The White Pine Industry in Minnesota

A History

2007
Author:

Agnes M. Larson
Foreword by Bradley J. Gills

The long-awaited return of this authoritative and influential history

Telling the complete history of the white pine industry, Agnes M. Larson brings us back to a time when Minnesota’s lumber business was thriving. Larson recounts the development of the Upper Mississippi Valley with a wealth of information, including the building of the railroads and bustling mill towns; the daily lives of lumberjacks; and the final devastation of the forests.

From the first logging operation to the closing of the last mill. This book is so thorough, so comprehensive, so well organized, and so useful that it must take its place with the outstanding monographs of economic and western history.

Journal of Economic History

The old-growth forests of Minnesota, at one time covering 70 percent of the state, played a major role in the development of the Upper Mississippi Valley. Telling the complete history of the white pine industry, Agnes M. Larson brings us back to a time when Minnesota’s lumber business was thriving. Larson recounts the development of the region with a wealth of information, including the building of the railroads and bustling mill towns; the daily lives of lumberjacks, loggers, river-drivers, and jam-breakers; and the final devastation of the forests.

Agnes M. Larson (1892–1967) was professor of history at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

From the first logging operation to the closing of the last mill. This book is so thorough, so comprehensive, so well organized, and so useful that it must take its place with the outstanding monographs of economic and western history.

Journal of Economic History

An excellent contribution to the regional history and historical geography of the Upper Great Lakes area and the upper Mississippi Valley.

Geographical Review

This book is an important one to have for local historians because of the white pine industry in the region. Larson still continues to give what may be the best historical overview to the timber industry that did so much to shape Minnesota's history.

Winona Daily News

If your favorite reader is a fan of details and finances, he or she might enjoy The White Pine Industry in Minnesota.

Ely Echo

The White Pine Industry in Minnesota is a classic.

Duluth Budgeteer News

The White Pine Industry in Minnesota, originally published in 1949, remains an essential source for scholars and others interested in the lumber industry.

Minnesota History

The reprint of Agnes M. Larson’s The White Pine Industry in Minnesota is a welcome reminder of how previous generations wrote and thought about history. Its sharp insights and suggestive passages brought a plethora of interesting research topics to mind. Gills provides a nice forward to the book, placing Larson within the context of her time and usefully comparing her work to other books on logging in the Great Lakes published in recent decades. I praise the University of Minnesota Press for choosing to reprint this interesting volume of Minnesota history.

H-Net Reviews