III. Running Out of Wood

1910

The annual cut of Minnesota pine began to drop and sawmills began to close their doors around the state. With the industry in decline, lumber companies began to look to the Pacific Northwest and the South for timber.

1911

Seeing a need to begin conservation measures and fight the growing danger of forest fires the state created the Minnesota Forest Service (MFS), a forerunner to the Department of Natural Resources. With a small but dedicated force of foresters and forest firefighters they enforced new and stricter laws governing slash removal, regulated railroads to prevent sparks from locomotives, requiring burning permits and created Forest Ranger Districts throughout the North Woods.

1929

The Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company, in Virginia, Minnesota-the largest white pine lumber company in the world-closed its doors signaling the end of the big-pine logging era in the state. In less than 100 years, the industry had logged over 68 billion board feet of pine from the state's forests, enough lumber to fill boxcars stretching from the earth to the moon and halfway back again.

1930s

Lumber companies that remained in Minnesota shifted production from saw logs to pulp, paper, matchsticks and manufactured building materials. The work force was reduced to less than 20,000 men statewide and the annual cut dropped to less than a half-million cords of timber. The last log drive in Minnesota occurred on the Little Fork River in 1937.