Star (Vilas County, WI)

T41N R8E S22 SE NE [WI DNR]

Randall E. Rohe. Ghosts of the Forest: Vanished Lumber Towns of Wisconsin, vol. 1 Forest History of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Rapids: The Print Shop, 2002. 297-298, 300, 304-308.

Rohe is from Menasha. Menasha is a paper company town. The Menasha corporation started manufacturing pails and other woodenware in 1849. Today it specializes in packaging. Menasha is on Lake Winnebago in the Fox Valley. The Fox Valley was the first logging company boom in Wisconsin. The second came from the Northwoods of the Wisconsin River Valley. This is where Star Lake is located.

There are a couple of lumber company towns north of Wausau on the Wisconsin River. Jenny Bull Falls (now Merrill) and Grandfather Falls were barriers to Northwoods lumber as it travelled down the river to the mills of Wausau. In between the river's headwaters (near today's Land O' Lakes, WI) and Merrill many smaller lumber mills supported boom towns on the river. They were reliant upon the river for transportation of goods and labor until the railroads developed. Some of the Wisconsin River Valley lumber boom towns, like Rhinelander, still exist. Others, like Star Lake, do not.

There is another difference between the lumber towns in the Wisconsin and those in the Fox Valley. Products exported from the Fox Valley were destined to Great Lakes ports. These were the same Great Lakes ports that received the iron and copper from Upper Michigan and Minnesota's Iron range. Whenever commodity prices fluctuate or global markets change there is a renewed interest in the iron ranges by people in the cities. Native Americans, environmentalists and outdoor enthusiasts of the region are under constant threat by outside investors who are interested in the copper, iron and increasingly rare earth minerals of the region.

The Wisconsin River flows west to the Mississippi River. Exports of Northwoods lumber went to ports south of La Crosse once they left the state. The old boom towns of the lumber era are a little harder to find without the towering tailings piles, mine shafts or ponds that dot the northern mine country. When the forests were gone and the lumberjacks moved west--they took their houses with them. What was left of these ghost towns was taken over by the forests that birthed them. An article from the [Milwaukee Journal / Chicago Tribune] from 1988 described the scene:
"The forests of northern Wisconsin are haunted by the remains of hundreds of little towns that sprang up in the last century to support a thriving lumber industry.

"Most of the towns perished when the sawmills ran out of timber.

"But a careful observer can find traces of civilization, such as a grassy clearing, a vague outline of a street pattern or the crumbled foundation of a building."

McCauley quotes from Rohe--then a professor of geography at Wisconsin-Waukesha County Center about a couple of towns and traditions from his work. To Rohe the towns are interesting because they had individual traditions and social norms that everybody knew were only temporary. The speed and scale of this wave of lumbering is described by McCauley, "[h]undreds of lumber towns in the northern two-thirds of the state were founded between 1860 and 1920 as the lumber line moved north and sawmills sprang up along riverbanks. Between 1899 and 1904, Wisconsin led the nation in lumber production." These towns were owned by the company and built by workers in exchange for free rent over a period of time. A typical town had a sawmill, row houses, temporary housing and a store that used town money. The companies preferred married men, they outlawed vice and provided family friendly recreation to the employees.

On the surface Star Lake was one of these towns. But according to McCauley "a small island in Star Lake had a blind pig, or dumb waiter. Men rowed to the island and placed their money in the dumb waiter. As it revolved, a bottle of liquor appeared." Stories of dry and viceless lumber towns are probably more company propaganda than actual fact.

Mary Carole McCauley and the Milwaukee Journal "Ghost Towns Haunt Wisconsin As Lumbering Ends" The Chicago Tribune 12 May 1988

The destination of exports is part of the dual nature of the state which was determined by the Wisconsin and Fox. The Wisconsin River feeds into the Mississippi River which has a different Creole history than the Great Lakes. The lumber that came from the Wisconsin river valley went to the Mississippi.

The Fox River empties into Lake Winnebago and then continues to Green Bay. Fox River lumber and its products went to markets along the Great Lakes via the port at Green Bay. These trade networks changed the character of the towns that remained. The lumber barons that founded the towns were of a specific North Eastern capitalist class. (See Bradley, Lee, Yawkey)

As the mode of production changed it was imperitive to the cities to adapt. Ancient settlements like Green Bay and Detroit functioned well during fur trading mercantilism, lumber era boom times and industrial production of finished goods. Today, they struggle to offer a post-industrial model for their ports.

While the metropole can adjust the finished goods that it produces. Colonies aren't able to provide different unfinished resources. The result is a boom and bust cycle. Star Lake is one of those lumber boom towns that never recovered. It was moved on to the next town by eager lumberjacks and their families

Rohe also holds degrees in Geography and Historical Archeology. He compares historical photos to today, studies newspapers and state reports. His description of Star Lake, WI is broken into three different settlements over two different states. The Star Lake location was purchased in 1893. They built a sawmill and the railroad came from Minocqua. A town formed around the developing mill and lake starting in 1895. Logging camps surrounded the town. A hotel and company houses were built. There was a telegraph line, train to Minocqua, general store, barber shop, doctor. The town was electrified by a "dynamo in the mill." The hotel was for workers, train employees and a new class of recreation outdoors people. It is still there. The whole operation was staffed by workers from the previous company mill in McKenna, Wisconsin who arrived in a "special train..." of people and stuff on 28 August 1895.

Star Lake is the same as any other lumber town. It was built in 1895 and the "last log was cut" in 1906 and "most of the houses had been razed" by 1911. This boom and bust cycle is a "common phenomenon" in lumber towns according to Rohe.

Star Lake was a company town named after Harry and Bob, the Starr Brothers. Harry was a piledriver for the Star Lake mill. Bob had been a surveyor of the area. Their homestead provided a name to the lake. This was shortened to Starlake by the lumber company. The post office started calling it Star Lake some time after.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes a lake name is just a surname.

[Menasha corporate history]