Audio
Hoist Bay
Transcript
Welcome to the Hoist Bay Podcast. Hoist Bay is one of 15 Visitor Destinations within Voyageurs National Park.
For thousands of years, this landscape now known as Voyageurs National Park has provided a means and way of life for many people. Over the years changes to the landscape have taken place. One very noticeable change occurred in 1907 when the railroad came to the borderland.
Six years after the railroad reached the borderland the Virginia and Rainy Lake logging company built 28 camps in what is now the park. Many people were excited with the progress of the railroad as it served to be a source of revenue and a new way of life. The railroad brought with it the capability to log timber on a much larger scale than ever before.
Imagine the year is 1913, as you gaze north, out into the bay, you would notice a railroad trestle extending several hundred yards over the water. Near the center of the trestle you would see a steam powered hoist and jammer belching clouds of black smoke.
The bay itself would be filled with floating logs contained within a single log boom (a log boom is a barrier placed in the bay that collected floating logs).
Soon a locomotive would appear and begin backing 10 flat cars out onto the trestle. It too would be steam powered and belching heavy clouds of smoke. Eight men would be moving into position to begin hoisting logs onto the cars.
You are at the Namakan Lake hoist owned by the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company (Camp number 75), today it is known as Hoist Bay.
As the scene develops before you, the jammer would pick up five or six logs at a time and deposit them length-wise onto the cars.
After 30 or so logs filled a flat car to capacity, the locomotive would back up for another flat car to be loaded. When 10 flat cars were loaded the locomotive would leave and move the flat cars to the side. Soon the locomotive would return with 10 more empty cars. This would be repeated four times and then the locomotive, with 40 cars in tow, would be off to the largest white pine sawmill in the world, the Virginia and Rainy Lake sawmill in Virginia, Minnesota. It should be noted that most logs averaged 16 feet in length and were primarily white pine. Many loads averaged 650 board feet of lumber per log. (A board foot is a piece of wood 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch thick.)
Once the logs were sawed into lumber they were distributed and sold as far south as Missouri and as far east as New Jersey. Perhaps the house you or your parents were raised in came from this lumber mill.
Although it took just eight men to operate the hoist, Camp number 75 housed 150 to 200 lumberjacks during the peak of operation.
Virginia and Rainy Lake Camp number 75 and its hoist operated from 1913 to 1925. Over its 12 years of operation, the camp processed and shipped over 2.5 billion board feet of lumber out of Hoist Bay. The Virginia and Rainy lake Company were the largest landowners in what is now known as Voyageurs National Park -at that time owning 12.3 percent of the land.
During the mid 1920s, the logging period became a source of income for many people. However, with logging came change. Logging operations had a major impact on the landscape and ecology of this area. Dominate tree species of white and red pine were replaced with balsam fir, spruce, birch, aspen, and oak. Along with the change in vegetation came the change in the diversity of animal species. Elk, caribou, and an abundant moose population, once lived in what is now Voyageurs National Park. Today, the elk and caribou have been replaced by the white-tailed deer and few moose roam the park’s landscape.
Following the years of logging, many people came upon the idea of conservation and promotion of the land for recreation. Most Americans now owned vehicles and had more leisure time to take vacations—camp, fish, and stay at resorts.
After 1925, the Virginia and Rainy Lake Camp number 75 and its buildings remained empty until the fall of 1938. A young couple from Ohio, Ted and Fern Monson, purchased the property, torn the camp buildings down and built Hoist Bay Resort which they ran during the summers until 1973.
The lumber from the abandoned logging camp came in handy for the Monson’s, both for firewood and building material. And, they had an unexpected bonus too. Not all the logs destined for the hoist made it. Millions of board feet sunk to the bottom of the bay, including one whole boom, only to resurface years later, floating on one end, which today are commonly called “deadheads”.
The Monson’s eventually recovered many of these logs, dried them, and sawed them for lumber. In fact, the ice house to the east was constructed from this lumber in 1940.
The ice house is a story in itself. All lake people had one, or access to one, because the stored ice was their only practical means of refrigeration. Electric service was years away and propane was expensive and difficult to transport.
In mid-winter ice blocks weighing as much as 400 pounds would be sawn by hand, slid, and stacked in the ice house. Once enough tiers of ice were harvested the four sides and the top were filled and covered with a thick layer of sawdust. The Hoist Bay icehouse was unique because it had a loft. The Monson’s hauled sawdust to the loft and shoveled it onto the ice blocks. This ice often lasted for two years. The Monson’s would stock their iceboxes with small blocks and also shave ice for packing fish.
Today, ice houses are still in existence in rural Canada, but for many secluded lake camps in this area, like Hoist Bay Resort, they disappeared in the 1960s. Small, efficient diesel generator plants became common and propane could be delivered in bulk by barge. Resorts and camps in the Voyageurs National Park area moved into the 20th Century in the late 1940s. The Monson’s were even luckier. The progress of electricity was brought to them by an electric co-op in 1953 and they received phone service in 1971.
In 1973, the Monson’s sold their resort to Dr. Hood. As the years progressed, so did the thought of people preserving the land for public enjoyment. Soon after purchasing the resort Dr. Hood sold it to the National Park Service.
Voyageurs National Park now uses Hoist Bay as a Visitor Destination. This is an area the National Park Service has decided to preserve for everyone’s future enjoyment. A place where a story of change can be told and visitors can step back in time to experience a piece of history.
Description
Hoist Bay is located on Namakan Lake in Voyageurs National Park. Although quiet today, this area has been a hub of activity throughout the 20th century. Find out how!
Duration
7 minutes, 51 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
04/16/2010
Copyright and Usage Info