ABOUT THIS BOOK

The St. Croix River, the free-flowing boundary between Wisconsin and Minnesota, is a federally protected National Scenic Riverway. The area’s first recorded human inhabitants were the Dakota Indians, whose lands were transformed by fur trade empires and the loggers who called it the “river of pine.” A patchwork of farms, cultivated by immigrants from many countries, followed the cutover forests. Today, the St. Croix River Valley is a tourist haven in the land of sky-blue waters and a peaceful escape for residents of the bustling Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan region.
North Woods River is a thoughtful biography of the river over the course of more than three hundred years. Eileen McMahon and Theodore Karamanski track the river’s social and environmental transformation as newcomers changed the river basin and, in turn, were changed by it. The history of the St. Croix revealed here offers larger lessons about the future management of beautiful and fragile wild waters.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Eileen McMahon is assistant professor of history at Lewis University. Theodore Karamanski is professor of history at Loyola University.

REVIEWS

“This excellent book will inform newcomers to the valley about the history of their new home, and it will give all readers a better understanding of how successive waves of people have interacted with and altered the natural landscapes of the area.”—Robert Gough, author of Farming the Cutover: A Social History of Northern Wisconsin, 1900–1940

“[T]he authors take a refreshingly realistic stand on the significance of their subject. That said, they convincingly claim that ‘the St. Croix Valley encapsulates the history of the Upper Midwest.’ This makes the book useful not only for interested readers and local historians but also for anyone anxious to understand the broader dynamics that shaped the region’s past.”—Michael J. Lansing, Minnesota History

“This volume presents a thorough, carefully researched and well-written history of the St. Croix River. It should be required reading for anyone charged with managing the St. Croix and its valley in the twenty-first century.”—Environmental History

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Chapter 1. Valley of Plenty, River of Conflict
    The Dakota and Their Neighbors
    French Fur Traders on the St. Croix
    The Origins of the Dakota-Ojibwe War
    English Fur Traders on the St. Croix
    A Social History of the Fur Trade in the St. Croix Valley
    The Ecological Impact of the Fur Trade
    The American Fur Company Era
    Dakota-Ojibwe Relations during the American Era
    The Treaties of 1837
    Strangers on the Land: The St. Croix Indians in the Settlement Era

Chapter 2. River of Pine
    From Fur Trade to Fir Trade
    Frontier Logging: Life in the Forest
    Frontier Logging: The Importance of Waterpower
    The St. Croix Boom Company
    Industrial River
    The Log Drives
    A River Jammed with Logs
    Industrial Logging
    Corporate Control of the St. Croix
    The Failure of Government Regulation of the St. Croix Pinery
    Fire in the Forest
    The Last Days of the Lumber Frontier
    The Impact of Logging on the St. Croix Valley

Chapter 3. "The New Land": Settlement and Agriculture
    Dividing the Valley
    Farmers and the Repopulation of the Valley
    The Swedish Frontier
    Land Speculation and Growing Pains
    The Civil War Years in the St. Croix Valley
    The Farming Frontier Moves up the Valley
    Railroads: Regional Rivalry and Growth
    From Wheat to Dairy Farming
    Farming the Cutover

Chapter 4. Up North: The Development of Recreation in the St. Croix Valley
    Steamboats and the "Fashionable Tour"
    Railroads and the Growth of Tourism
    Hunting, Fishing, and Tourism
    Interstate Park and the Last Stand of the Steamboat Men
    Dam the St. Croix!
    Sportsmen of the Upper St. Croix
    Government Conservation and the Invention of the North Woods
    Return of the Tourist
    Dam the St. Croix, Again
    Saving the St. Croix

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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