The Red Lake Line

The Minneapolis, Red Lake and Manitoba Railway

Courtesy the Beltrami County Historical Society

It was to be a new railroad with a new name - The Minneapolis, Red Lake and Manitoba Railway. The new owners were Charles A. Smith, who had large holdings in timber lands and owned a sawmill in Minneapolis to which he shipped logs; John Lind, a former governor; and Ueland, a lawyer.The three new owners had money, influence, and ideas. The new railroad would no longer be just a logging road: it would be a passenger railroad and carry freight, mail, passengers, and, of course, logs. It would serve the settlers of Beltrami County.

So, in 1905 the newly-organized railroad decided to extend its line into Bemidji. (As an inducement, the businessmen of Bemidji paid for the right of way.) The railroad would then run 32 miles from Redby to Bemidji. The contract went to Halvorson and Carlson (the same Halvorson).

The new railroad required thoroughgoing structural changes

Where the Red Lake Line had been constructed with light steel rails, the new line was built with heavier steel to carry more powerful and heavier locomotives and trains. The rails between Nebish and Redby were taken up and replaced and the roadbed regraded. Bridges were built or strengthened, though traffic continued all the while. The new line of twenty-three miles was built from Bemidji. A trestle had to be built where the new line crossed Great Northern and later Soo Line tracks between the Bemidji depot and Anderson Siding.

The line was graded with horses and scoops, though a steam shovel was also used. After construction, section crews were stationed along the line to work on trouble spots, for the new trains required constant maintenance.

The heavier locomotives and cars made a difference

All three bridges over the Mud River were replaced. Fred Helbig, an engineer on a Crookston engine, tells in an interview in the Vandersluis Papers (BCHS) of his experience with the high bridge before the new one was built.

One of them [the bridges] must have been two blocks long and 60 feet high. It was so high that Elmer and I were afraid to look down when we crossed it. We took our old Crookston Climax to Redby to get it washed. When we hit that bridge it went crickety-crickety-kick-kick. Gosh! We stopped. It was dark. We got out and looked for the ladder and looked down over the edge. It was dark down there and we couldn't see a thing. We just crawled the rest of the way across. The next morning, after we had washed the engine, we came back and we could see how high the trestle was. We didn't go very fast over it on the way back either. Our load of water was heavier than the locomotives the Red Lake ran across that trestle.

Andrew Bergquist actually "put a big carload of coal into the river.... They salvaged all the coal and I think they used the hoist to get the car out in sections." A new bridge was put in next to the old one. The whole line from Redby to Bemidji was made stronger and more capable of carrying heavier loads. (Bergquist, Paper before the BCHS)

Buena Vista is by-passed

Buena Vista, the largest settlement between Nebish and Bemidji argued that the new line of the railroad should run by the south end of Lake Julia and through Buena Vista. Steven Hoffbeck gives a good account of J.W.Speelman's campaign to have the railroad run through Buena Vista in his Frontier Hotel Keeper: John Wesley Speelman and Buena Vista, Minnesota, pages 75-80.

The route of the new railroad from Nebish to Bemidji

C.A.Smith, the active partner, decided against Buena Vista in favor of a spot close to the south end of Lake Puposky. Surveyors began laying out the line for the new road.

courtesy Beltrami County History SocietySurveyors near Puposky setting the line

Going by Puposky meant that some of Smith's valuable timber lands near Campbell Lake would be on the railroad.

Puposky, a depot destined to become a village, was set up, and many of the citizens and businesses of Buena Vista moved to the new town. Amos Hodgon was the new agent.

courtesy the Beltrami County Historical Society

The depot at Puposky

The line then ran south to the southeast edge of Campbell Lake, where the railroad set up a flag stop it named Werner. (pronounced "Warner")

C.A.Smith owned the townsite as well as the logs in the lake.

August Becker came to Bemidji in 1896 and homesteaded on the southeast end of Campbell Lake. He logged and sawed in the area.

