The Cloquet Forest Experiment Station in 1910

Abstract

In 1909, the University of Minnesota secured 2,640 acres of tribal forest lands on the Fond du Lac Reservation in northeast Minnesota for a school forest.1 The station’s purpose was “to demonstrate proper methods of forest management and reforestation in the Lake States; and to advance the science of forestry as a whole” (Zon 1912, p. 1; Figure 1). The station was intentionally “situated…in the heart of a cut-over and burned-over area” to be an “ideal location” for the long-term demonstration of silvicultural practices (University of Minnesota 1914, p. 61). University staff primarily reserved red and white pine seed trees along existing forest roads for the purpose of public education, as well as for their scenic value. Among these reserves was “a beautiful grove of large red pine” where future buildings would be “carefully planned to harmonize with the environment” (Tierney 1910;...