Text is © W.O.S.Sutherland 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008.
Ronald Gilman shared his extensive knowledge and recollections of the Red Lake Line very generously.
Ted Soukup was kind enough to give us a copy of the rare Mainly Logging edited by Charles Vandersluis.
Excerpts from North Country and North Country History are © Hilda R. Rachuy as indicated.
Photographs courtesy of the Leonard Dickinson Collection are the property of Mrs. Agnes Dickinson and her heirs and have been used with permission.
Text from the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society is copyrighted by the Minnesota the Minnesota Historical Society has been used with permission.
The photograph of the portrait of Beltrami is the property of the Minnesota Historical Society and has been used with permission.
Photographs courtesy of the Beltrami County Historical Society are the property of the Beltrami County Historical Society and have been used with permission.
The photograph in the possession of Ms. Sharon Tate was used with permission
The authors are indebted to several persons and institutions for their assistance. Mrs. Hilda R. Rachuy began her collections of stories and recollections from the pioneers and their families in 1973. Her issues of North Country and North Country History are an invaluable record of personal history. We are fortunate to have the histories of Dr. Charles Vandersluis, dean of historians of Beltrami County, and of Professor Harold T. Hagg. Dr. Vandersluis' papers are deposited in the Beltrami County History Center.
Anyone working on Buena Vista is indebted to Steven Hoffbeck for his fine thesis Frontier Hotel Keeper: John Wesley Speelman and Buena Vista.
Leonard Bergstrom first took us along sections of the Leech Lake Trail, whetting our appetites to learn more.
Wanda Hoyum, Director of the Beltrami County Historical Society has been most generous and helpful in searching the computer for photographs and in bringing us the ungainly boxes housing the Vandersluis Papers. Greg Norum, former Director, was helpful in the early days of our research. We have been helped and kindly treated by the staffs of the Clearwater County Historical Society, the Cass County Historical Society, the Polk County Historical Society, the Hubbard County Historical Society, and the Bemidji State University A.C.Clark Library. The staffs of the Research Center of the Minnesota Historical Society and of the General Libraries and Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin have been helpful and accommodating. We also wish to thank Ms. Kathryn "Jody" Beaulieu, Director of the Red Lake Nation Archives and Library.
Dr. Scott Anfinson, National Register Archaeologist, gave generously of his advice in the successful attempt to have the Buena Vista Archeological Historic District entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
Most of the townsite of Buena Vista has been on the property of Leonard and Agnes Dickinson. They have been faithful stewards of history in preserving the townsite and the memories of the Speelman and Dickinson families. Their children and grandchildren have continued the tradition. The late Earle Dickinson throughout his life was Buena Vista's indefatigable historian and guide. Without his encouragement and that of his father Leonard Dickinson we would never have embarked on this project.
William and Madeline Sutherland