Pictures of the cutover lands in northern Wisconsin
 Photographs of "cutover" lands
Wisconsin's earliest logging operations had selected only the most suitable and profitable timber, mostly soft pine species. But by the late 19th century demands from the state's furniture, paper, and tanning industries led to an increase in the harvesting of hardwoods, which had been spared when the industry had focused on pine reserves. Lumberjacks swept across the central and northern portions of our state, employing new methods of harvesting which completely cleared forests of almost all useable trees. The result was the wasteland of stumps and brush depicted in these photographs from our online collection, Wisconsin Historical Images.
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