Cyr came in from the railhead at Fosston carrying in his own supplies. He talked about his early experience in a 1933 interview.
In 1894, the area was sparsely settled; his nearest neighbors were Freeman Dowd on Turtle Lake (Dowd later moved to Lake Bemidji and his homestead on Diamond Point.) and Thomas Foy, who lived in a tent on the north shore of Lake Bemidji. Cyr's homestead covered the north end of Little Turtle, but was stopped half way to Lake Julia by the boundary line of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, which ran diagonally, SW to NE.
Cyr's land touched the government-sponsored Leech Lake Trail, the trail between the Red Lake and Leech Lake Reservation agencies. His land was also at the point where the Fosston Trail met the Leech Lake Trail. Finally, he was at the beginning of the Black Duck County road, authorized in 1896 by the County Commissioners, which led from the Fosston Trail and the Leech Lake Trail to the north end of Blackduck Lake, where most of the homesteading was taking place.
It did not take Cyr long to begin exploiting the advantages of his location, for on Feb. 10, 1896, we find the county commissioners meeting at La Bree's (also spelled LaBrie), earlier a resident of Little Fraction. He had apparently obtained his land from Cyr. A stopping place (hotel) and store (both owned and operated by LaBrie ) would be an essential first step toward a town.
The development of any community depends upon unfilled needs and opportunities taken. The convergence in Buena Vista of the Leech Lake Trail, the Fosston Trail, and the Black Duck County Road brought to and through Buena Vista a variety of travelers and settlers with both simple (lodging for the night) and permanent (supplies) needs that made building and investment profitable.
John Wesley Speelman was a man of extraordinary energy and fertile mind. He came to Bemidji from Verndale and Menagha, Minnesota, where he had been an editor and active community booster. He began the Beltrami Eagle almost as soon as he arrived in Bemidji, Bermidji as he and the Post Office spelled it.. It was a most appropriate outlet for his energy and civic mindedness. (The best history of Buena Vista -- with emphasis on Speelman -- is Steven R. Hoffbeck, Frontier Hotel Keeper: John Wesley Speelman, Thesis (M.A.), University of Vermont, 1989.)
The first schoolhouse was built on Cyr's claim; then in 1897, William Worth moved his sawmill from Blackduck Lake to Little Turtle. (Worth built a large house for his family and opened a grocery store in it.) The second schoolhouse and the church were built on Speelman's land, a fact that suggests coordination between the two owners. For his part, Speelman built the Summit Hotel, opened in April, 1896, (and rebuilt it after it burned), and secured the post office, which was first placed in the Summit Hotel. Speelman's account gives Cyr credit for founding the town.
Last Monday, wishing to get away from the turmoils of the city for a few days, we shouldered a shot gun -- one we borrowed -- and accompanied by Walter Chamberlain and Dan Dennis we started north, through the woods on a hunting expedition and also to visit the new town of Buena Vista. After traveling through the brush all day we arrived at the city about nine o'clock, somewhat weary. The next morning we met James Cyr the founder and proprietor of the village. The site is beautifully located at the head of Turtle Lake where some fifty years ago the Hudson Bay Co. had a large trading post. Mr. Cyr has been very liberal, leaving sites for a school house, church, town hall and saw mill which he will give away free of charge. In conversation with Mr. Cyr we began talking about railroads and we ask [sic] him what show Buena Vista had for a railroad and he informed us that men employed by the Duluth and Winnipeg and the Hines railroad to look that country over told him that it was in the direct path and at the best crossing of the divide that traverses that section. He also informed us that at Mud Lake [Puposky Lake], two miles north, a limestone quarry had been found and that a kiln would soon be burned. Buena Vista at present has under construction a store, large hotel and several resident buildings, and it will be but a few days until a post office is established.
All this suggests that there was a lack of rivalry or hard feelings, indeed that the two men worked together "to put Buena Vista on the map."
By 1904, another hotel had been added. The Worth residence was acquired by Peter Malterud, who opened the Scandia Hotel.
There were saloons, a church, a blacksmith shop, stables, a boatworks, and other supporting businesses. In 1897, Buena Vista lost its bid to become county seat; but it recovered, and by 1904 had reached its zenith. In a WPA interview, R.H.Dickinson, son-in-law of J.W.Speelman and owner of the Mile Post Store, recalled:
At the high point of its existence, the town counted, perhaps boasted of, a population of 250 souls, which was not counting the thousands of transient souls that visited the town en route to the logging camps or searching for new homes in the lands to the north.
