The woods of Michigan were filled with a wealth of timber. Lumbermen from the northern part of the lower peninsula began migrating to the upper peninsula in the 1880's. At this time lumbering was booming in the lower peninsula. The timber taken out of both peninsulas has made Michigan the largest producer of lumber in the United States.6  The forests of the upper peninsula covered over ten thousand acres of land. Mixed with a large variety of pines and hemlocks, the forests contained extensive growth of oak, maple, beech, ash, walnut, cherry, whitewood, hickory, and elm. Much of the timber from these woods were of superior quality. Its harder woods were in greater demand. They were used by mines, shipyards, factories and furniture shops. This wood was in great demand in the European Continent also.6  One of the largest lumber companies on the Great Lakes specializing in hemlock and hardwoods was the Worcester Lumber Company.4  It operated between 1903 and 1928.8  The company was located in the community of Chassell which credits much of its development to C.H. Worcester, the owner of the lumber company.4

 

Chassell's first industry was wood cutting. Early settlers took up homesteads and bought land for outrageously low prices. They found a large market with the mines that were already developing throughout the Keewanaw Peninsula. The mines needed the wood for smelters, construction of various buildings and stud timbers, which held up the walls of the mines. The shores of Portage Lake, which Pike Bay is located on, were dotted with many docks. Since boats were the main source of transportation, each settler had to load his own lumber. The site of Chassell was originally acquired from the state of Michigan by the St. Mary Canal Company in 1885.5 A man named John Chassell bought land from the canal company in 1867 for farming purposes. This is where the community got its name. John Chassell farmed the land for fourteen years. In 1881 the Sturgeon River Lumber Company bought the Chassell region from John. The Sturgeon River Lumber Company was the first original lumber company in the Keewanaw Peninsula.5  Before discussing the operations of the Sturgeon River and the Worcester Lumber Companies, a short description of the process of lumbering will be presented.

 

Nothing was more important to major lumber companies than the vast amount of rivers running through the forests of the upper peninsula. Trees were usually cut in the winter. This was done because the ground and rivers were both frozen hard. These hard surfaces facilitated the transportation of supplies into the forests and the hauling of logs out. Camps were pitched near the areas where trees were being cut. Due to excessive amounts of materials, camps were somewhat elaborate.6  The fallen trees were carried out on sleds to the shores of the river as pictured on page 3. The huge piles of timber near the shore are pictured on page 3 & 4. When spring came, the rivers would flow strong and high due to melting snow.6  These strong currents would carry the logs downstream to the point where they could be shipped to the sawmill. This was known as the "log drive".6  The men that kept the logs moving smoothly were known as the toughest in the business due to the dangers of such a job.9 A picture of the toughest lumberjacks working for Worcester is on page 6. At the sawmill the timber is cut into lumber of various sizes and shapes. The finished products were then shipped to where they were needed. Much of the woods were unreachable by rivers. A lot of these woods were left untouched. The necessity of access to more remote tracks of timber led to the construction of small logging railroads.6  These railroads enabled the lumber companies to reach deeper and deeper into the dense forests. Logs were loaded by railcranes onto flatbeds. A picture of one of the Worcester cranes is on page 7. With a better understanding of the lumbering process, specific details of the Sturgeon River and the Worcester Companies can now be discussed.

 

The Sturgeon River Lumber Company operated for fourteen years from 1881 to 1902.5  It cut strictly pine woods from their timberland along the shores of the Sturgeon River. The company's original sawmill operated in Hancock near the hospital that stands there today (see map on last page). Logs would be towed all the way from the Sturgeon River to Hancock for milling. For many of the early yearst the mill became cramped for wood piling room. It was for this reason that the company moved to Chassell to build a bigger mill that would be closer to the timber.5  It was located near where the public beach is today. At this time there was more than one lumber company lumbering along the Sturgeon River. It was hard to differentiate between who's logs were who's. In order to make things run more smoothly, the Sturgeon River Lumber Company formed its own boom company in 1875.5 It was developed to improve river transport, booms, rafting, and the sorting of each others logs for a charge. Booms and rafting was the process of connecting numerous logs together in order to float them to their corresponding sawmills once out of the river. So now in addition to its own logs, the company kept track of many other logs too. In order to identify who's timber was who's, the log marking system was employed.5  Each company had their own mark that was burned into the end of every log cut down. It was very similar to the branding of cattle. The boom company could not handle all of the logs that were being cut down so they built a canal about a half of a mile long that connected the river with Pike Bay (see 5 map).5

 

The east side of the bay was used strictly for storage and rafting of unmilled timber. In the fourteen years of lumbering, the company cut and milled nearly all of the pine timber in its holdings.3 In 1902 C.H. Worcester, pictured below, came to Chassell from Chicago to buyout the company.l0 The company had been having financial trouble, so they sold the mill, the townsite, all of the remaining timber lands and the boom company.4.  It was purchased for $65,000.

