INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
383 
The soil of the heavy, hard wood timber land is what is termed clay soil; that 
of the prairies is a rich, black, sandy loam. The people settled in this 
county are from every nation, and the door stands open to all. 
In the northern part of the county, copper, silver and lead ore have been 
found, but not in paying quantities. We have plenty of sandstone and 
granite for building purposes. 
Lumbering is the specialty of the county in the way of manufactures. 
According to the lumber inspector’s report, 43,316,419 feet of lumber, 
20,000,000 feet of lath and 18,000,000 shingles were manufactured in 1870. 
There are 1,580,480 acres of pine lands in the county, which at the present 
rate of consumption, 200,000,000 feet per year, will last fifty years. A large 
portion of our pine lands have oak, maple and ash timber scattered through 
it. Chippewa Falls, situated at the head of steamboat navigation on the 
Chippewa river, is the base of operations in the lumber region. It has the 
best water power in the world, and one of the largest saw mills in the 
United States run by water, capacity 35,000,000 feet per season. For twenty 
miles up the river saw mills, of a capacity of from one to fifteen million 
feet occur frequently. Over 200,000,000 feet of saw logs are cut and put 
into the river each season. This requires 2,000 men, and horses and cattle 
in proportion. To supply this force furnishes our farmers a good market 
for all they can raise. Above Chippewa Falls is a reservoir large enough 
to stop and hold all the logs that are cut in the winter season. The logs 
are held secure until the ice melts, then they are assorted and turned out 
as fast as required. Each owner, having his own mark, can get his own 
logs. The logs are run over the falls and into the several booms along the 
river, and as far as to the mouth of the Chippewa, where they were rafted 
and sold down the Mississippi. 
When the lumber is sawed at our mills it is rafted in cribs 16 by 32 feet, 
coupled up to make rafts containing 100,000 feet. It is then run down the 
river by skilled pilots and hardy raftsmen to Reed’s Landing on the Missis¬ 
sippi river, there coupled up in rafts from 300,000 feet to 2,700,000 feet; it 
is then sold to go down the river, at an average price of fourteen dollars 
per thousand, by the raft, a clear gain to mill-men of four dollars per 
thousand feet. The same process is repeated every year and the result has 
been that most of the lumbermen have accumulated large wealth. 
For a new county our roads and public buildings are good. We have 
plenty of good school houses, and the schools are well attended. What 
Chippewa county needs most is capital, and skill to develop her great re¬ 
sources, and all are cordially invited to come and help in this great and 
profitable work. 
