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.