Written by Lloyd A. Halseth, WPA Historical Project No. 3769, following an interview with Mr. Dickinson, June 9th, 1938.
R.H. Dickinson's full interview is available.
From the Pioneer May 24, 1907, there is also a story on Dickinson's box factory at Buena Vista.
Our home, the postoffice and grocery store were on the site of the present Maltrud house, which my father built [on one of the lots platted by Cyr]. Buena Vista was very active and at times had from two to five hundred residents. The country was being logged off and there were lots of homesteaders, single men and lumberjacks in the winter time. In the spring break-up the town was full of men. R.H.Dickinson had a general store. Billy Hyatt ran one of the hotels and a saloon, and George Labrie ran another hotel. I don't remember any gambling; it was all drinking and fighting going on. Bemidji might have had a head start, but Buena Vista was quite a village in its day.
There is a memory of some feeling at times between the two ends of the town, though probably owing to a difference of opinion between Speelman and Maltrud rather than Speelman and Cyr. Particularly Speelman opposed gambling and serving liquor. The post office went back and forth between the ends of town. The church was built by Speelman on land he provided. But it is clear from Cyr's and Speelman's remarks that both men did their best to make the town grow. When Buena Vista was competing for the county seat, it was Cyr who offered land for the court house as well as $400 to build it. Speelman was an optimist, a booster, a promoter, a publicist, a man with a fertile mind. Cyr was less flamboyant. But apparently Cyr and Speelman worked well together and generously gave one another credit.
The three county commissioners would make the decision. It made for a fierce political fight. On June 10, 1897, the commissioners, meeting at Ole Nosen's in Popple, voted to make Bemidji the county seat. Commissioner Brannon was for Bemidji. Commissioner Bagley (who owned land around the Peterson Place) was adamant for Peterson's. Commissioner Dudley (of Blackduck township) seemed able to compromise.
Before the vote, Dudley told Bagley that if Bagley would vote for Buena Vista so would he (Dudley). Bagley refused. So, Dudley voted with Brannon for Bemidji. Bemidji became the county seat, and Buena Vista lost its chance for political prominence. (Bemidji Pioneer June 10, 1897)
Hedda Blom Myhre recalled a meeting at her father's stopping place, Travelers' Rest. She remembered it as being the meeting at which the vote was taken on the county seat. Since the actual vote was at Popple, it must actually have been one of many arguments about where the county seat would be located.
I remember two lawyers came up here, one was named Street and the other Scrutchin. Scrutchin was a Negro. He had a white wife and went to the Baptist church and I knew him. There was a fellow by the name of Speelman up at Buena Vista and he wanted the county seat up there. Speelman had a store at Buena Vista, and there was a saloon there. Dickinson was up there too.Well, they all met at my father's house. Mr. Street and Mr. Scrutchin were there, and the government man from Crookston, and Mr. Speelman, and the County Commissioners. Quite a few people were there that day; there weren't so many neighbors, but they came from long ways off. They were to decide what to do—where to have the county seat. Speelman was quite a booster and he was boosting for his town.
You know, there was nothing but hills and lakes up at Buena Vista and it wasn't a good place for a town. Mr. Street and Mr. Speelman got into it and I guess they pretty near got into a fight over it. Mr. Street and Mr. Scrutchin wondered what to do, and the government man said, "I think Bemidji would make a good location right where she is today." He drew out a small townsite for Bemidji. He said Bemidji was a good place with that big lake and that little lake on the south, and they had good opportunity there. He said, "Buena Vista is too hilly for a town." Speelman was so disgusted! So that turned out all right and my mother had a big dinner for the whole crowd. This was in the spring of 1897.
[N.B.: Steven Hoffbeck has an article "Victories to Win -- Charles W. Scrutchin, Bemidji's Black Activist Attorney," Minnesota History, 55/2 (Summer, 1996), 59-75.]
Mrs. Myhre probably remembers one of the bitter discussions which preceded the selection of Bemidji as the county seat.
In spite of losing the battle for the county seat, Buena Vista continued to grow and prosper. R. H.Dickinson in 1905 opened a box factory. Although the first sawmill, which had been operated by William Worth and Tom Elliot, was lost to Puposky, William Maher opened one on Lake Julia and made lumber of the settlers' logs.
