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An artifact from Minnesota’s logging days has gone missing — and authorities are asking for the public’s help in tracking it down.

The Superior National Forest announced Friday that it’s searching for a 48-inch-diameter saw blade that vanished earlier this year from a historic site along the North Shore.

The large blade from the Henry’s Mill site “was damaged and rusty, but in good shape considering the age of the artifact,” U.S. Forest Service officials said in a news release.

According to Edward Belmore, a Forest Service law enforcement officer, the blade went missing between May and June.

“It was something that people don’t get to see every day,” Belmore told MPR News. “Back then, you know, technology wasn’t like today.”

The Henry’s Mill site — located near Lutsen, a couple miles inland from Lake Superior — is a former logging mill and railroad stop dating back more than 100 years. It includes the remains of stone buildings of the long-gone logging operation. 

“That site is one of the first sawmills, probably, that built the Lutsen area,” Belmore said. “It’s a good historical reference for Lutsen and greater Cook County.”

In its press the release, the Forest service says the site “has the potential to help us understand early sawmill operations and pioneer economies on the North Shore of Lake Superior.”

Anyone with information on the missing saw blade is asked to contact Officer Belmore at (414) 267-7810, or send tips via email to sm.fs.suf-tipline@usda.gov.

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An artifact from Minnesota’s logging days has gone missing — and authorities are asking for the public’s help in tracking it down.


Cutting-edge crime? Officials searching for missing saw blade in northern Minnesota

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