 Northwoods Vacationland Album |
Promoting Happier Living Through Fond Memories ... Site Map |
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Northwoods Vacationland Album |
Promoting Happier Living Through Fond Memories ... Site Map |
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An excerpt from The Boarding House The air was still. No moon played on Lake Katherine. The only sounds of the night were made by the revelers of the Yawkey-Bissell Boarding House as they sat on the banks of the lake behind the boarding house and imbibed in their favorite illegal liquor. Illegal because it was an edict of the Yawkey-Bissell Company that there were to be no spirits allowed in the company town of Hazelhurst. Then from the stillness...an explosion...and a barge, anchored at the Minocqua end of Lake Katherine sank from sight...carrying with it their entire source of supply of liquor and beer. The town officials had taken care of the liquor problem. The year was about 1908. The barge still remains at the bottom of Lake Katherine and fishermen still catch lines and hooks on the remains when they fish in that area. In fact, the barge's anchor was sighted just recently. Liquor was not the only thing lacking in the Company Boarding House. The accommodations weren't all that great...but the price was right. Meals and lodging at the boarding house were in addition to the approximately $30/month pay. It was $1 a day for the loggers. The story is told of an exceptionally fine logger who came along and was offered $1.25/day. He refused. It would be too difficult for him to figure his wages. He insisted on the $1/day. The top laborers' wages were the $5/day to the head sawer at the mill. Only the basics were offered in the 6' x 6' cubicle that served as rooms at the boarding house. One bed in each room. Two men to a room, and if you were tall, you were in trouble. The long scratches on the walls became a part of the permanent decor of the rooms as the taller men slept with their spiked boots elevated against the walls. Completely-clothed winter sleeping was a must, as one kerosene lamp provided both the light and the heat in each cubicle. Bathing facilities were a pump and wash basin in the yard, but meals more than made up for the lack of luxurious accommodations. All the food was brought in by horse in great barrels and stored in the warehouse next to the boarding house. Heavy, heavy meals were served to fuel the men for their day's work. All you could eat at a breakfast table that groaned under the weight of potatoes, meats, vegetables, pies and cakes. The noon meal, cooked at the boarding house was delivered to the campsite by horse and wagon, offered the same kind of menu as did the evening meal back at the Boarding House. (Men who logged at the camps outside of th town had their own "cookees" and accommodations right at the camp. It was a rough and tumble crowd that lived at the boarding house. There were conflicts between the ethnic groups as to who were the stronger...always settled with fists...or (after they had been drinking) whatever was available. We have to suppose that it was after the shooting one evening (they got the victim as he came down the staircase from his room) that liquor became taboo. Eventually the Yawkey-Bissell people relented on their stand on liquor and in the year that followed the sinking of the barge they built the Company Saloon next to the boarding house. Beer sold for 5 cents a pail (bring your own pail). It became the favorite pastime for the town children to sit on the roof of the Hazelhurst Depot and watch as they carried the loggers out of the saloon and returned to the boarding house by wheelbarrow. One evening they wheeled them all to a railroad car that was on the siding, put them in, then moved the car several miles down the tracks. They say the men didn't have any recollection of where they were for days. The saloon did close at 6 p.m. every Sunday. Insurance that the men would be back on their jobs on Monday morning. ...
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