New Book chronicles Hedstrom History
North Shore Press, the book imprint of Northern Wilds Media, Inc., has just published “Sawdust in Their Blood: 100 years of the Hedstrom Lumber Co”. Here are some excerpts and historical features from the book.
Fay McKeever uses a team of horses to skid a load of logs at one of the Hedstrom winter logging camps on the Gunflint Trail. The company used horses into the 1940s.
dust-burning boiler that heats the dry kiln and the entire mill. The mill was the county’s major employer—members of many Cook County families worked there. Disaster struck in 1981, when the entire mill burned to the ground. The company had to rebuild from the ground up. Traveling across North America to find the necessary equipment, often used and then refurbished by the Hedstrom crew, the company was able to get the new mill up and running by May 1983. Operations then expanded. By 1989, the company was cutting 16 million board feet per year. Hedstrom Lumber has since moved more into the specialty lumber market, which has allowed it to survive when other mills have not. Especially challenging have been the economic downturns of the 2000s. The company has needed to downsize—from 25 million board feet annually to 15 million board feet—due to reduced demand. Hedstrom Lumbery has persevered—as it has for 100 years.
Roy Hedstrom (left) saws while brother Carl (right) rides the carriage as the “setter,” taking instructions from Roy, the sawyer, to position the log. Today most of this process is automated.
The original steam mill was in operation until it burned down in 1929. The Hedstrom family has recovered from devastating fires several times during the past 100 years.
Roy Hedstrom cuts a white pine log with a band saw. The company is one of the few remaining sawmills in Minnesota capable of sawing large-diameter logs.
NORTHERN WILDS
JULY 2014
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