Minnesota's forests played a role in history

Old logging camp
This 1912 photo shows lumberjacks with the Kileen and Company Camp hauling a skidder-load of freshly cut timber from a forest near Two Harbors, Minn. It's part of a collection of early logging photos on display at the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids.
Photo courtesy of Forest History Center

The Forest History Center in Grand Rapids is celebrating 30 years as an interpretive center for the logging industry. About 5,000 school kids take field trips to the center each spring.

A sawing lesson
Second graders from Grand Rapids get a lesson on how to use a two-man crosscut saw at the Forest History Center's logging camp. About 5,000 school kids take field trips to the center each spring.
MPR Photo/Tom Robertson

The center is located on 170 acres of rolling forested hills along the Mississippi River. Visitors learn about the history and ecology of logging in Minnesota through interactive and multi-media presentations. The recreated 1900s logging camp is complete with interpretors who serve as lumberjacks, blacksmiths and cooks.

Tom Robertson's audio postcard lets you visit the history center as a second grade class from Grand Rapids learns to use a cross cut saw and sings along with Willie, the camp's accordian player.

The Forest History Center opens for the season on May 24. A number of sesquicentennial events are planned for throughout the summer.

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