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When Holt Lumber Company bought the property of Holt & Balcom in 1888 our estimates showed about 150,000,000 feet of Pine timber, and we thought that with what lumber we could pick up on the Oconto and Peshtigo Rivers we would get enough to operate for ten years. By 1899 our Pine timber tributary to these rivers was practically gone, and we had cut a considerable amount of Hemlock. All of these logs had to be driven down the Oconto and Peshtigo Rivers. No Hardwood was cut as it would not float. We had also bought some Pine logs in Ontonagon County, Michigan, and shipped in by rail. We also sawed over 12,000,000 feet of logs for the Diamond Match Company, which were hauled out of the river at Ontonagon and shipped in here by rail. We sawed and piled this lumber in our yard for $2.75 per thousand feet, which the Diamond Match Company told us was less than it cost them in their own mill at Green Bay. There was very little margin in it for us but it kept the men employed; and we bought a considerable portion of this lumber from them and shipped it out with our own. From 1893 to 1898 we passed through the Cleveland depression, and prices for lumber were extremely low but costs were also low, so that while we got very little stumpage for our timber cut during that time, we did manage to keep our men employed. In 1898 the demand increased and prices began to go up and we purchased a large amount of lumber piled on the docks at Ashland, and shipped it in here by rail, sorted it up, and shipped it out with our own stock. However, by 1901 we had about exhausted those sources of supply. We were told by Mr. Hotchkiss, the Manager of the Diamond Match Company, that there was a considerable tract of timber on the Ontonagon River which could be purchased and that they were not interested in it as they had decided to cut no more timber on that river and if we wanted to buy it there would be no objection on their part and he would be glad to give us any Information he could. Most of this timber was situated on the Baltimore Creek, a small stream west of Bruce's Crossing, Michigan, which empties into the Middle Branch of the Ontonagon. This stream was too small to take care of any large quantity of logs in any one year, and there were falls and rapids near the month of the Baltimore which were very difficult to drive and where the Diamond Match Company had some very bad local jams. For these reasons no one was Forty |
interested in buying timber in that locality at that time. We sent our cruisers up there to look the ground over and they reported that there was a hundred million feet, or more, of Pine timber in that locality which could be bought. I went up there with our logging superintendent, Paul W. McDonald, traveled through a good deal of it to see what it was like and found that the timber was rather small but sound and thrifty and for the most part it was easy to log. During the winter of 1901-1902 I sent George W. Taylor to look the ground over and purchase all of the timber he could for us, in which he was very successful, and during the winter we kept three crews of cruisers going over all of the timber that was for sale in that vicinity, and we eventually did pick up about a hundred million feet. Mr. George H. Holt took up the matter of the transportation of the logs, with Mr. W. F. Fitch, Vice-President and General Manager of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad, and made a contract with him under which they agreed to loan us the rail to build a logging road north from their line, and they also agreed to lay the steel and operate the line for a distance of six miles; we to build and operate the necessary spurs and branches at our own expense and deliver the logs to the DSS&A. In the summer of 1902 we began operations and started one camp, the foreman of which was James Urquhart, and the end of the line operated by the DSS&A was called Urquhart. We had had no experience in railroading and we had a good deal of trouble with our track and with the locomotives. That winter we also put some logs into the Baltimore, which were located where we could not reach them by rail, and during the spring we drove them down to a point on the Baltimore which we could reach with the railroad, and they were hauled out and shipped by rail to Oconto. We had one accident which fortunately did not cause any injuries to any of our men. We had a branch running from our camp a mile and a half in a northeasterly direction to the Baltimore, which was down grade.
"Snowsnake" on the logging railroad. Photo - Oconto County WIGenWeb
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