Lumber camps

Many camps are depicted explicitly, and some of the colored pencil markings are of new logging. When Lincoln County was yet largely undeveloped north of Grandfather Falls, aside from Ojibwe villages it was fairly wild forest, but under active logging by many companies based in Jenny, Wausau, and Wisconsin Rapids. The logs were floated to the mills in those towns, and after they were sawed into lumber they were usually float by raft to markets on the Mississippi, the rafts being built out of the product itself. (A very interesting lumber raft story is told by Ceylon C. Lincoln in a Wisconsin Magazine of History article in 1911. Lincoln was a resident of Tomahawk during its boom years, and is the person who built Tomahawk's first frame home.) The operations of the lumber camps were reported in the business sections of newspapers such as the Wausau Pilot, the Lincoln County Advocate and the Stevens Point Gazette.

When a camp acquired a name, it was not because the namesake was a sole proprietor. In fact land ownership and timber operations were complex (as they are now) insofar as crews might be contracted to log a section of forest that belonged to an absentee investor. When a crew associated with a particular firm built a camp (the camp itself sometimes was actually on public land) the camp acquired a name associated with that firm.

The camps shown on this map are the ones that Sturdevant and Chandler felt were important, but were by no means all the camps. There was much logging along the Spirit, the Rice Rivers (Big and Little), near Rhinelander, and on Rocky Run.

In the descriptions below we provide the probable company associated with each camp where they are named, the emphasis being on "probable" as more confirming evidence needs to be found.

McCord's Camp T35 N, R5 E, section 22

A very important camp close by present day Tomahawk was McCord's Camp on Somo Lake. It was named for one of the leading lumber manufacturers in that time and place, Myron McCord. McCord's career was long and complex. At the time of this map he was a US congressional representative, and owned the Lincoln County advocate (newspapers were very partisan in those days, and were either Republican or Democrat). Since congress is seated alphabetically, McCord became friends with his seat mate William McKinley, which came in handy later for McCord's career.

When the Bradleys built the dam and mills that became Tomahawk, McCord went bankrupt, due partly to some animosity between he and the Bradleys. Details of this are under further research, but McCord decided to attempt to resurrect his fortune in Arizona. While there he was eventually appointed by McKinley as territorial governor. When the Spanish-American War broke out he resigned to form a volunteer regiment. When he died (of natural causes) about ten years later, his body was transferred back to Merrill where he is interred.

Dereg's Camp T33 N, R5 E, section 32

On the west side of the Wisconsin, and northwest of Merrill, are a number of camps, one identified as Dereg's. From the 1881 History of Northern Wisconsin is found the following:

William Dereg, Sheriff of Lincoln County, came to Merrill in the Fall of 1870, and worked in the pine woods and at lumbering. He was also engaged working on the Wisconsin River, driving logs, and running the river, which business he followed almost six years; then he began the lumber business for himself, which he followed four years until the Fall of 1880, at which time he was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County. He was born in New Brunswick, May 22, 1857, and spent his school-days in Blackberry, Kane County, Ill.

Lehey's (Leahy's) camps

There are two camps shown: Lehey's Camp T36 N, R5 E, Section 6, and Lehey's Little Rice Camp T36 N, R5 E, Section 22. These camps probably belonged to John E. Leahy, a lumber industrialist and political leader from Wausau. Leahy was a veteran of the 35th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. After the war he started a successful lumber business. In 1880 he was elected mayor of Wausau for three terms, in 1882 he was elected to the state assembly, and in 1883 was elected to state senate. He died in Wausau in 1915.

One thing to point out about this camp was its proximity to a road that enters out map from the left. This connected with the railroad at Worcester, which was built in 1874. When logs were cut at the Leahy' camps they were banked in the winter and driven downstream at spring break up. However, even though the transportation route for the logs was determined by the flow of the stream, the transportation route of the loggers and supplies was by many various means. It was easier to drop off loggers and supplies in Worcester by rail and then tote them a few miles through the woods than it was to bring them all the way up from the south via The Forks. This road continues on into the Rocky Run country, another active logging area in the 1880s.

Miscellaneous other camps

On the east side of the map in the environs of the lakes in Township 33 N are several camps not associated with Lincoln County because they were served out of Antigo. However there is a large and noteworthy cluster of camps there.