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217 pages, 14 photos, 23 maps, 1992
$29.95 cloth, 0-87745-385-3, 978-0-87745-385-7
“The history of the lumber trade in South Dakota is a mundane topic at first glance, yet John Vogel's examination of the Laird, Norton Lumber Company uncovers hidden life and vitality. This story hinges on the geographic convergence of pine forests and great rivers, river front lumber mills tributary to the western railroads, and a wave of prairie settlement just as the Wisconsin pineries reached their peak in the 1880s. . . .Vogel has taken a probing second look at an interesting and worthwhile topic that many scholars assumed they already understood.”—Western Historical Quarterly
“Students of the West, the lumber industry, and railroads will benefit from John N. Vogel's study of Laird, Norton's marketing of Great Lakes lumber on the plains of South Dakota. . . . This volume is well written and contains adequate notes, bibliography, and index.”—Journal of American History
“'A sea of forest' was the way one nineteenth-century lumberman described the wooded terrain of western Wisconsin. Immigrants to the Great Plains, however, encountered a proverbial 'sea of grass.' The story of the relationship between the development of these two environmentally diverse frontiers is a magnificent theme. Although John N. Vogel has not realized the full potential of the topic, he deserves credit for drawing attention to the problems and promise of a sadly neglected chapter of regional history.”—American Historical Review
Focusing on the Plains territory of east central South Dakota as well as the Great Lakes lumber-producing region of Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley, John Vogel carefully and thoroughly examines the pattern and process by which lumber reached South Dakota. The Great Dakota Boom of 1878 to 1887 and the Laird, Norton Lumber Company of Winona, Minnesota, provide the basis for his engrossing book.
The westward expansion of the railroad and the continuing settlement of the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century allowed the lumber companies of Minnesota and Wisconsin to send their boards and beams and fenceposts and millwork to a market characterized by great demand and small supply. Laird, Norton followed settlers across southern Dakota as they arrived on the trains. The eastern portions of Dakota were settled first, and thus early lumberyards were found there; as settlement moved west, so did the lumberyards. Beyond its all-important function of distribution, the railroad forced Laird, Norton to alter the very structure of its operation. Experimenting with nearly complete vertical integration, the company pioneered organizational models that would serve significant purposes as frontier America—a republic of wood—solidified itself economically and culturally.
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