WORK OF THE MINNESOTA FOREST 

 SCHOOL AT ITASCA PARK 



BY 



E. G. Cheyney, Assistant Professor of Forestry, University of Minnesota 



"THE 1907 legislature of Minnesota 

 1 showed its belief in the usefulness 

 and the future development of forestry 

 by providing the State Forestry School 

 with an ideal tract of forest as a dem- 

 onstration ground. This was accom- 

 plished by transferring Itasca State 

 Park from the control of a special 

 committee to that of the State Fores- 

 try Board, where it naturally belonged, 

 and at the same time granting to the 

 board of regents of the University per- 

 mission to establish thereon a demon- 

 stration school of forestry. 



Itasca Park, situated in the beauti- 

 ful lake region of Minnesota, and en- 

 closing the headwaters of the Missis- 

 sippi, is about as nearly an ideal spot 

 for such a purpose as could be found- 

 still perfectly wild, with the forest and 

 all its denizens in the primeval state, 

 and yet near enough to civilization to 

 be fairly accessible. These are the na- 

 tural factors necessary to success. 



The general shape of the park is a 

 rectangle, stretching five miles east 

 and west, and seven miles from north 

 to south. Within this area are in- 

 cluded something like three hundred 

 lakes, of all sizes and descriptions. 

 Most of them are too small to deserve 

 the name, but there are a few good 

 sized and beautiful lakes. 



The largest and most important of 

 these is Itasca itself, with its three 

 arms spreading north, ca-t and west; 

 the shore in many places running up 

 abruptly into high, heavily timbered 

 hills, in others sinking away into wav- 

 ing grass marshes, or bright tamarac 

 swamps. Countless springs pour their 

 waters into this lake and from the end 

 of the North Arm. through a screen of 

 reeds, which renders the opening al- 

 most invisible, flows the modest be- 

 ginning of the Father of Waters. 



Ascending a narrow creek at the 



south end of the \Vest Arm for a few 

 rods, one gets a beautiful view of Elk 

 Lake, the great pike lake of the park, 

 and more especially noted for the beau- 

 tiful springs which tlow into it a 

 stream three inches in diameter, 

 charged heavily with bicarbonate of 

 iron. This, together with Itasca, is 

 the only lake easily accessible from the 

 Lodge, and consequently is the best 

 known and most frequently visited. 

 There are. however, several others 

 back further in the woods quite as 

 large and even more attractive. 



Along the shores of these numerous 

 lakes, on the ridges and in the valleys 

 betueen them, are found every type of 

 foresl peculiar to the northern woods 

 of the Lake' States white and Nor- 

 way pine mixtures on the ridges, jack- 

 pine on the pure sand patches, spruce 

 and balsam in the drier swamps, tam- 

 arac and cedar in the moister locations, 

 hardwoods where the quality of the 

 -oil will support them. The opportu- 

 nities for the study of all kinds of sil- 

 vicultural and managerial problems 

 are almost unlimited. 



Reside-' these natural advantage-. 

 man has put in some improvements 

 which will help in the establishment of 

 a school. At the south end of the 

 Kast Arm of Lake Jtasca the State 

 has built a large, two-story log struc- 

 ture, forty by eighty feet, of peeled 

 and oiled Norway s, which is known as 

 Douglas Lodge and is used as a sum- 

 mer hotel. It stands in a thick grove 

 of five log Norways on the edge of a 

 steep bank some fifty feet above the 

 Lake. This offers an opportunity of 

 comfortably housing the students en- 

 gaged in seeding and planting work, 

 before the summer season opens and 

 before camp life in this neighborhood 

 is very pleasant. 



Three miles north of the Lodge, on 