 

Worcester began the operations of the Worcester Lumber Company on, Friday, April 13, 1903.1 Worcester was obviously not a superstitious man. Since all of the pine had been taken out by the previous owner. The new company logged the hemlock and the hardwoods out of the area.5  The shaded areas on the map at the end of this paper show the property owned by the company. The Worcester Lumber Company went on to become one of the biggest lumber companies on the Great Lakes.4  At the peak of its production, the company employed over 150 men in the mill and 350 in its various camps.11  Two pictures of the mill are on pages 10 and 11. Most of these people lived in Chassell except in the winter when the lumberjacks were at the camps.l0  They marketed a number of shapes and sizes of wood such as poles shingles, regular lumber, and lathed lumber.11  Since most of the lumber along the rivers was already cut, Worcester formed the Houghton County and South Western Railroad in 1909.11  It was the first lumber railroad in the Copper Country.

 

The Houghton County and South Western Railroad was used as a logging railroad tapping the timber in the Pike and Otter River areas southwest of Chassell. These areas can also be seen on the map. The railroad would bring timber from the camps to the mill. It was also used to move finished wood products from the mill to the docks so that they could be loaded onto boats for shipping.3  The railroad used standard gauge track and had over one hundred and fifty cars that were mostly flatbeds. Pictures of the three locomotives used on the railroad can be seen on page 13.1  The railroad originally ran from Chassell to camp Worham, seven miles outside of Chassell.8  In the early days of operation, Worham was the largest camp. It consisted of a cookhouse, two men’s bunkhouses, a round house, a blacksmiths shop, and a barn.7  The railroad transported the required necessities to survive out to the camp. A picture of the camp and the men who worked there is on page 14. As the lumberjacks cut further into the woods, so did the train. It eventually extended out past the camp Worham another fifteen miles crossing over the Tapiola Road, the Otter River, and the Bear and Bart Creeks. It ended at camp Seven which is about seven miles north of the Baraga-Alston Highway.4  The total length of the track was over 37 miles long.8  The railroad transported five to eight flatbed loads of products to the docks per day.11  The log train used by Worcester was shut down in 1929 a year after the lumber company closed.5  Totally, it transported more than 450 million feet of board.3  The Worcester Lumber Company itself cut about thirty to sixty thousand feet of board each day. Totally, it cut over 750 million feet of board, lathed over 330 million feet, and cut more than 200 million shingles.11  These were the main products of Chassell’s first industry.

 

The village of Chassell consisted mainly of French, Swedish, and Irish immigrants in 1900.4  By 1910, due to the closing of many mines in the area, the Worcester operation consisted of over fifty percent Finns.4  Much of the farmland around Chassell was developed by workers who purchased already lumbered land and farmed it in the off season.4  Worcester himself lived in Chassell.12  He was the typical wealthy man owning the first car in Chassell and a private boat for occasional cruises up and down Portage Lake. Near the mill site on the north end of the village stood his mansion. It was a large beautiful home. It stood on the site where Sigma Rho Fraternity of Michigan Technological University stands today. The inside consisted of extensive woodwork, a library, three floors, and silver door knobs to boot. The mansion was built in 1912 and was sold to the fraternity in 1957.12  Unfortunately it burned to the ground on December 31,1974. Worcester was a philanthropist. In 1903 when he took over the Chassell community there were very few houses. In the first year he built over twenty houses. He rented them out for seven dollars a month which was less than two days of pay for an employee. Much of the town's development was due to the good nature of Worcester. He got involved with all community activities and concerns. In 1908 he installed a generator to power the street lights and homes of Chassell. He also built a schoolhouse, six log cabins and a combined office and store. Worcester helped build the schools and churches that still stand today.4

Worcester eventually left the town built for him. He once noted that if only the wood hadn't run out, he would lumber until his death.6  It was common to see large steamboats and barges loading lumber at the company dock. However, the last and largest load ever transported from the company was shipped by the Elmira Steamer. It towed over one million feet of board to New York in eight days.4  The Worcester mill closed on October 21, 1928. It left many jobless but there was simply no more land to be lumbered.8  When the Worcester Company came to an end, Chassell became one of many towns in the upper peninsula without a backbone industry.11  Today it is a beautiful little town consisting of mostly older people. To this day Chassell remains proud of its glory days of lumbering and will not forget the Worcester Lumber Company's contribution to the development of its area.

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By: James V. LeGray

SS 315

8/16./85

Sigma Rho #1260