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明尼蘇達州的伐木業
想想看，您能在火車的貨運車廂內，放入多少木材。然後，再想想看，您需要多少圓木，才能裝滿240,000台車子。那真是為數眾多的車子，但那只是1905年一年，駛離明尼蘇達州，車上裝滿圓木的車數。
從歷史的角度來看，伐木業是明尼蘇達州經濟上的重要一環。明尼蘇達州大片針葉樹森林的採伐一直持續到20世紀的最初數十年，木材產量在1905年時達到最高峰。事實上，單1905年一年，明尼蘇達州就鋸下了數量非常龐大的木材，約可裝滿240,000節貨運車廂！從1890到1910年的全盛時期，明尼蘇達州境內的木材公司採伐了價值達十億美元的木材。
每年冬季，伐木工會在林區內設立營地。而這些伐木工都是由相當貧窮且沒有工作技能的工人所組成，其中有許多人是新進移民，剛自北歐遷徙過來，幾乎無法唯生。工人們的薪資所得低，並且在危險的工作環境下，長時間的辛苦工作。
技術的進步改變了伐木業並使其工業化。馬匹被小型牽引機所取代，伐木工開始使用汽油驅動的鏈鋸。而木材則被送至密西西比河、雨河(Rainy)及聖路易斯河河畔的紙漿工廠。到了1970年代，已經完成了農業工業的工業化。
Think about how much wood you could fit into a train's freight car. Imagine how many wood logs you would need to fill up 240,000 cars. That's a lot of cars, but that's just how many were filled in Minnesota in 1905.
Historically, logging has been an important part of Minnesota's economy. Clearing the massive conifer forests of Minnesota continued into the first decades of the 20th century, when production peaked in 1905. In fact, so much lumber was sawed in the state that year that it would have filled about 240,000 freight cars! During the boom period of 1890 to 1910, lumber companies harvested lumber valued at $1 billion in Minnesota.
Each winter season, logging crews set up camps in the forest areas. The crews were made up of relatively poor and unskilled workers. Many of them were recent immigrants from northern Europe who were barely making a living. Workers received low wages and toiled long hours under dangerous conditions.
Technological advances changed and industrialized logging. Horses were replaced with small tractors, and loggers began to use gasoline-powered chain saws. Lumber was sent to paper mills that were built along the Mississippi, Rainy, and St. Louis rivers. By the 1970s, the industrialization of an agricultural industry was complete.
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