Judge C. R. Magney State Park - Cultural History

Cultural History

The Ojibwe called the river Wiskode-zibi (Half-burned Wood River), which was translated directly into French as Bois Brulé and shortened by English speakers to "Brule River". The name likely refers to an early forest fire, and fires played a significant role in the park's early history. A series of fires in northern Wisconsin in 1892 to 1894 forced lumber companies to abandon that area and cross Lake Superior to begin logging the North Shore even though the quality of the timber was lower. The Red Cliff Lumber Company was headquartered a few miles west of the Brule River, and much of the future park was logged at this time. However logging practices of the day foreshortened the harvest of North Shore timber too, as slash left on the ground for several dry years fueled a devastating fire in 1908. Droughts and fires bedeviled the North Shore for the next 30 years. In 1928 the General Logging Company began harvesting second-growth wood in the Brule and Cascade River valleys for a pulp mill in Grand Marais, but once again a devastating fire in 1931 burned 25,000 acres (10,000 ha) and brought the industry to a halt.

The slowly regenerating Brule Valley very nearly became an exclusive resort for the wealthy, as entrepreneurs from Duluth formed the Naniboujou Club and planned a luxurious lakeside complex with a 150-room lodge, cabins, bathhouses, tennis courts, a golf course, and a swimming pool, all powered by a hydroelectric dam on the Brule. With a membership of almost 600, the club purchased 3,300 acres (1,300 ha) along the shoreline and planned to buy another 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) inland. The Naniboujou Club Lodge was completed in July 1929, but then the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck that October, triggering the Great Depression. The rest of the complex was never built, and the lodge went through a succession of owners and periods of closure.

Instead of wealthy families, the next residents of the future park were homeless men. In 1934 the state bought 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) from the Naniboujou Club and opened a "transient camp" on the Brule River to provide work and housing for men made homeless by the Depression. At first it was managed by the state's Division of Forestry and named the Grover Conzet Camp after their director, but at the end of 1936 it was transferred to the federal Works Progress Administration. The camp consisted of fourteen barracks, two recreation halls, two bathhouses, a dining hall, and a bakery, as well as three workshops, an office, a garage, a warehouse, and a root cellar. About 800 men rotated through the camp, conducting forestry projects such as planting trees and building fire roads. They also developed a small public park and built the trail and stairs leading to the Devil's Kettle. The enrollees also farmed some of their own food and battled a 1936 forest fire that burned 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) north of Hovland. After the fire they built a sawmill and salvaged some of the downed wood. In return the men received wages, medical services, clothing, running water, and access to reading material and a radio. Despite these benefits a visiting timber union leader managed to foment a rebellion in February 1938 in which the administrators were briefly ejected from camp before state and local officials restored order. The WPA departed in July 1938 and the U.S. Indian Service converted the facility into a camp for Ojibwe youth. The concrete foundations of several camp buildings are still visible in the park's campground and picnic area.

In 1957 the Minnesota Legislature established Brule River State Park and appropriated $5,000 to purchase privately owned land within the 940-acre (380 ha) statutory boundaries. Clarence Magney, who had been instrumental in creating eleven state parks and waysides on the North Shore, died on May 14, 1962. The next year the park was renamed in his honor, and in 1965 Judge C. R. Magney State Park was expanded to 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) by adding the section upstream from the Devil's Kettle. Development remained limited to a small campground, a picnic area, and the trail to the waterfalls. In 1987 a trail was added on the west bank of the river.