.
MacGillis & Gibbs Company workers with their horses as they transport telephone poles. The company specialized in the treatment, production and distribution of telephone poles beginning in 1919. The company employed many New Brighton men.
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.
Red Cliff lumber company sawmill was located at 512 39th Avenue West from 1902-1913. A rollway is an artificially inclined surface used by lumberjacks to slide logs into a waterway for transport.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections