With revenue hitting 32 Billion dollars in 2018, it’s hard to call the Lumber industry anything other than behemoth. Often forgotten about by the urban population, forests still cover a large percentage of our nation. In fact, it is one of the longest running industries having been essential to everything from construction, to education, to literature ever since settlers set foot at Plymouth Rock. With so much potential revenue to be made out of every acre, it’s hard to imagine how any survey team could overlook or mis-survey and area, but that is in fact what happened back in 1882.
Back then, Minnesota was one of the largest contributors to the timber market and Josiah A. King, along with a 3 man crew, traveled throughout the wilderness surveying land. Eating flour, pork, beans, and dried apples, while living in canvas tents, Josiah and his crew finished one of the first land surveys of Minnesota.No one knows why or how, but the crew plotted Coddington Lake about a half mile further northwest than it actually was. In consequence, the trees were never cultivated, and the land remains undisturbed to this day.
Now protected as a scientific study area, the Lost 40 contains the largest single section of old growth forest in Minnesota. These trees have remained undisturbed for hundreds of years. White and red pine tower over you. Birds talk to each other as they fly above. Spending a day hiking through the dense foliage brings an ambience of prehistoric times. One can easily imagine what it would have been like.
Closest Supercharger – Baxter MN 126 mi
6967 Lake Forest Rd, Baxter, MN 56425
The Lost 40
Itasca County Twp, Northome, MN 56661
