Logging Days

Since 1985, Logging Days have been an integral part of Bemidji area recreation.  It features old time logging demonstrations, induction of lumberjacks into the hall of fame, sleigh rides, live entertainment and lumberjack contest. All you can eat flapjack meals in blacksmith shop. It is held in Buena Vista.

The Buena Vista of the pioneers days has passed, and now the townsite has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The schoolhouse still stands, though some of the old timers have complained that it is now brown instead of white as it used to be. There is a Beltrami Park with picnic benches by the schoolhouse -- now the Turtle Lake Town Hall -- and a hand pump is still there for those who want a cool drink.
Depressions still mark the foundations of some buildings. The largest building of the town, the Summit Hotel -- where J.W.Speelman maintained that the rainwater from one side of his roof flowed down to the Mississippi and the water from the other side ran into Hudson Bay -- has been gone for over half a century.
Lake Julia and Little Turtle Lake are now residential lakes with both year-round and seasonal residents. Lake Julia, with its state water access, still attracts fishermen, but everyone except the inveterate boosters knows the fishing is not as good as it was thirty years ago. It is still one of the beautiful lakes of the area, very deep and cold. In the spring, when the water is like crystal, if you are near the old saw mill, you can look down and see logs that sank a hundred years ago. In the winter you can snowshoe along the trails and out onto the lakes, onto ice deep enough to hold a locomotive. It can be so quiet that in the frozen woods you can almost believe that time has frozen too.
 Main Street with its dirt and ruts is now Beltrami 15, paved with a dividing stripe down the middle. Drivers hurry by not knowing, perhaps not caring, about the memories the town site holds.
Over the century, Buena Vista has changed. There is still activity, though of a different kind from that of the old days. Instead of the Summit Hotel, the dominating feature of modern Buena Vista is the Ski Hill, and clustered below are the Chalet, the Lumberjack Hall of Fame, and the little town put up by Earle Dickinson with its church and other buildings. Attractive homes, built to withstand the winter, line the shores of the lake. There is still a lot going on at Buena Vista and in the surrounding area.

I am especially interested in this history as it is connected to me personally.  The Dickinson family developed this area.  Well, over 105 years ago one of the Dickinson family moved to North Dakota and started the Dickinson Store in Beach ND.  I purchased that store in 1998 and ran it until 2004 when I sold it to a close friend.