The Red Lake Railroad took the logs out of Campbell Lake. The Clearwater Logging Company had cut most of them in there for C.A.Smith. They totaled about 85 million feet. [R.H.Dickinson said about 8 million.] I used to log for C.A.Smith. Both he and the Clearwater company used the railroad [in reality, the Clearwater logged for C.A.Smith and landed in Campbell Lake.]. The first logs from Campbell Lake had gone down the Turtle River. (Once Covered with Pine, p.119)

A trestle and a hoist were built out into Campbell Lake to pick up the logs.

courtesy the Beltrami County Historical Society

The remains of the trestle into Campbell LakePhoto taken some years ago

From Werner the line continued past two flag stops (Marsh Siding and Anderson Siding) into Bemidji; the railroad ran to its own depot at the foot of Irvine Avenue.

Just south of Anderson Siding before getting to the Bemidji depot were the Great Northern tracks and later those of the Soo Line. The MRL&M built a trestle over the tracks.

courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

MRL&M trestle over the Great Northern Tracks

The MLR&M connects with the rest of the railway world

Connections were made in Bemidji with the M & I, the Great Northern, the Brainerd and Northern, and the Wilton and Northern. So the new line had to be prepared for heavier cars and trains as well as heavier engines. They had to be prepared for the other lines' logging cars, coal cars, freight cars, and immigrant cars.

But there were political advanges too. When Governor Eberhart visited in 1913, a MRL&M passenger car could bring him to Nebish for a meeting with the town's citizens.

The Florence Edwards Gillman Collectioon
Courtesy Ronald Gillman

The heavier and faster trains also brought problems.

Courtesy the Beltrami Historical Society

Spurs on the New Line

Several spurs were laid by the new road. One was to the north end of Lake Julia, another was to the west side of Big Turtle Lake, where George Cochran was logging Alice Butler's land on the east side. He boomed the logs across the lake to the site of the former resort Shermadel. Carl Durand mentions spurs into Mud Lake, the Lemloh Spurs, and Spurs 27 and 28 north of Puposky.

Duties of a depot agent

Clark Vincent was the agent at Bemidji. Claire Vincent talked about his father Clark Vincent:

[My father] went with the Red Lake Railroad which was just being built. My dad was depot agent. He got up at 5:00 o'clock to be at the depot at 5:45 and the work train pulled out right after that. The crew had to be at the work site at 7:00. They worked from 7:00 a.m. to Noon and from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., no coffee breaks. My dad had to stay at the depot until they returned at night and he generally got home about 9:30 p.m.

courtesy the Beltrami County History Society

Bemidji Depot of the Minneapolis, Red Lake and Manitoba RailwayAt the foot of Irvine Avenue on Lake Irving

The schedule for 1912 shows both times and distances.

Dispatching on the new line

Ruth Hogdon Groat explained how traffic was handled on the single-track line.

Redby and Nebish had been established earlier, and now Puposky was added. In each of these towns there was a depot and a depot agent; my father was the depot agent at Puposky. A telephone line was put up with a telephone in each depot. The trains loaded with logs enroute to the mills had the right-of-way and those coming back with empty cars were shunted onto side tracks and spurs. The depot agents had to keep in touch with one another to keep the lines clear for loaded trains. (NC, 1980, p.89)

The Passenger TrainA New Experience for Residents along the Line

At Redby

The passenger train gave people who lived in the country a chance to go into Bemidji to shop, visit, see a doctor, then ride back home. But the train also provided entertainment. People have always watched trains. Leo Desjarlait of Red Lake, remembers his youth in We Choose to Remember: More Memories of the Red Lake Ojibwe People:

There was hardly no transportation in those days. I did a lot of walking. We used to walk to Redby a lot. Me and some other kids. Summertime. Go to watch that old railroad train come in. Walk all the way to Redby just to look at it. They was working around there switching cars all around and all that. I would go down there just to watch the damn thing work.(p.54)

Roy Bailey, who had been a depot agent at Redby, remembered his experiences for the Beltrami County History Society:

There was no recreation in Redby except seeing the train come in. Ihe tracks approached the depot in a cut in the bank extending back from the lakeshore, and the Indians would come there at train time and sit or lie in wait for the train, to see who or what was on board. Looking at lumberjacks getting off was the main excitement. Ihe old Indians wore their hair in braids and smoked long pipes, and that was all they had to do. After the train was in the excitement was all over for the day.