By 1902, a small steamboat, The Shadow was in operation, though only for a year. Passengers and freight began by steamboat at the Third Street dock in Bemidji. They were carried to the north end of Lake Bemidji (about the present Birchmont Beach) where they transferred to stage or wagon for the overland trip to Movil Lake. There they boarded The Shadow. The waters were navigable from Movil Lake into Big Turtle Lake and from there into Little Turtle to a landing at Jimmy Cyr's place.
Speelman in 1904 initiated the Beltrami County Fair at Buena Vista with various dignitaries and as a special attraction two aged Indians, Nay-Nah-E-Gwon-Abe (Man of Many Fine Feathers) and Kah-Ge-Gay-Cum-Ig-Ub (Man Who Stands Firm), both introduced as "Sole Survivors of the Chippewas who met the Explorer Beltrami on this Spot, 15 Miles North of Bemidji, Minn., 81 Years Ago."
Some Pictures from the Leonard R. Dickinson Collection and the Beltrami County Historical Society are published in Steven R.Hoffbeck's excellent history of Buena Vista.
A Sketch of Buena Vista in 1904 prepared by Steven Hoffbeck with the help of Fred, Leonard, and Earle Dickinson shows a small but apparently prosperous town. Main Street eventually became Beltrami County 15.
This file (printed copy about 5"x 9") is available on line (61K). Anyone who plans to use it more than once might find it useful to download it to printer rather than waiting on the internet each time.
There were many activites that built friendships and a sense of community.
Elma Gary Borgen writes of her schooldays:
I started school [at Buena Vista] when I was almost eight years old; this would be in 1908. I couldn't start before as it was too cold and so much snow in winter, and we had two miles to walk each way. When we first started school we would just go for a while in the fall and again in the spring, but not during the cold months.My last teacher was Ruth Wentworth, the one before that was Maude Riley. We had a man teacher also; Herman Sauer.
The schoolhouse is still there; it was white back then, and there was a woodshed which was also white. We had a lot of good times there. In those days we had everything, a full day with reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history and spelling. I don't know how the teacher got it all in.
In the wintertime it would be dark before we would get home from school. We carried a bell because the wolves were supposed to shy clear of bells and we would ring the bell as we walked home. At night we carried a lantern, but daytimes or at dusk it was bells. Then my dad talked to the teacher, asking that she give us our spelling at recess time so we could get excused earlier and get home before dark.
I remember the Mahers. They had the sawmill on Lake Julia, on the north side. Later there was a sanitarium on Lake Julia where Dr. Mary [Ghostley] doctored the patients and the people in the community. She would go out any old time of the night. Oh, she was wonderful. Dr. Mary Ghostley.
There are so many nostalgic reminiscences of the one-room schools that the difficulties of the times sometimes become obscured. Many of the children were immigrants or children of immigrants who spoke little or no English. Mettie Nelson Jensen had the problem:
My folks sent me to school right after we got up here [Buena Vista]; that would be in 1909 or 1910. We were still living in the old log house. I had been taught very little English and the kids at school could talk a little Norwegian but they couldn't understand what I said. Mary Dunn was the teacher and of course she couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand her. So she had Leonard Dickinson and his brother Cyril take me back home. Then the folks had to stop talking Dane and start talking English at home so I could learn and go to school the next year.
I remember they didn't have enough pupils to have a school over near Butlers [near Big Turtle and Fox Lakes] one year and they sent the only two they had over here. I remember Walter Reeve (actually he was Walter Hornstein, but he was going by his step-father's name at that time. His step-father was A.P.Reeve and they lived north of the Butler place.) and Blanche Fournier came. For a while they walked and then they drove, and then they stayed with Crandalls. Alice Butler was the teacher at the time.There were so many families that came, the men looking for work, and always with a bunch of kids, and the kids would come to school but before we got to know them they moved on again. Some of the Fred Petersons that lived over by Campbell Lake came and stayed at Crandalls; they were Mrs. Crandall's sister's children.
The school and the church were the center of social activities.
The Buena Vista church was built by the townspeople on land given by J.W.Speelman.
