History starts with lived experience written down. Endeavoring to better understand the history of West Maple from insufficient tax records and lot numbers, the Stanley Area Historical Society hosted an event Saturday, Sept. 22, hoping to elicit memories from those who had lived on it over the years.
Around 15 people, past and present residents of the area, answered the summons.
Judy Judnic took notes for the Historical Society. One possible misconception needed to be cleared away first.
“This is not supposed to be a program, and I am not giving you a talk,” host Betty Plombon told attendees at the start. Rather, the local historical society had a framework for Maple Street but needed additional information on West Maple, the area’s history shrouded in mystery due partly to mixed up tax records and no lot numbers.
Near the outskirts of the city, it had a rich history.
First logged by Sam Mills and then sold in a succession of land claims, the area was marketed for farms. The cutover lands had first been cleared by hand, and then with dynamite.
In 1895, the U.S. Leather Company had set up a plant north of the railroad tracks that employed 125 to 175 men, turning out shoe leather as a subsidiary industry of logging and earning the area the name “Tannery Town,” due to its main industry. The plant then located on the other side of the tracks from what is now West Maple Street had imported hides from South America and tanned these using hemlock bark for acid to produce shoe leather. A creek in the area had started life as Boomer’s Creek, before it became known as Stink Creek due to what took place there, being known today as Hay Creek. Kids from Tannery Town had attended the Ward 4 school, just off Saturday’s presentation area to the north.
As for adults in Tannery Town, men who had jobs at the Tannery earned 25 cents more per day than the cross town sawmill, due to the nature of the job. The history of Tannery Town was known to have included a house that had started its life housing beehives (before its conversion into a human shelter) and a store called the West Side Grocery. A stockyard had also once been in the area, with Stockyard Road originally described separately in legal descriptions, and marking the spot. The road had gone up and over the tracks and was now part of a residential property. The stockyard had eventually moved, due partly to smell.
“The reason they had to move the stockyard was you couldn’t stand to live in the city of Stanley,” it was shared.
As for the tannery plant it had lasted from 1895 to 1920, and houses in the area had been colored red—not by chance, it seemed. Now largely gone, the memory of Tannery Town lived on.
“My grandpa said there was residue at the bottom of the vats and it was red,” another attendee offered as a reason for the red buildings in Tannery Town. Tannery Town had consisted of 20 homes, sold to individuals when the plant closed and torn down, used for things like lumber.
But Tannery Town wasn’t the only legacy of West Maple Street. There were also houses to ask about. One specific house that the historical society needed information was the Ed Pfeiffer house, with another being the Wasilewski house. The Wasilewski house was across from the Ciokiewicz house, it was made known. The Wasilewski house had been owned in succession by John Pirus, Wayne Duss, and finally Gene Gustafson. The oral testimony of attendees was important to deciphering the mystery, due to mixed up records from the past. One question the Society had was the location of the Eagle Sawmill.
“Ok, how about the Eagle Sawmill?” Plombon asked. “We need that exactly on the map.” With attendee’s help (both residents and others), it was established. Also among the memories shared by event attendees were how tramps would sleep under the bridge past Falls Dairy, located just east of the Wolf River, a nearby campground also remembered well.
As for terrain near the Tannery, it could be treacherous. Back in the 1950s kids had been warned to stay away from the old vats as the area around them was “like quicksand.” Not everyone did, especially the boys.
“All those concrete pillars,” one current Minnesota resident whose grandfather had purchased farmland from the Northwestern Lumber Company said. “You were a man when you could jump from one to the other without falling.” The story of a team of horses that had sunk was among the cautionary tales from the old tannery site.
“I don’t know if it’s true,” the resident who related the story said.
There was also the subject of the Tannery Ghost.
“There was a lot of sulphuric acid and rose up in different ways,” Plombon said, the resulting forms used to scare the younger generation.
In time, and with input, the questions and blank spots began to clear. With leads to go on from living testimony, the mission of the Stanley Area Historical Society could move forward.
A Maple Street exhibit is currently set up at the Historical Society in the old Ward 4 school house turned Society museum, a place from which many youth in Tannery Town received their education. Stop on by!