The eye of the North-west; first annual report of the Statistician of Superior, Wisconsin [by authority - for the year 1889]

by Frank Abial Flower

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 ... who laid off the grounds, waded over knee-deep in water in staking out the work. There are upwards of 8,000 feet of piping to carry off the water in the depot yards. "The clearing up of the town plat was greatly facilitated by some fires which were started during the summer of 1882 by George S. Baxter and myself. We came down from the Northern Pacific Junction on a hand-car, crossed St. Louis Bay in a little boat, and after a long search found a place to land about where the north end of Hammond avenue now is. The logs, trees, brush and moss were so thick that we were not able to penetrate more than a few hundred feet. Mr. Baxter, being a smoker, had some matches, which we divided. He went along the bank in one direction and I in the other, and we stuck in matches until the smoke and the back fires drove us out, when we took to our boat and watched the result. That fire burned three days, until put out by rain, and must have saved tens of thousands of dollars in clearing up the town plat. The fallen timber in many places, especially about the junction of Tower avenue and Winter street and along Broadway from Ogden avenue to where the Union Depot now stands, was three logs deep, and gave the idea that one forest had succeeded another, the whole forming an enormous mass of timber and making the cost of opening streets very great. I also, during this year and the early part of 1885, cut down all the trees over an area of about 1,200 acres. W. H. Webb had charge in 1884 of the company's out-door work, and recollects distinctly the difficulties attending the clearing of this land. The ground being clay, and the pine stumps large and firm, great quantities of dynamite were necessary even for the making of roads. The two small ferry-boats running between Sup...

70 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012