Washburn Historic Waterfront, Bigelow / Hines Railroad Trestle: Wisconsin's Maritime Trails - Washburn, WI - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This marker is part of the waterfront series and tells about one of the first sawmills in this community. The text reads:

In the early days of Washburn, the waterfront was filled with saw mills. The A.A. Bigelow Mill (1887-1902), later to become the Hines Mill, was the largest of three major sawmills in Washburn. It rested on pilings that ran directly out from the present 6th Avenue West. Logs were hauled to the mill by the Washburn & Northwestern Railroad, a narrow gauge system that was owned by the mill. Once the logs reached the lake, they were fed into the mill ponds at log dumps. To handle the massive amount of timber coming out of the Bayfield Peninsula, a trestle was built 1500 fee out into the bay, just east of the main Bigelow/Hines mill dock. This trestle left the shore about where this sign is now.

Today, except for a few broken off pilings and some crib rock, there is very little left of the trestle itself, but its path is strewn with hardware from the logging cars. Everything from hand tools and tie-down chain, to pieces of the logging cars and coupling systems lies right where they were left the last day of work. Seeing these artifacts lying on the bottom, it’s tempting to picture a frustrated rail worker watching a link pin drop into the water while the engineer whistles impatiently to pull out for another load of logs.

Erected by Wisconsin Historical Society and University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

Group that erected the marker: Wisconsin Historical Society and University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Waterfront trail Washburn, WI USA 54891 URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the marker, preferably including yourself or your GPSr in the photo. A very detailed description of your visit may be substituted for a photo. In any case please provide a description of your visit. A description of only "Visited" or "Saw it while on vacation" by anyone other than the person creating the waymark may be deleted by the waymark owner or the category officers.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.