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Tom Robertson
Grand Rapids, Minn.

Minnesota's forests played a role in history

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Old logging camp
This 1912 photo shows lumberjacks with the Kileen and Company Camp hauling a skidder-load of freshly cut timber from a forest near Two Harbors, Minn. It's part of a collection of early logging photos on display at the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids.
Photo courtesy of Forest History Center

The Forest History Center in Grand Rapids is celebrating 30 years as an interpretive center for the logging industry. About 5,000 school kids take field trips to the center each spring.

A sawing lesson
Second graders from Grand Rapids get a lesson on how to use a two-man crosscut saw at the Forest History Center's logging camp. About 5,000 school kids take field trips to the center each spring.
MPR Photo/Tom Robertson

The center is located on 170 acres of rolling forested hills along the Mississippi River. Visitors learn about the history and ecology of logging in Minnesota through interactive and multi-media presentations. The recreated 1900s logging camp is complete with interpretors who serve as lumberjacks, blacksmiths and cooks.

Tom Robertson's audio postcard lets you visit the history center as a second grade class from Grand Rapids learns to use a cross cut saw and sings along with Willie, the camp's accordian player.

The Forest History Center opens for the season on May 24. A number of sesquicentennial events are planned for throughout the summer.

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Horse power
"Knute," portrayed by Duane Barrow, tells a group of children that a logging camp barn boss might have earned $20 a month in wages, plus another $25 if he owns his own team of horses. He says that would have been decent pay in the early 1900s, when factory workers might earn $30 a month, and still have to pay their own room and board.
MPR Photo/Tom Robertson
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A hands-on history lesson
Along with getting to interact with Forest History Center interpreters playing the roles of blacksmiths, cooks and lumberjacks, visiting school kids get to try out some of the tools that were used in the early 1900s. Here, Grand Rapids second-graders are learning to use a two-man crosscut saw.
MPR Photo/Tom Robertson
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Manning the camp store
In 1900 there were about 300 logging camps scattered throughout northern Minnesota, employing more than 20,000 lumberjacks. The men drawn to the camps were farmers, immigrants, shopkeepers or others willing to do hard work. Here, "Willie" Hollnagel serves as clerk in the camp's store, where the men could buy wool clothing, boots or chewing tobacco.
MPR Photo/Tom Robertson

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