Hilda Rauchy's father, A.P.Reeve, was a farmer, lumberman, and contractor in several parts of Beltrami County. She writes of Buena Vista:
. . . Freeman Doud, who homesteaded Diamond Point on Lake Bemidji, began a stage and Star mail route from Bemidji to Buena Vista and on to Langor, north of Blackduck.Ralph Dickinson became postmaster October 27, 1902 and about 1904 William Worth moved his family to the town of Northern. Peter Maltrude acquired the Worth Property and established a hotel in the large building which Worth had built, and named it the Scandia Hotel. The stage coach which operated between Bemidji and Red Lake stopped at the Scandia Hotel, bringing business. During the summer the stage changed horses at the Scandia Hotel and also again at Nebish. They could not drive horses more than 25 miles a day in the summertime, though they could in winter. During the wintertime the one change of horses was made at Charlie Durand's place, about four miles north of Puposky. . . .
Peter Maltrude discontinued the hotel when the stage coach quit coming there and opened a store in Puposky in 1907 . . . .
Buena Vista, at its founding, had the great advantage of sitting at the convergence of three of the most important trails in the county: The Fosston Trail, The Leech Lake - Red Lake Trail, and the Blackduck or Langor or Lyon's School Trail (officially the Black Duck County Road). Until the railroad reached Bemidji, the trails meant heavy Fosston traffic, both coming and going; and the Leech Lake Trail meant that members of the Red Lake Band were a familiar sight to residents.
In 1898 the Great Northern completed its tracks from Deer River to Fosston, through Bemidji. That same year the Brainerd and Northern was also completed into Bemidji. The Minnesota and International reached Blackduck in 1902. None of these, despite all the hopes of the past, came close to Buena Vista. There had been railroad "activity" in the vicinity. In 1896 and 1897 railroad equipment and stock of the Red Lake Railroad had been hauled in over frozen lakes and the Leech Lake Trail to Nebish, about seven miles north of Buena Vista. The railroad had come through town, but mounted on horse-drawn sleds. Harold T. Haag tells the story of the railroad: "TheMinneapolis, Red Lake, and Manitoba Railway Company, North Country History, III.2 (1984), 48-50.
The Red Lake Railroad, built in 1898 by Halvorson and Richards, was built to haul logs from the timber areas around and north of Nebish to Red Lake, where they were boomed and then driven down the Red Lake River. In 1905, after bankruptcy, the railroad was bought, the name changed to the Minneapolis, Red Lake and Manitoba Railway, and the decision made to build the remaining miles between Nebish and Bemidji. The new line was to carry freight and passengers. Here was the chance for Buena Vista to have a railroad.
The great blow to the town was that the railroad owners decided to bypass Buena Vista, running by the north end of Lake Julia through a new town to be named Puposky. It was a great disappointment, but J.W.Speelman, resilient as ever, advertised to tourists that they could now come to the Summit Hotel on the train.
The decline of logging, the settlement of the country, the improvement of transportation even without Puposky would have meant the end for Buena Vista. Puposky itself never really flourished, and the railroad was abandoned in 1938.
But changes had been occurring almost from the beginning. In 1900 N.T.Forthun sold his store to Myron Preston and set up a bakery and restaurant in Blackduck. George LaBrie sold out and also set up a bakery in Blackduck. William Worth sold his sawmill and moved to Northern. He sold his house to Peter Maltrud, who set up a store and the Scandia Hotel. When the railroad missed Buena Vista, Maltrud moved his store to Puposky, where he owned land which the railroad owners wwas on the railroad. (Speelman accused him of undermining the efforts of Buena Vista to get the railroad.) Elliot moved his sawmill to Puposky, though his mill was replaced by William Maher's on Lake Julia.
Buena Vista did not die immediately. The Summit hotel ran for several years; Dickinson's box factory and Maher's sawmill continued to operate as well. A tuberculosis sanitarium, the Lake Julia Sanitarium, was built at the north end of the lake and employed a number of the residents of Buena Vista and Puposky. There was some money to be made from resorts -- the last resort on Little Turtle was closed in the 1980's.
Only the schoolhouse, now the Turtle Lake Township Hall, retains its original form. Talking to old residents, one feels their sense of sadness at the passing of the town. Mettie Jensen writes:
Buena Vista was a very peaceful place to live. I always liked living up there. We had a lot of friends; there were a lot of Scandinavians up in that area. There were always friends stopping by. It was quiet. It is much better to live in the country than in the town. We would never have given up the place if we could have managed the farm work.