Above: These pancake servers were full of enthusiasm at the August 17, 2013 John Schroeder Community Fun Day pancake breakfast sponsored by the Schroeder Fire Department. (L-R) Jamie Johnson, Casey Johnson, Liddy Pearson, Waylon Christiansen, and Deb Johnson. Right: Shirley Bierbaum and Skip Lamb examine old photos on a walking tour of the Cross River area.
The beautiful cascade of water down the Cross River just above the bridge in Schroeder is not the way the river used to look. At the end of the 19th century, the Schroeder Lumber Company blasted the top of the waterfall and softened the pitch of the river to create a better route for logs heading down the river for transport from the shore of Lake Superior. Most of it went east to Chicago and beyond.
This was part of the story told by Skip Lamb on a walking tour of Schroeder during John Schroeder Community Fun Day on August 17, 2013.
John Schroeder, owner of the Schroeder Lumber Company, never actually made it to Schroeder. He oversaw lumber operations all over the world. The company, however, made a big impact on the area, building seven dams on the Cross River starting in 1895 and employing about 1,000 men when the logging operation began five years later.
The lumber company was run by Will and Eli Smith and a couple more of their brothers, whose descendants continue to live in Cook County. The Smiths operated a hotel, a school, and a fish house. Down by the Schroeder Town Park near Father Baraga’s cross a “pest house” also housed sick lumbermen to prevent the spread of disease, according to Barbara Livdahl, who was on the tour.
The chimney of the Cross River Falls Hotel still stands amidst the trees above Highway 61 on the east side of the river.
The Smith family had a coffee shop—and an A&W stand for a while—on the east side of the river. It was later owned by the Buckman family and then the VanDoren family. Skip said the women owners were “famous” for their delicious pies. The building eventually burned down and has not been rebuilt.
When the log drive took place each spring, the sound could be heard for 10 miles. The white pine in the woods above Schroeder was considered “the best stand of white pine on the North Shore,” Lamb said.
The first phone company in Cook County was in Schroeder to enable the dam operators to communicate with each other. After the lumber company had taken the bulk of the white pine and moved on, the phone company enabled Horace Stickney, Skip Lamb’s uncle, to keep his general store open on the west side of the river. The store burned in 1928 and was rebuilt the next year just before the crash of the stock market. The phone company rented space in the new building, enabling the family to keep the place open until business rebounded. Skip’s dad, Harry, eventually bought the business, and Skip bought it and Lamb’s Resort in 1968. The store, which had living quarters and is where Skip grew up, is now the Cross River Heritage Center.
Above: On August 17, Tony Cicak entertained visitors with stories inside the sawmill he and his wife Deonn operated for many years on their property in Schroeder. A tour of the sawmill was one of the events featured during the John Schroeder Community Fun Day.
Schroeder was originally called Redmyer after early settlers Henrick and Emily Redmyer. They had a boat they used for commercial shipping. The boat was stripped down—and basically destroyed—when they were accused of transporting opium—which was legal back then—into the U.S. from Canada without paying duty. No opium was ever found. Henrick got disgusted and left the area, Skip said.
Most of the early homesteaders went broke and abandoned their properties because they couldn’t get anything to grow, Skip said. Much of their land became tax-forfeited property.
Those were tough times for the people who lived here back then, Skip said. It was “the frontier of the North.”
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