Minnesota Digital Library

Interview with Charlie Wight, Part 1, Beltrami County Historical Society Oral History Collection, Bemidji, Minnesota

Interview with Charlie Wight, Part 1, Beltrami County Historical Society Oral History Collection, Bemidji, Minnesota
Vandersluis speaks with Charlie Wight, timber cruiser, on March 14, 1953, in the doctor's office. Wight talks about where he was born; his family's move to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; lumbering activity in Western Wisconsin; whether there were any Native Americans living at Chippewa Falls; birch bark canoes on the Chippewa River; his grandfather helping install the first turbine wheel at the Chippewa River; his grandfather helping install the first turbine wheel at the Chippewa Falls mill; the reaches of the Weyerhaeuser company; how they moved lumber down river by rafts; brailing logs; and pool companies that took over on the Mississippi. Wight then discusses working as a cookee at a camp in Wisconsin; driving a one-horse tram car at the mill; where men from the mills went in the winter; toting supplies; learning the timber estimating business as a compass man with Billy Woods; how they travelled to the land they were cruising; supplies they packed; what areas they cruised; finding section corners scribed into trees; seeing the Red Lake-Leech Lake trail and other trails; what they saw on the north shore of Lake Bemidji; a bridge near Lake Andrusia and any other bridges; about the Farmer-Hines railroad; where he went after that first trip; mills and bridges at Brainerd; the Gull River Lumber Company's narrow gauge railroad; other cruising jobs; and early fires. Next, Wight discusses his acquaintances with Marcus D. Stoner and Sam Dolgaard; some logging operations around Turtle River; Dan Freeman logging at Long Lake; Freeman and Gray splitting up; where Bagley started working for Walker; about S. C. Bagley; Bagley's nephew, Buzzle; where logs went from Mallard Lake; and which loggers collaborated. This record contains parts of multiple interviews. Please refer to the transcripts for help understanding these.
1953-03-14
English
BCHS129a2
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