This photograph by F.A. Taylor shows the Duluth hillside from below Superior Street and between 3rd and 4th Avenues East; probably from the late 1880s, it shows First Presbyterian Church (built in 1870) in the upper left corner, at 231 East 2nd Street.
Exterior view of the American House. This was built as a hotel, but never housed any guests. It became one of the first buildings on the Carleton College campus.
At the boom, floating timbers chained between piers caught and contained logs for sorting and measuring and rigging into rafts. At one time, the Stillwater boom extended a distance of 9 miles and employed 400 men to sort, scale and raft timber.
Lumber was rafted downstream from Stillwater. Boards were arranged in cribs or heavy crates, each 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. A lumber raft might contain as many as 200 cribs.
Logs were shipped by rail from northern Minnesota to Stillwater and made into rafts. They were then floated down the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The rafts usually consisted of 8 to 10 strings of logs fastened side by side, each string measuring 16 across and about 400 feet long. Some of these enormous rafts stretched 4 or 5 acres in size.
Elevator and Lake Superior & Mississippi Depot, Stillwater, MN. Elevator was erected in 1870 and has a capacity of 38,000 bushels. Lake Superior & Mississippi Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed to Stillwater in 1871.
Looking north from intersection of Main and Myrtle Streets. Three story brick Masonic Hall is on the left. Smoke is billowing from a fire near Staples Mill.