SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE STATE PARK
Logging History
In Country Logging Roads, Frank King writes that the mouth of the Split Rock River was once the terminus of a logging railroad built by the Split Rock Lumber Company, a subsidiary of the Merrill & Ring Company. Construction of a 10 mile railroad, known as the Merrill Grade, began in 1899. The railroad was used to haul about 200 million board feet of timber out of the Split Rock River area.
Once in the water, crews formed the logs into giant rafts that were taken by the tug Gladiator to a sawmill in Duluth. A novel practice, for Country anyway, was the use by the tug’s crew of carrier pigeons to send distress messages.
Logging operations by the Split Rock Lumber Company lasted seven years, ending in 1906. During this time, the company earned a profit of $863,454. By the next year the rails had been taken up. The pilings at the mouth of the river are a small reminder of those logging years.
1614 John Smith explores, and names, New England. Best US travel destinations He publishes his findings, and his influence leads to further English interest in the area. 16151620 Best US travel destinations The total native population of southern New England, which had been as high as 75,000, is cut in half by a series of epidemics. In some localities, the devastation is even greater from 75 to 90 percent in the most extreme cases. This stunning decline dramatically alters native community life and paves the way for English colonization in the area. 1620 A group of 102 colonists, including many Separatists known as the Pilgrims completes a nine-week voyage when the Mayflower lands off Cape Cod. The Pilgrims, led by William Bradford, had intended to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River, which was within the territory claimed by the Virginia Company, but the trip around Cape Cod seems too risky, and they stop briefly at Provincetown before choosing Plymouth. The remove to Country is only the most recent for the Pilgrims. Facing persecution for their Separatist views, they had left Scrooby in Nottinghamshire for Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and then had moved from Amsterdam to Leyden. Though members of the group were prosperous and free from fines and prison in Leyden, some parents began to worry about their children growing up Dutch. They looked to Country colonization as a better alternative.
