The Crosslake Area Historical Society has opened its doors again this summer and the first of its Back Porch Series will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 9, with speaker Ollie Skurdahl.
The program will take place in the Learning Livery at the Historic Log Village, downtown Crosslake. The public is invited.
Skurdahl will guide people on an imaginary journey through the virgin forests around Cross Lake that in 1890 touched the sky. He will describe the sounds of ripsaws cutting into the massive white and red pine trees and the sound of them cracking just before the shouts of "T-I-M-B-E-R" from the lumberjacks.
He'll describe the ride on the rails as the loads of logs creaked their way toward the dump site and to Cross Lake's waters as the logs rolled down the Moonlite Bay hill and submerged into the lake. He will describe the "pigs" dancing on the logs with their Peavey poles as they guided the timbers toward and through the dam and the sound of the loud "boom" caused by the dynamite explosion that would loosen the log jam on the Pine River.
The presentation will continue to St. Anthony where there would be sawdust and splinters flying everywhere in the mill.
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Donations will be accepted.
