Historical Markers in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota
Stillwater is the county seat for Washington County
Marine on St. Croix is in Washington County
Washington County(71) ► ADJACENT TO WASHINGTON COUNTY Anoka County(26) ► Blue Earth County(34) ► Brown County(87) ► Chisago County(29) ► Cottonwood County(9) ► Dakota County(61) ► Jackson County(6) ► Martin County(18) ► Ramsey County(169) ► Watonwan County(8) ► Pierce County, Wisconsin(7) ► Polk County, Wisconsin(18) ► St. Croix County, Wisconsin(39) ►
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"From here, the first log in the race,
Went forth to seek a dwelling place."
Harriet Bishop, Minnesota, Then and Now, 1869
The St. Croix River ranked second only to the Mississippi as a carrier of logs and . . . — — Map (db m54391) HM
Swedish immigrant Sven Anderson built this early settler's cabin in 1852; some of the cabin logs still show the marks from the axe, which squared them. Sven and his wife Stava raised three children in this cabin, and it was their home until 1869. . . . — — Map (db m44601) HM
The St. Croix River Valley, with its towering white pines forests and navigable waters, was originally home to the Ojibwe and Dakota Peoples. In 1837, the tribes ceded their lands to the U.S. government, and by 1839, logs harvested in northern . . . — — Map (db m147264) HM
In 1857 these millstones were installed at Marine in one of the early flour and grist mills of Minnesota Territory. Water from a stream south of this site was conveyed by a race or flume to furnish power for the overshot mill wheel. Later, rollers . . . — — Map (db m28509) HM
The first commercial sawmill in Minnesota was erected 300 feet east of here in 1838. The lumbering industry, which monopolized the minds and talents of men in the St. Croix Valley for three-quarters of a century, was born with the erection of this . . . — — Map (db m28535) HM
One of Minnesota's first major industries was born here on August 24, 1839, when the slow, cumbersome up-and-down saw of the Marine Lumber Company cut the first commercial lumber in the state from trees felled in the rich white pine forests of the . . . — — Map (db m45392) HM
Sawmilling began here on August 24, 1839, when the Marine Lumber Company cut its first pine log.
In the autumn of 1838 two lumbermen from Marine,
Illinois, David Hone and Lewis Judd, arrived in the St. Croix River valley, attracted by it's . . . — — Map (db m51703) HM
Sawmills cut logs into rough boards. The boards were then planed and smoothed to emerge as finished lumber.
To your left are the remains of the planing-mill powerhouse. The square stone at the bottom of the ruin once supported a 50-horsepower . . . — — Map (db m54832) HM
“I hope we do everything we can to make certain that we handle this river with wisdom, with justice, with courage.”
Vice President Walter Mondale, co-sponsor of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
You are . . . — — Map (db m147366) HM
"... a lonely and forgotten reminder of the hopes of men and of the lusty lumber industry which did much to build an expanding America."
James Taylor Dunn, The St. Croix:
Midwest Border River, 1979
The stone ruins . . . — — Map (db m54137) HM
The Marine Township Hall was constructed in 1872 as a meeting hall and jail. The building was erected on property donated by Orange Walker. Its construction was financed by Morgan May who took the town's bonds for the necessary $2,000. Members of . . . — — Map (db m45939) HM
A Great Pine Forest
The St. Croix River valley's sandy loam soil is ideal for growing pine. In the 19th century its forests were filled with white pines. Many of them were two to three hundred years old, four to five feet in . . . — — Map (db m55015) HM
Lake Alice is named for Alice O'Brien. In 1945, Alice memorialized her father, lumber baron William O'Brien, by donating 180 acres of his former estate to establish the area as a State Park.
This 26-acre lake is as deep as nine feet in some . . . — — Map (db m230827) HM
Long before French and British fur traders arrived in the 1600s, Dakota and Ojibwe peoples lived throughout the region, hunting, fishing, ricing, and traveling in birchbark canoes. A profitable fur trade flourished as heavily-laden canoes of furs . . . — — Map (db m232072) HM
Reaching 250 feet into the sky, with a diameter of six feet, it is easy to see why the gigantic white pine was called the monarch of the forest. The large white pines you see here today were just seedlings in 1839, when the Marine Lumber Company . . . — — Map (db m232283) HM
William O'Brien State Park was established in 1945 with a donation to the State of Minnesota of 180 acres by Alice O'Brien. This gift was given in memory of her father William O'Brien, who was a pioneer lumberman.
This marker is dedicated to . . . — — Map (db m232285) HM
