Development of Exeland

from the book, "White Pines & White Tails" 
by Leighton D. Morris, Co. Superintendent of Schools, 1957

 


 
The area now known as the Town of Weirgor and Town of Meteor attracted the attention of lumber interests because of the plentiful supply of white pine and hemlock trees.  These virgin forests supplied millions of trees for sawmills and required many years to harvest.  There were no premanent settlers during these times but there were hundreds of men working in the forests.  The workers lived in camps which were built and operated by the timber owners.  Each camp was identified by a number.

The Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company owned the timberland which now comprises the Town of Meteor.  The Arpin Lumber Company owned the timberland which is now the town of Weirgor.

The great amount of business activity in these logging areas demanded establishment of transportation facilities and various business enterprises.  Each of the lumber companies built railroads into this newly developed logging area.  The Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company built the railroad into the Town of Meteor.  The Arpin Lumber Company built a railroad from Atlanta in Rusk County and extended northeastward beyond the present site of Exeland.  Atlanta was located two miles north of Bruce, and with the completion of the logging operations quickly disintegrated.  During this same period the Wisconsin Central was building its line from Chicago to Duluth.  A race between the Arpin Lumber Company and the Wisconsin Central was on to see who would be the first to complete the line to Exeland.  The Arpin Company won the race.  A cross-over was built at the junction of the two lines, and because of this crossing of the railroad tracks, the new village was named "Exeland."

Exeland, which started in 1907, was a very busy village for many years.  The Arpin Lumber Company sawmill sawed logs into lumber and shipped its products to cities throughout the United States.  Many train loads of logs were shipped to a sawmill at Owen, Wisconsin, where they were sawed into lumber.

After the arrival of the railroads, Exeland village began to grow rapidly.  The Wisconsin Central built a depot to accommodate its patrons.  Stores, hotels, boarding houses, saloons, a blacksmith shop, livery stables, and a post office were built.  Many of the sawmill workers and some of the woodsmen brought their families to live in Exeland.  New houses were hastily built to house the new residents.  A school site was donated to the village by the Arpin Lumber Company to provide for an elementary education for the children of the community.  The Arpin Lumber Company entered a reserve clause in the deed whereby the school site with its improvements would revert to the donors or its heirs if the site should ever be used for any other purpose other than school purposes for a period of one year or more.

Gradually the frontier retreated as the pine trees were harvested.  The cutover land was sold by the lumber interests to persons who were interested in farming.  Some of the lumberjacks bought tracts of land when they decided to discontinue woods work.  Families from other villages and cities bought cheap land and began the slow and arduous task of clearing the slashings left by the loggers in order to establish farms.

In the early days of farming there were no nearby creameries or cheese factories which would buy the raw milk.  Most of the farmers separated the milk and churned butter from the cream.  The butter was taken to the local grocery store and sold to the merchant who in turn sold the butter to his customers.  The butter was usually molded in round wooden molds of one pound size.  Some of the butter was artificially colored.  Some was not artificially colored.  The quality was usually questionable since the farmers did not have proper cooling and refrigeration facilities.  Many farmers stored the cream in a pump house or cellar until they had enough cream to churn into butter.  Sometimes several days would pass before churning time and the stale sour cream would result in the butter having a rancid taste.  When the dairy farmer increased production to the amount where he could not easily dispose of his product to the local store, he began shipping his cream to creameries in large cities.  The creameries established grading standards which resulted in more careful handling of the cream by the farmer.  These standards improved the quality of the butter sold to the consumer and also increased the income of the farmer.  Dairy farming developed slowly and today there are several productive dairy farms in the area surrounding Exeland.

The village of Exeland has developed into a busy marketing community for farmers.  A new modern elementary school provides for the educational needs of the children.  The village owns a community hall which serves as a center for public and private functions.  There are churches, stores, garages, telephone service, feed mill, post office, railroad station, automobile accessory factory, taverns, and a bank which serve the needs of the community.