Nearly everyone in the area has heard a rumor, circulated for the last fifty years or more, about the locomotive that supposedly lies at the bottom of Trout Lake. According to the rumor, the locomotive was owned by one of the are mining companies, and fell through the ice in the deepest part of the lake. Area pilots claim that the train is visible from the air, as a shadow in the clear waters of the lake.

Andrew Larson, of the Tower-Soudan Historical Society, also has heard the rumor. Larson has looked for the locomotive by air, land and sea, but was unable to find any sign of it. Several years ago Larson heard from some divers, who claimed they dived for the engine and salvaged the bell. The divers claimed to have taken pictures of the engine but, Larson added, the divers haven't produced the evidence yet.

If there is any equipment at the bottom of Trout Lake, undoubtedly it belonged to one of the area logging companies, and floating the truth of the rumor to the surface, requires a closer look into what equipment those companies used. The history of logging is filled with stories of disasters involving fires, accidental deaths, business skullduggery that resulted in a near-lynching and sunken equipment that has never been found.

Logging first started in the Tower area in 1865, when the Vermilion Falls Company began operations to produce lumber for the great Minnesota gold rush and Winston City. After the gold rush, the iron ore rush began. In 1882, the Minnesota Iron Mining Company's logging operation, owned by Charlegmenge Tower and his investment syndicate, was begun. Located on the banks of the East Two River, this company produced lumber exclusively for use in the Soudan Mine and for homes being built in the Tower-Soudan area. Logs for the mill came from a site across the river from the mill, which was later occupied by a cemetery. This mill burned in 1885 and the remains of the business were bought by partners John Owens and Charles Sellers.

Owens and Sellers remodeled and expanded the business, adding another mill. The partnership continued until 1887, when Sellers was tragically killed in a revolving saw accident at the mill. Owens operated the business until 1891, when fire claimed one of the mills.

Most of the logging operations, up to this time, took place in the immediate area of Tower and Soudan. In 1891, the Owens mill was purchased by the Howe Lumber Company. The Howe Lumber Company expanded logging operations to include the far eastern shores of Lake Vermilion. Shortly after it began operations, The Howe Lumber Company lost one of their best teams of horses, when they fell through the ice, near Oak Narrows. In 1899, tragedy struck once again, and this mill too was destroyed in a fire.

In 1899, the newly organized Tower Lumber Company took over the Howe Lumber Company holdings. The mill as the Howe Lumber Company site was rebuilt, and logging operations were conducted on Pike River, Lake Vermilion, Pine Lake and Trout Lake. In 1901, the Tower Lumber Company purchased the entire property of the Tower Logging Railway Company. After the purchase, the Tower Lumber Company's assets included four locomotives, about 140 logging cars, a steam log loader and a steam shovel. The Tower Lumber Company also gained about 20 miles of railroad, one spur of which ran from Murray Junction, east of Tower to the Bear Head Lake area and a portage railroad which ran north 2 1/2 miles from Bear Creek on the north shore of Lake Vermilion to Pine Lake.

A unique invention of the logging industry (because it never connected to a main line railroad) a portage railroad was build to haul logs from one lake to another. All the equipment to build these railroads was hauled over open water in summer by barges or over the ice in winter. The Pine Lake portage railroad was operated with one saddle-tank type locomotive and a few logging cars. A saddle-tank locomotive had a water tank that fit above and wrapped around the full length of the main fire box and boiler.

Some of the Tower Lumber Companies assets were Shay locomotives. These were smaller, lighter engines, able to climb steeper grades because they were gear-driven rather than rod-driven like the more typical locomotive most people are familiar with. Shay locomotives were invented by Ephiram Shay, who began his career as a sawmill operator in Michigan. The Shay engine ran off a geared drive shaft that connected to each geared wheel along the right side of the engine. This increased the power of the engine, and gave the engine more traction. This also increased the danger to the men who operated the engines, because of the exposed gears. According to the reports from that time, his leg was ground to a pulp.

The Shay locomotive changed the course of the logging industry. Because it could operate on temporary, "skeleton" tracks, it made it possible for logging operations that were previously too difficult and uneconomical to access. Skeleton tracks were simply laid with the ties directly on the ground and the rails spiked on top. No ballast or fill was added to hold the ties in place.

Area Logging History