produced an enormous quantity of White Pine, most 

 of it was cut on territory tributary to the Mississippi 

 river and its branches. 



The peak of the output was about the year 1899, 

 since that time there has been a gradual shrinkage 

 of Northern Pine production. It was not so long ago 

 that mills in Minneapolis were manufacturing 500 

 million feet per year. These mills are now closed 

 and there are no great mills south of Duluth. The 

 loss to Minneapolis and surrounding country through 

 the closing of such a large industry will run into 

 many millions of dollars, if we consider the men who 

 were employed and the amount of money these men 

 would have spent. Since the supply of Minnesota 

 timber has failed to furnish the needs, the western 

 lumber has come to take its place with the results 

 of millions of dollars every year paid in added freight 

 rates. 



Beyond "The Turn in the Road" we are confronted 

 with the serious problem of restoring our State to the 

 prominence in the lumber world we once held and 

 should still hold or in 25 years or less will see nearly 

 all the remaining large mills go out of business due to 

 lack of local supply of saw timber, forcing thousands 

 of men out of work, in fact, affecting the whole state. 

 The men working in these mills spend their earnings 

 in the cities where they are employed, thus adding 

 to the business development of the State. There is 

 not one single industry that has to do with the things 

 we eat or clothes we wear in which wood does not 

 play a very important part. The greatest industry 



7 



