St. Croix Riverway Time and the River: A History of the Saint Croix

CHAPTER 4:
Up North: The Development of Recreation in the St. Croix Valley (continued)

Hunting and Fishing for Sport

Besides geese, "Duck shooting on the St. Croix above Marine [was] the fashionable amusement," wrote the Stillwater Lumberman in 1877. [67] And in 1879 the Burnett County Sentinel noted, "Hunting and fishing parties are the order of the day in this vicinity." [68] "A party of 5 passed through here from Marine enroute for the upper Namekagon fishing and sporting," reported the Sentinel with interest and approval. [69] These comments, of course, imply that game was more than a daily sustenance requirement, but provided variety to the dinner table as well as enjoyment in the pursuit.

By the 1870s, popular sporting magazines, such as American Sportsman (1871), Forest and Stream (1873), Field and Stream (1874), and American Angler (1881), were published to encourage outdoor sports. The writings of their authors were certainly influenced by the Romantic Movement and its attitudes about nature, but they differed from earlier nature writers, who simply appreciated the splendor of the outdoors for its own sake. While the beauty of the scenery was certainly to be enjoyed, this new breed of outdoorsmen approached wildlife in a practical, utilitarian manner. It offered sport and prize catches. Beginning in the 1870s many railroads also organized hunting and fishing excursions. Some even owned their own resorts. [70]

Although the Wisconsin state legislature had established defined hunting seasons in order to protect, game, birds, and fish in 1851, by the 1870s over-hunting and the expansion of settlement made big game scarce in the Lower St. Croix. Conservationist ideas had not quite reached this frontier region. When a rare moose was spotted near Rush City in the fall of 1877, the pursuit was on. The following excerpt from the Stillwater Lumberman provides an insight into the attitudes of residents towards the sport of hunting:

A wild moose was foolish enough to call upon Frank La Suise, at that gentleman's residence. . .introducing himself to Frank's family by peering through the window of their residence. Frank not liking such familiarity, seized his gun and greeted the animal with a charge of buckshot, which caused the moose to take to the water, whence Frank followed in a canoe, blazing away at the "baste" as rapidly as he could load his gun. A broadside from Adam Dopp, who appeared on the scene, blinded the creature, so that Frank was enabled soon to dispatch it with a club. . .It was the means of furnishing a very tender article of fresh meat for our citizen's dinner last Sunday. [71]

By the 1880s, moose had even disappeared in the Upper St. Croix Valley. A killing of one was worthy of note. "A moose was killed near Clam Lake last week," the Burnett County Sentinel remarked with interest. "A very rare animal in these parts." [72] An old time settler reminisced in 1880 that the early days were his "happy days. Game was everywhere." In one fall season he had killed 130 deer, 16 elk, and 3 bears. [73] Clearly such a total exceeded his personal needs and he was engaged in market hunting — an activity that was roundly condemned by "true" sportsmen.

If moose and other big game were no longer plentiful in the north woods, fish, waterfowl, and deer still were. "Hunting and fishing at Bass Lake, Willow river and other noted points near at hand are leading sources of enjoyment" [74] In June of 1877, a fishing party from Hudson set out for the Clam River. They returned, "having caught seven hundred and fifty trout," recorded the Lumberman. [75] By the 1890s the number of fish caught was less important to true sportsmen than the size of the fish. "Last week, a Frenchman caught a sturgeon in the Namekagon river near Phipps, weighing 81 pounds," wrote the Burnett County Sentinel in 1891. "This is said to be the largest fish ever taken out of a stream in this locality." [76]

Unlike moose or other big game that were easily threatened by market hunters and habitat loss, fish stocks were easier to replenish. In 1866, the Wisconsin state legislature appointed a fish inspector. This eventually led to fish stocking in the state's waterways. In 1880, over a million brook trout were put into the streams of Wisconsin. In 1883, the U.S. Fish Commission deposited 250,000 white fish and lake trout eggs into Lake St. Croix. Sawdust that had been dumped in the river and the erosion of the river's banks by logs and upstream deforestation silted up the river and destroyed much of the natural habitat of fish. The federal government's initial interest in restocking rivers and streams was to preserve commercial fishing. Sport fishing was an indirect beneficiary of this program that kept the St. Croix and its tributaries teaming with fish. [77] In 1895, the Polk County Press bragged that, "There is no county in Wisconsin, outside of the lake Superior counties, were better, or a greater variety of fishing can be found than in Polk county. And in Polk county no better place than in the vicinity of Osceola. Within a circuit of ten miles there are fifteen lakes, and the St. Croix river, all well stocked with pickerel, bass, pike and other fish, besides three fine trout streams, well supplied with speckled and rainbow trout." The paper went on to report the size of recent catches from local fisherman. [78]

Unlike the moose, deer did not disappear from the St. Croix Valley with the retreat of the forest. Various kinds of berries flourished in the brush left in the loggers' path, which deer feasted on. Hunters in turn feasted on the deer. The importance of deer as food and sport is illustrated in the following Burnett County Sentinel article. "It is reported that there are some hunters camped just above Clam river who are hunting deer with dogs. This is against the law and they should be arrested and prosecuted." [79] Rules of sportsmanship were clearly of importance to the residents of the St. Croix Valley. Other animals were not considered so valuable. "The scalp of a lynx was brought in from Wood Lake Wednesday. They are worth. . .$3," reported the Sentinel. "There is a bounty of $6 on wolves, $3 on wild cats, and $2 on foxes." [80] This made hunting a lucrative sport that aided the farmer and settler in dealing with these pesky animals. Indians, too, often redeemed these animals for their reward.

Figure 32. Canoeists pass Angle Rock on the St. Croix. From Outing Magazine, March, 1890.