Washburn
Through The Years
Part
II: The Great Fire And Beyond
Fire was always a danger to early frontier communities and
occasionally one or another of the community's structures
burned. Virtually every sawmill in the City burned at
least once during the life of the industry. In September
of 1888, the residents of Ashland received quite a start when
a large brush fire west of town convinced our neighbors across
the bay that the City was burning. A week later fire
did devastate portions of the business community destroying
35 businesses within 2 hours of its origin and caused $120,000
in damage. Fortunately, the disaster did not result in the
loss of life. Like the famous Chicago fire, the Washburn
fire was alleged to have started as the result of an animal
kicking over a lantern in a shed.
By 1888 the A. A. Bigelow Lumber Company operated the second
largest mill had in Wisconsin and contained the largest refuse
burner in the world
The "Great Forest Fire of 1894" once again endangered
the community. Every able bodied man was recruited to
fight the blaze. A fortunate wind change eventually
saved the city.
By 1896, the community boasted a population of 6,000, contained
3 weekly newspapers, 9 churches, 15 saloons, 3 banks, 21 boarding
houses, an opera house, brewery, four blacksmith shops, two
liveries, and a veterinarian.
The city's waterworks was constructed in 1889 and the Walker
High School, a Lake Superior Brownstone castle was constructed
in 1893 for a cost of $62,000. Named after an official
of the A. A. Bigelow Lumber Company, the new structure was
dedicated on May 28, 1894.
In 1899, the Washburn Elevator loaded the steamer W. H. Oliver
with the largest cargo floated on the lakes up to that time
- 152,000 bushels of barley; 40,000 bushels of rye; and 149
bushels of oats equaling a cargo of 7,149 tons destined for
Buffalo, New York.
In 1904 the community was incorporated as a City, a creamery
began business, its residents were provided with electric
lights, and a Carnegie Library was constructed. Despite the
ongoing decline of the City's foundation industry, forest
products, the Dupont Company purchased some 2,000 acres of
land outside the community and established the largest dynamite
plant in the northwest. The Barksdale Works manufactured
a complete line of dynamite and gelatin dynamites for mining,
forestry, agricultural applications. Washburn became
a boom town by World War I with more then 9,000 residents.
The Barksdale plant alone employed 6,000 area residents during
the World War.
In 1910, the first automobile entered the City having traveled
from Redwood Falls, Minnesota. The two day trip was
hampered by the lack of travelable roads between Drummond
and Washburn.
Following the trends of the national temperance movement,
the City voted to go dry in 1914 causing its brewery to close.
Boom times returned to the community during the World War.
The Barksdale Works of the Dupont Company employed upwards
of 6,000 men and women in support of the war effort.
Washburn's population allegedly peaked at 10,000 during the
war and the community was hard pressed to provide housing
and educational opportunities for the influx of new families.
Dupont arranged for the construction of a significant amount
housing in the community to alleviate the shortage of housing
endured by its employees. While many remain on the City's
East 3rd Street in what is called "Dupont Row" today,
many were sold to the expanding Marshall -Wells Hardware
Company and moved to Duluth, Minnesota after the war.
The City added to its industrial base in 1921 when Anchor
Shipbuilding opened a ship yard in Washburn. Unfortunately,
the company only constructed one vessel during its existence,
a steel double ended ferry that transported traffic across
the Hudson river in New York state. The vessel, the
Hudson-Athens, was launched on June 25, 1921.
The City became the home of the district headquarters of
the Chequamegon National Forest in the 1930's and remains
so today. Thousands of acres of national and county
forest lands surround the community providing endless recreational
opportunities and a managed timber source for Wisconsin's
forest products industry.
The City's water system was purchased in the 1930's and updated
forty years latter with the conversion from lake water to
artesian water and the construction of a storage reservoir.
A primary sewage treatment plant was constructed in 1958,
upgraded in 1973 and replaced in 1998 with a state of the
art treatment facility. Portions of both the water and
sanitary sewer will see major reconstruction in 2004.
The Walker School was razed by fire on February 5, 1947.
Ground was broken on the new Washburn High School in 1949.
The Barksdale Works of the Dupont Company closed in 1971.
With the decline of the areas industrial base, rail service,
the reason for the founding of the community, was discontinued
between Washburn and Bayfield in 1977 and abandoned into the
community several years later.
Sources:
Washburn Memories,
Washburn Women's Civic Club; 1982?; Edith Merila, editor.
Printed by White Birch Printing, Inc., Shell Lake, Wisconsin.
"The Mills of Washburn," by Kurt
Larson. Tall Timbers Shortlines; Fall, 2000.
Washburn Comprehensive Plan, Northwest
Regional Planning Commission, 1992 Update.
Small Town USA II,
Washburn Wisconsin by A.H. Woiak; publication date unknown.
The Wisconsin Blue Book;
The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library; 1960.
|
