James Cyr, Now in His 85th Year, Settled at Little Turtle Lake in Spring of 1894; Packed Supplies From Fosston, Including Grind-Stone Which He Finally Got Home After Several Attempts. First Fireplace made of Blue Clay and Oven for Baking Broad Proved to be Popular Among Other Early Homesteaders.

James Cyr, now in his 85th year, settled at Little Turtle Lake in the spring of 1894, placing a homestead filing on a tract of land formerly occupied by the Hudson Bay Trading Post, on which there was a small clearing. He made commutation proof on this land, after 14 months residence and got clear title early In 1896. His hurry in getting title which cost him $200 extra, was due to the fact that a great many contests were being filed against homesteads and he wanted to got a clear title at the earliest possible opportunity. He believes he was the first resident real estate tax payer in the county, or at any rate one of the first half dozen.

Mr. Cyr's two nearest neighbors in the summer of 1894 were Freeman Dowd and Thomas Foy. Dowd, an old soldier, was at Turtle Lake when Mr. Cyr arrived, but moved to Lake Bemidji later in the year and filed on a homestead which is now part of the site of Bemidji. Foy lived in a tent on the shore Lake Bemidji at a point approximately where the Birchmont Hotel now stands. He was trying to establish homestead rights there, but died during the year.

The Hudson Bay Trading Post had been discontinued for a number of years when Mr. Cyr arrived. It was located on a hill overlooking the lake, and the site is still visible by marks on the ground showing where the house stood. The post is said to have been in operation for about 75 years and was evidently established with in a few years after the visit there by Count Beltrami in 1823. Tradition has it that the post was operated from about 1830 to 1885, but no certainty exists as to that.

Mr. Cyr came in from Crookston, by way of Fosston, and followed the trails into the woods as far as they went, and then went on beyond the trails. During the first couple years at Little Turtle Lake he carried in the supplies needed from Fosston.

Among the supplies brought in by Mr. Cyr, in 1904, was a grind-stone. It was bought in Fosston and Mr. Cyr started out for his claim carrying the grindstone on his back. After traveling quite a distance he concluded the grindstone was a mistake and laid it away in the brush, traveling the rest of the way with the balance of his load of supplies. On his next trip to Fosston he picked up the grindstone again and moved it further toward his homestead, and again hid it in the brush. He did this again on each subsequent trip to Fosston and in six or eight months the grindstone finally arrived at Little Turtle Lake. It was the only grindstone in the country for some time and was kept busy sharpening axes for the early settlers, but some of it still remains.

When Mr. Cyr and his son, George Cyr, first came to Little Turtle Lake there were none of the conveniences of civilization to be had, except by carrying them in on their back. One of the first needs was a fireplace and especially an oven for baking bread. They settled this by building a fireplace from blue clay, wide at the bottom and tapering upward, which they gradually hardened by firing as they built. They managed to get the clay baked like brick, and made an oven for baking bread by a similar process, aided by a few pieces of tin. This primitive oven vas the first bakery in the county, and many of the first homesteaders came to the Cyr place to bake bread. The process was to heat the oven by heavy firing, then draw out the fire and put in bread and close up the oven by means of the tins. The bread thus produced was usually of very good quality, according to Mr. Cyr. Bread was not the main part of their diet. Deer, Moose, fowl and fish were so plentiful anyone could live on wild meat.

Sometime after proving up on his homestead, Mr. Cyr platted the townsite of Buena Vista. For a while the town flourished with stores, saloons, hotel, newspaper etc., but when the east and west railroad went to Bemidji and the north and south railroad to Puposky, it began to fade out. The main promoter of Buena Vista was J.W.Speelman, whom Mr. Cyr remembers as a very active and very able man, who did more for the settlement of that district than any dozen men that have lived there. Mr. Speelman suggested the platting of the townsite and started a hotel and newspaper there. The town was named Turtle Lake, but when the postoffice was established it was called Buena Vista; the name being suggested by Mr. Speelman whose father, a soldier of the Civil War, had been wounded in a battle at a place called Buena Vista somewhere in the south. Had the fates decreed that Buena Vista should become a city, it would have been one of the prettiest located cities in the state. During the brief existence as an inland village, Buena Vista was the entry place for a large portion of the homesteaders in northern Beltrami county.

James Cyr is a native of Maine, who came west in the early days and lived at Crookston and Red Lake Falls before coming to Beltrami county. When this county was first organized he was given the opportunity to become the first sheriff, but declined on the ground that he lacked sufficient education to handle the legal end of the job. The first election in this section of the county was held at Mr. Cyr's cabin in 1896, when the contest was on between McKinley and Bryant.

The most adverse condition of the early days, Mr. Cyr says, was caused by mosquitoes. It was necessary to wear netting and to keep all beds covered up with cheesecloth and other fabrics-that would give protection in the summer months. In the spring the early settlers usually set fire to the dead grass in the swamps as a means of discouraging the mosquito pest, which has just about disappeared now as compared to what it was.

When Turtle Lake township was organized it was proposed to call it Cyr township, in honor of the first settler, but Mr. Cyr declined the honor and asked that it be called Turtle Lake.