Water Power

Mills of Red Lake County

The Industrial potential in Red Lake Falls created by the abundant water power sources on the two rivers was a major factor in the rapid growth of this community.

Ernest Buse in partnership with Otto Kankel built the pioneer mill of this area on the Clearwater River at the north end of Main Avenue in 1878. Kankel sold his interest in the business to Buse in 1880, relocating in the fertile area. Buse sold the mill in 1882 when he moved to Minneapolis.

Carl Kretzschmar erected the Northside Roller Mill about 1882 at the site on the Red Lake River which later became the power dam. This business became the Red Lake Falls Milling Co. in 1885 and was owned by Johnson and Marshall who manufactured "Mascot" and "Favorite" flour brands sold mostly in the eastern markets and Europe. The company which later owned the city electric light plant (see Northern States Power story) also operated a cooper shop in which all the barrels used by the mill were made.

Near this same site two brothers by the name of Meehan proposed to start a saw mill if they could get financial backing in the amount of $3000. In those early days people would go to any lengths to encourage new industry and generous citizens put up the cash to be paid to the promoters when the mill began operation. The sawmill was completed, but saw only thirty minutes of action as the con-men immediately fled when the money exchanged hands. Production was hatted and soon after the building was dismantled.

Another large dam and flour mill was located below the junction of the two rivers at the present site of the Central Bi-Products plant. This mill was owned by J. B. Holmes in 1889, followed by Gooding until 1901 when it was purchased by Healy and Bourdon. Partially destroyed by fire in 1908, the building and dam site were sold to the Red Lake Falls Water Power Co. in 1910.

Another sawmill and the first tow mill, located at the junction of the two rivers, and the Steinert Mill, established in 1911 at the bottom of the hill on Main Avenue, were other early industries utilizing the?????

SEE p. 125

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 p. 110 and p. 113 p. 125

built by Ernest Buse and Otto kankel

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Red Lake Falls Milling Company

north side roller mill

northernstates power

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Healy Dam

p.

 Terrebonne

A spectacular fire on the night of July 4 1954, ended a long history of flour making in the Kankel family that began with two brothers, Otto E. Kankel and Karl A. Kankel, who emigrated from Germany in 1870.

In 1884 Hannibal Ames built a roller mill for grinding grain on the Clearwater River just north of Terrebonne, Minnesota. The mill operated for three years until 1887 when it burned. It was rebuilt the following year by Ames and later purchased by Henry Hennemuth and Richard Ohm. Hennemuth and Ohm continued in the mill until 1894 when Charles O. Kankel and Charles F. Kankel, who were cousins and sons of the two immigrant brothers, purchased the Hennemuth interest. John Zeigler bought the Ohm interest. Later Zeigler sold to Chris Juhl who in turn sold his interest to Charles O. Kankel.

This mill was three stories high and had a basement. It measured forty feet by fortytwo feet. The machinery was of the latest pattern, and the flour was of excellent quality. The dam was constructed of rock and crib work, about one hundred and seventyfive feet in width, and furnished with a twelve foot head and a fifty-six inch turbine wheel. The mill at this time had the capacity of a hundred barrels per day and was run to full capacity night and day.

Following the destruction of this second mill, also by fire in 1915, Charles O. Kankel and Joseph W. Ste. Marie, partners, built a third mill. The second mill had burned in January and rebuilding began in May. The third mill became operational on Thanksgiving Day of that same year. Because money was needed to rebuild, Kankel and Ste. Maire sold shares of stock and changed the name from the Terrebonne Roller Mill to the Terrebonne Milling Co. As the business prospered these shares were repurchased by the co-owners.

The third and final mill was a very large structure three stories high with an attached warehouse. In later years the warehouse was enlarged and a garage was added.

The millsite itself was a very beautiful place. At this spot in the river there was an island which was called pig island because a large number of pigs were kept there. Later the island was cleaned and used as a park where large picnics and gatherings were held.

The grain that was processed in this mill was crushed with huge rollers instead of a millstone. Once a year, usually in early summer, these rollers had to be hauled to the Twin Cities to be repaired.

The mill operated the year around and up until 1931 depended solely upon water power. The water from the river was forced through a millrace by a dam on the river. As the water passed through the millrace it turned a giant waterwheel which turned the rollers.

In 1.931 the water level in the river became so low that the mill was only able to operate part time and it was then that the partners decided to install a diesel engine.

In the early days the mill and the house had access to some electric power which was furnished by a generator. It was not until 1941 that the R.E.A.. lines were installed.

Located near the mill in the early 1900's was a general store and an eating place. The general store was operated by Mr. Moreau and later by Mr. Dupont. The eating place was operated .by Mrs. LaJaunesse. The farmers who came from a long distance away with horse drawn wagons often traded at the store and bought their meals from Mrs. LaJaunesse. They sometimes slept over night in their wagons.

All hauling of grain and flour was done by wagons and teams of mules or horses until 1920 when a Reo truck was purchased. When flour was to be shipped it was hauled by wagons or trucks to the nearest railway line, usually at Red Lake Falls or Mentor.

The mill processed and shipped thousands of barrels of flour overseas during World War One and World War Two. It took approximately three bushels of wheat to make a hundred pounds of flour. The best quality flour produced was the LaBelle brand, an enriched flour. The second quality was called Snoball. They also made bran and whole wheat flour and a cereal called Buddies Breakfast Food.

