Bloosgrl’s Weblog

In Minnesota, we visited the Forest History Center. We started at the Visitor’s Center, where they have a store, museum, and a film you can see about the last logroll. You can also meet a tour guide, who will take you down to a logging camp and show you how things were in 1900.
They take you on a short trail to the woods and then you come into a clearing and see this sign.

I felt like I had traveled back in time. Even the tour guide was dressed for the occasion!

Our first visit was to the clerk’s office.

Then we went on to see the living quarters. They slept two to a bunk. That’s the bull cook, he keeps the fires stoked, etc. He even had a story as to why he wasn’t out cutting logs.

On to the kitchen to meet the cook…

and the cookee.

They have interesting names for the food they cook. Sweat pads are pancakes. Coldshuts are doughnuts. Windtimber is beans. He said he loved to make lots of things with prunes, which they call logginberries, because they’re very cheap. He said if you add enough cinnamon and sugar to them you can make a pie and pass it off as apple!

Then we move on to the dentist’s office. He repairs the saw blades for the camp.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a logging camp if they didn’t make us saw logs. They had the DD’s use one of those two-man saws and teased them the whole time!

Then we had a visit with the barn boss.

After that we visited the blacksmith.

Logging was done in the winter because they could build roads of ice and the horses could pull more on a sled. They even made special horseshoes to help the horses keep their footing.

Our last stop was the “wanigan”, a floating cook shack that would follow a crew of logrollers down the river in the spring.

The area we stayed in for our vacation had a lot of neat little historical sites. This little cabin is the old National Forest Service ranger station for the area. It has quite a story. Imagine being a new bride and having this be your first home.