Friday, June 15, 2007

Out of the Woods




My sister in-law shared a website of the Minnesota Historical Society that displays old photos. ( Link: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/search.cfm?bhcp=1. ) Enter a small town or location and access digital images from the past. My husband perused pictures of his old neighborhood in North St. Paul. I went to my roots and found an interesting link in my history.

I was born in Sandstone, MN. My parents lived on a nearby Pine Lake. A search for photos revealed the typical old general store and high school. Then I found a picture of the world’s largest pile of logs from the days when they were clear cutting those white pine forests. It shows men standing on top of a pile 100 feet high. This area was big in the logging industry.

When I was a toddler we moved to a farm south of Little Falls, MN. Guess what I found in that photo search; more logging pictures. Pictures of sawmills and the Mississippi clogged with log jams and men with pike poles managing the flow of floating pine trees come to life. The Mussers and the Weyerhausers were lumber barons in the young town.

Well, I now live in Stillwater. As you can guess there are many pictures of the river pigs and lumber industry in bygone Stillwater. The town is famous for Lumberjack Days for a reason. I guess my life all ties together around the lumber towns.

I grew up in an old log cabin. I love piney forests and sure would take a step back in time and see those virgin old growth woods. I think I will have to settle for the old pictures for now.

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