Photograph by Ernie Bourgeois
courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

Watching the Train

From Bemidji

Excursions

There were also excursions sponsored by the railroad. Bailey again:

When I first arrived the railroad was running excursions from Bemidji to Red Lake, transferring passengers to the Michael Kelly or the Mudhen for a ride to Ponemah and other places around the lake. Bemidji people made up most of the excursionists The Michael Kelly was the largest boat on the lake and was a sidewheeler.... The hull of the Michael Kelly measured 25 x 110 feet and was overlaid by a platform of 45 feet wide to provide plenty of walking space for passengers and crew.

The cost of the excursion was $1.00.

Courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

Early Commuters

It also gave people in Bemidji a convenient way to the Red Lake country. Carrie Weum Wynne, whose home base was Solway, cooked for one year for the teachers and government employees at Red Lake. "We went on the train to Redby and then we took a boat across to Red Lake. There were no roads them days, just trails through the woods, so we went by boat." (NCH, 1977, pp. 89-90)

Traveling home from high school in Bemidji

The children who went to high school in Bemidji who came home for the holidays had happy memories of being met at the train. Mabel Djonne Seado Forseth remembers fondly:

My father didn't own a car for first two years of our high school so on holidays we had to take the Red Lake train to a spur six or seven miles from home where my dad would meet us with a team of horses and a sleigh with plenty of blankets to keep us warm. How we did enjoy those trips home! (>B>NC, 1978, p.41)

As a passenger train, the new railroad seemed very personal. Florence Hayes Annonson showed her confidence in the concern for passengers. She and her sisters were returning to school, walking to Werner's Siding. "We were carrying our suitcases across the lake when we heard the train whistle, so we missed it. . . . The conductor couldn't see us or he would have waited." (NC, 1981, p.37)

Leonard Dickinson finds a bride

Agnes Jacobson from Deer Lake rode the train to and from high school in Bemidji. Her father met her at the Puposky station with a team of horses. Sometimes he was late; so she had to wait for him to come. Once while waiting she met young Leonard Dickinson, who was working at Clark's Store in Puposky.

"I'm going to marry that girl," Leonard told a friend. And sure enough, he did.

On September 23, 2001 Agnes Jacobson Dickinson celebrated her 100th birthday at the Buena Vista Ranch ski chalet. Over 300 guests from Bemidji and the surrounding countryside joined her in the celebration.

Mrs. Agnes Dickinson at her 100th birthday celebration

Honeymooners

The train also carried couples to a new life and back again. Ruth Grytbak's family homesteaded on the Tamarack River.

The next summer . . .we had a double wedding, Mabel marrying Frank and I married Carl. We went to Bemidji to be married, and as we were working that summer south of the source of the Tamarack River, towards Big Falls, we had to walk a couple of miles, then get a canoe and paddle down the Tamarack River to Washkish. Albert Smith took us in a motor boat to Redby, and there we boarded a train for Bemidji. After the wedding, we stayed at the Markham Hotel for a week and then returned to the dredge, spending part of our honeymoon paddling up the Tamarack River in a canoe. (NC, 1987, (pp.80-81)

Amanda's first train ride -- 9 years old

Amanda Wickner Grow tells of her first experience riding the train:

When I was nine years old I visited my sister Annie in Bemidji for a few days. She was married to Dan Glick and living across the tracks. He was working in the mill down there on Lake Irving. She took me to the Red Lake train to return me home. I was upset because I had never ridden on a train or gone anywhere alone before. She said it would be all right because she would tell Mr. Bergquist, the conductor, to let me off at Anderson's station, right near our house. I told her he would forget about me, but she said, "No, he won't forget. He always remembers to let me off there." I was still nervous.

