Minnesota’s first commercial sawmill was erected 300 feet east of here in 1838, beginning the lumbering industry that dominated the St. Croix Valley for three-quarters of a century. Lewis Judd and David Hone selected the site, and the Marine Lumber Company built the mill, which sawed the first lumber from the valley’s pine stands. The village that grew up around the mill became the earliest Minnesota settlement in the valley and was named Marine after the Illinois home of its founders. A bell long cherished by Marine residents was brought from St. Louis in 1857 to serve as a church bell after having served for many years as a steamboat bell.