As part of the “Our State, Our Forests” series, Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger presents a report on the history of the timber industry in Minnesota. Timber was far and away the biggest industry in the state…and it changed the very landscape we live in.

There are few places anymore you can walk the kind of forests that covered northern Minnesota a hundred fifty years ago. Giant white pines rose to 200 feet. When Minnesota became a state, more than half its land was in deep shade. Though vast, the great North Woods weren't limitless. By the turn of the century, Minnesota timber was being marketed from New York to Denver. The expanding frontier needed wood and 30,000 lumberjacks were doing their best to supply it.

“Our State, Our Forests: Timbering in Minnesota” is a series of reports where Minnesota Public Radio examines what these changes mean for the state's timber industry, trees, and wildlife.