Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse
About this property
The Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse is the last remaining structure of a logging camp in Schroeder, Minnesota, United States, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The Schroeder Lumber Company from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, established a camp there in 1895, on the Cross River. The loggers had plenty of white pine, balsam fir, and spruce trees to cut. Loggers also dynamited the top 20 feet (6.1 m) of the Cross River waterfall to widen the river and built a series of dams to hold water in reserve. This enabled the loggers to move the logs down the river and into Lake Superior, where they were collected into a "holding boom" that kept the logs from floating away. The camp operated until 1905, when crews left to log the Apostle Islands. The camp had a reputation for good living conditions, fair wages, and good food. Lumberjacks ate a lot, and if the food wasn't to their liking, they would leave and seek employment with a different company. The sleeping accommodations were spartan, with rows of wooden bunk beds topped with mattresses stuffed with straw, hay, or evergreen boughs, along with pillows stuffed with grain and straw. Author Cathy Wurzer speculates that the smell in the bunkhouse was rather "ripe", given the smell of wet woolen clothes being hung up to dry and the housing of sweaty workers living in close quarters. For a time, the Schroeder Lumber Company was one of the largest lumber retailers in the United States. The company owned and operated every step in the lumber supply chain, from cutting down trees to shipping the logs to milling and manufacturing wood products. Its owner, John Schroeder, had logging operations in Lake County and Cook County in Minnesota, as well as northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Owner John Schroeder died in 1905, and although his sons ran the firm for several decades afterward, the company went out of business in 1939 and the Milwaukee lumberyard was closed.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse
This page lists Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Questions about this property
When was Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse listed on the National Register?
Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1986.
What type of historic resource is Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse?
Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse?
The period of significance for Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
More in Cook County
Historic places, battles, and census history across Cook County.
Explore CookCounty ›More historic places in Minnesota
Browse all historic places in Minnesota.
View Minnesotahistoric sites ›Minnesota history
Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.
Minnesotahistory ›Research the history near this site
An Aubrey US report for an address near Schroeder Lumber Company Bunkhouse will include this listing alongside battlefield records and other historical sources within your chosen radius.