It is interesting to note that during the depression years the mill operated around the clock, even employing a night miller. Because of the economic situation, the farmers hauled their own grain from very long distances to be ground into flour for their own use or to trade their grain for flour.

Competition from the large milling companies following World War Two brought a decline in the need for the smaller local mills. Thus, when the fire in 1954, which was caused by combustion, leveled the Terrebonne Mill, it signaled an end to a business made obsolete by time and progress.

This information was gathered from family records and from an interview with Mrs. Joseph W. Ste. Marie (Emma), an eighty-four year old family friend who came to live at the millsite as a bride in 1914 and spent all of her married life there. Prepared by Tracy Kankel

LOGGING ON THE CLEARWATER AND RED LAKE RIVERS

Fred E. Cyr was born on the banks of the Clearwater River one mile from Red Lake Falls in the year 1882, the son of Joseph Cyr.

The story of Fred's young logging days were tape recorded in 1954 by historian Dr. Charles Vandersluis of Bemidji and retold for the History of Red Lake County.

As a young boy I played on the logs coming down past our home on the Clearwater river near where it runs into the Red Lake river, and got to be well acquainted with the drivers. We could tell when the logs were coming because the water roiled and the next day the chips would come down, and then it wouldn't be long until the logs would come. We were always anxious to see the drivers. They had calks on their shoes, and we kids would be log drivers.

When I first started to drive logs, I was hired by J. C. Parker who came to Red Lake Falls about 1900 to recruit men because his drive was hung up in a big meadow someplace. ) think we got $2.00 a day (with our food) and we worked from 5 a:m. to 8 at night. We got four meals a day and the best food there was. It was hauled by team right alongside the river or was bought from the farmers as the drive proceeded. Sometimes a cow bought from a farmer would be killed and eaten fresh. We had wanigans which were houses built on flat bottomed boats. Half of each house was used for cooking and the other half for sleeping quarters. There were double bunks with an aisle in the center. These boats were quite long but not very high. Sometimes we had to cut them down even more to get them under the bridges. The mosquitoes were the worst trouble. We couldn't sleep without mosquito nets which we got in Red Lake Falls, readymade. Lice also became .a problem in the summer on the wanigans, and we often spent time to "read our shirts to look for lice in the seams."

At the beginning of a drive, Parker would hire anybody who wanted a job. The men would go to work and he would watch to see how they did. The next morning he "passed the sieve", that is, he pointed out those he did not want and said, "You don't have to put up your lunch today" and they knew what that meant. After he picked a good crew, and after they got below the dam at Clearwater Lake, he never fired them.

Logs were boomed and towed across Clearwater Lake with a steam outfit and growser. These logs were all stamped and bark-marked. I stamped some of them myself when I worked in the woods. The stamp mark would compress the grain in three inches from each end of the log, so if the log was sawed off near either end, the mark would still show. It was made with an axe and maybe it was 4 X, or something like that. I remember that the Red Lake Falls sawmill had a crow foot as a bark mark. The logs were generally put into the river all along the bank. In the spring the first thing one had to do was to break up the landings and open up the river. It was tough work as it was done when it was still cold, just when the ice was beginning to break up. Drivers would have to wade in the water perhaps up to their waists to get at the logs; oftentimes the water would freeze at night. A lot of fellows quit, but the bunch of us from Red Lake Falls stuck. After the logs got started down the river into Clearwater Lake, it was a snap.

The wanigans, 8 or 10 of them, had been built in readiness for the drive. It was 1 75 miles from Clearwater Lake to Red Lake Falls. Every .few days a crew with a wanigan would start down the river, until there would be as many as ten crews scattered along a hundred miles of river.

There was no dam below Clearwater dam until we came to Plummer, and there was no sorting work on the Clearwater. The first sorting gap was on the Red Lake River two miles above Crookston in a flowage where the water was quiet.

We were armed with pike poles and occasionally peavies, which differ from cant hooks by having a spike in the center. Peavies were used mainly in log jams, and shear booms were often put along the banks so when the logs hit them, they wouldn't stick in the bank and cause a log jam. A shear boom was a peeled log with a peg driven into it tied to shore. We usually didn't have much trouble until we got to Plummer. From Plummer on down to Crookston the water was pretty swift, and it was quite a job breaking up the jams with peavies.

The low water on the Clearwater was on the rapids, which were especially rocky and shallow from Terrebonne to Red Lake Falls. We had to roll the logs over and over, and it was slow and expensive. It is ten miles by land and 20 miles by river from Terrebonne to Red Lake Falls. If we had enough rain it wasn't bad, but sometimes it was dry and we were hung up.

There was a sawmill at Red Lake Falls later on, and logs came jo that mill from the Red Lake River. The Clearwater logs went to Crookston and Grand Forks. About 1900, after we moved into Red Lake Falls, I visited there, and it was booming and the sawmill had just started. There was also a big sawmill at St. Hilaire.

The Red Lake River is fairly wide, but crooked. As I remember, the water used to flow over the banks, and we had to use pike poles to get the logs out of the logans (where the water backs up in a depression alongside the river and doesn't move.) If a log gets in a place like that, it has to be poled out. We kept ourselves out of the water by walking logs, and boats or big bateaus would come along to pick up the men. Sometimes we carried a knapsack with food on our backs. If we fell into the water, we would have "mush" and would have to eat it.

I think that logging on the Clearwater wound up around 1908. I worked with logs until 1911 or so. At that time things were pretty well cleaned up and there wasn't anymore driving to speak of. It was. also XXXX

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Electric Power

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