Chippewa Valley White Pine

The vast Chippewa Valley in northeastern Wisconsin held one-sixth of the nation’s white pine at the start of lumbering in the state, and surveyors estimated Wisconsin’s total pine stand at 136 billion board feet of prime lumber. Lumbermen considered the supply inexhaustible, and Chippewa Valley white pine helped build homes and cities across the corn belt, the Great Plains, and Chicago after its fire. The valley also produced strong men, record log jams, tall tales, and prosperous cities, while wasting 60 percent of its pine in stumps, slashing, culls, sawdust, slabs, and fires. The harvest that began here in 1838 with trunks 5 feet in diameter and 160 feet high ended 80 years later with 5-inch logs. Today the Chippewa Valley is green again with farms and pine, as reforestation begun before 1920 has produced early plantings that are now merchantable timber, and in time the valley will again stand with mature pine.

Menomonie, Wisconsin · United States