The train went north and I waited and waited. We passed the Anderson station and my house. A man sitting near me saw I was very upset and offered to go up and speak to the conductor for me. The train stopped at the Marsh siding and I waited some more. The man did not come back, and neither did Mr. Bergquist. Then I thought, "Well, I can't go any farther up the line or I will never find my way back." I didn't think about just following the railroad tracks back and I figured I would have to walk.

I went up and just stood there, too frightened to speak. Mr. Bergquist was reading the paper and the man who had gone up was visiting with the engineer. The engineer turned around and looked at me. Finally I said, "Mr. Bergquist?" He turned around and swore, jumped up and said, "Anderson Siding! And here we are up to Wes Wright's!" I was really frightened then, getting sworn at! The engineer started swearing also. I turned and ran back to my seat.

Then the train stopped and started backing up. It backed all the way to Anderson Siding; then Mr. Bergquist came and said, "Now you wait until we come to a dead stop." He opened the door and let the platform down and zoom, I was out of there so fast that I don't think I even hit the step. "It was a Great Time," North Country 1986, p. 15.

The train backed up over four miles. They don't give that kind of service any more.

Courtesy the Beltrami Historical Society

Conductor Andrew Bergquist on the rear platformHis daughter in the foreground

"Mike's kindness"

Lillian MacGregor Shaw, who taught at the Pleasant Valley school in about 1908, tells a story that shows why its patrons felt as they did about the train.

Here I want to mention the Red Lake train which often was called the "Squaw Line." It ceased to exist but it was truly a lifeline to the little towns it serviced. It ran every day except Sunday, arriving at Bemidji during the forenoon and leaving in the late afternoon, thus furnishing a shopping day to its passengers.

The conductor and big Boss was Mike Dwyer.

courtesy Beltrami County History Society

Mike Dwyer clowning with his friends

He truly was the Boss, keeping order, even when some of his passengers had imbibed freely and were hard to manage. He was accommodating to a fault, a friend to all. For example:

We had our Christmas tree in the Pleasant Valley school on Christmas Eve. After it was over, my sister Mary (later Mrs. Given), who was teaching in the Island View school, and I went to Nebish to spend the night so that we would be there in time to catch the morning train and be home for Christmas Day.

It was late, we were both very tired. We fell asleep and knew no more until we woke to heavy pounding on our door and a voice calling out: "Hurry! The train is in but Mike says he will hold the train for you if you will hurry!" And so we did.

We were anxious to get home, but for some reason the train was making many stops. We did not know why until we spied Mike running across a clearing with a Christmas package to a little log cabin. Mike was delivering Christmas cheer as he went. We were late for Christmas dinner but who can say how many hearts were cheered by Mike's kindness that day? (NC, 1983, p.111)

The convenience of the new line

Before the railroad was extended to Bemidji, logs from Turtle Lake or Fox Lake had gone the long, slow water route to Turtle River Lake, Cass Lake, and beyond. After the extension, people like A.P.Reeve hauled their logs across Turtle Lake to Werner's Siding, a saving of time and effort. (NC, 1983, p.65))

The new train carried passengers and freight and had facilities for sorting mail. It was still a logging railroad, though under the new ownership logs were carried to Bemidji, where the new line connected to other railroads. Smith's logs were turned over to the Brainerd and Northern Minnesota and hauled to Brainerd, where they were dumped into the Mississippi to be driven to Smith's mill in North Minneapolis. Crookston logs could be dumped into Lake Irving and driven into Lake Bemidji to the Crookston Mill. (Once Covered with Pine, p.53)

Management

The General Manager from 1908 until the railroad went out of business was Alfred L.Molander. The road was administered well under his management, and he became prominent in business and civic affairs in Bemidji. (Hagg, NC, 1984, p.48)

Courtesy the Beltrami Historical Society

Alfred Molander and guests

Molander was to keep his position for the next thirty years, until the the railroad went out of business.

Part III: The Making of Nebish and The End of the Line Go back to Part I:Building a Railroad in the Wilderness

Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008 William and Madeline Sutherland