The Marine Mill, established in 1839, was the first commercial
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
in what became the U.S. state of
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. Now in ruins, it is currently a historic site managed by the city of
Marine on St. Croix in partnership with the
Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...
.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as the Marine Mill Site in 1970 for having state-level significance in the themes of exploration/settlement, industry, and transportation.
It was nominated for being the birthplace of the region's seminal industry—lumbering—and a major landing on its crucial transportation route, the
St. Croix River.
The site is also a
contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
to the
Marine on St. Croix Historic District.
Operational history
Lewis Judd and David Hone identified the site, with a swift-flowing stream for power and a bank suitable for steamboats, as ideal for a sawmill during an 1838 scouting expedition. They were members of a group of New Englanders who had come west in search of new lumbering opportunities. They returned to their home base in
Marine, Illinois
Marine is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 960 at the 2010 census.
History
The village was so named because some of the early settlers were sea captains.
Geography
Marine is located at (38.787365, -89.7 ...
, and chartered the Marine Lumber Company with six other business partners. In May 1839 the eight partners, plus one member's wife and two children, arrived by steamboat with a load of milling machinery.
In just 90 days they had completed their sawmill, cutting lumber for the first time on August 24. The land, only purchased by the United States in 1837 through treaties with the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
and
Dakota people
The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...
, was not yet legally open to settlement.
The original mill cut less than of lumber per day, so it was replaced in 1852 with a larger mill powered by a water wheel. However the whole building burned down in a fire in September 1863, idling workers for three years until a replacement was constructed in 1866.
To keep pace with its competitors, that mill was almost completely remodeled in 1873, at which point it could cut up to per day.
The mill, then known as the Walker, Judd, and Veazie Mill, was at its most profitable in the early 1870s. However a widespread economic depression triggered by the
Panic of 1873, delays caused by a series of
log jams on the river, and the valley's dwindling lumber supply soon changed that, and the mill went
bankrupt in 1885. Various attempts to reopen the mill failed, and the business was dismantled in 1895. Over its 56 years of operation the mill had produced some of lumber.
Later history
The Marine Mill site lay abandoned for nearly 70 years. It wasn't until 1964 that a resource commission recommended acquiring the land as a historic site. No action was taken until a local committee formed in 1970 to advocate for preservation, and the following year the
Minnesota Legislature
The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decennia ...
appropriated funds to buy the site. The local committee also cleared decades of revegetation, uncovering the foundations of support structures. The land acquisition was completed in 1972 and the property transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society.
Description
At its peak the mill complex occupied about . In addition to the sawmill there was a planing mill, storage sheds, the steamboat levee, and piles of cut lumber, shingles, and
laths. Between 1888 and 1895 all the wooden buildings were dismantled and the machinery sold off. All that remained were the stone walls of the 1873 sawmill and its water wheel.
Today a
historical marker stands by the entrance to the property, and an open lawn leads to an overlook of the sawmill ruins. A short interpretive trail leads past the faint foundations of two other mill complex buildings. The stream that powered the mill still runs through the site.
See also
*
List of watermills in the United States
*
References
External links
*
{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
1839 establishments in Iowa Territory
1895 disestablishments in the United States
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Minnesota
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Industrial buildings completed in 1839
Industrial buildings completed in 1852
Industrial buildings completed in 1866
Industrial buildings completed in 1873
Logging in the United States
Minnesota Historical Society
Minnesota state historic sites
National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Minnesota
Protected areas of Washington County, Minnesota
Ruins in the United States
Sawmills in the United States
Watermills in the United States