During the middle 1870's, when the great logging era of Northern Wisconsin was in its infancy, the Mississippi River Logging Company attempted to float pine logs down Soft Maple and Potato Creeks to the Chippewa River, but the streams were too shallow and crooked. To solve the problem, the first logging railroad in Wisconsin was constructed in 1875-76 from Potato Lake to the Big Bend of the Chippewa River, with a later extension northward. Sleds pulled by horses carried the locomotive, cars, and tracks overland from Chippewa Falls. In July 1884 this railroad and a subsequent line constructed through the Blue Hills were formally organized as the Chippewa River and Menomonie Railway Company.