Archie Logan discusses deadhead logs; where log marks were recorded; the lengths of logs; how logs were loaded on railroad cars; most prevalent species of timber; cedar yards around Kelliher; the logging railroad from Nebish to Red Lake; where logging took place in the mid-1880s; the logging railroad out of Crosslake; the narrow-gauge line at Gull Lake; smallpox in the lumber camps; quarantine in a lumber camp; and the source of the Mississippi. Leonard Dickinson is also part of the conversation. The recording is part of a series, continued from BCHS 115a, BCHS 115b, and BCHS 079a, and continued in BCHS116a and BCHS 116b.
Charlie Wight discusses the Duluth and Winnipeg railroad; various logging projects; the locations of lumber camps; Blakely and Farley; the locations of logging spurs; the Carver brothers; and the engine hill at Weaver Camp.
The interview with Henry Kolden was conducted by Dr. Charles Vandersluis on an unrecorded date in an unrecorded location, probably Blackduck, Minnesota. Kolden discusses arriving in Blackduck, in 1901 and building and operating a grocery and hardware store. He describes Marcus D. Stoner's efforts to establish Blackduck and the area's early hotels, saloons, churches, attorneys, doctors, and hospital. He describes the myth of Ojibwe Chief Blackduck. He explains that Summit Avenue is located close to the Great Divide. He also describes meeting attorney Henry Funkley for the first time and the activities of traveling salesman. The interview is continued in BCHS 020b, BCHS 130a/b, and BCHS 131a/b.
The interview was conducted by Dr. Charles Vandersluis on an unrecorded date in at the hardware store of James Madison Reid in Glendora, California. Reid discusses selling merchandise in Blackduck, Minnesota from 1901 to 1920. He describes methods of transportation and hauling good in the early days. He also discusses selling to loggers and describes local surveyor Marcus D. Stoner. He describes early businesses including the cedar industry. He also describes developing the Blackduck Cooperative Creamery as logging activities waned. He also describes the near bankruptcy of Beltrami County and how counties were divided.
Wellington Schroeder discusses where he was born and his childhood home; coming to Minnesota on a train and seeing the largest flour mill in the world; his father's farm at Sanford, Minnesota; hauling supplies for logging camps near Grand Rapids; helping unload the first steel rails of the Deer River logging railroad; how much different men in the logging camps made; being barn boss for the teamsters at a logging camp; the poor logging conditions in 1892-93; the financial constraints of logging companies; ice fishing on Maple Lake; starting a store in Bemidji; coming to Bemidji from Osakis; early businesses in Bemidji; hauling supplies for his store from Park Rapids; his custom-made wagon; making a killing on flour; hauling money for a bank; fixing the roads as he passed over them; his route into tow; following lumber teams to know where it was safe to drive; and buying and shipping blueberries. The interview continues in BCHS 084a.
