JJ Howe Sawmill Boom Lake 

This painting takes place on Boom Lake, a small lake off of the Mississippi in Brainerd. Boom Lake and the land surrounding it is now Kiwanis Park. This historical painting gives us another look into the logging days.This scene was made up by Sarah Heald. We know this because the Sawmill at Boom Lake was only in operation from 1874 to 1894 (Himrod 1941, 36).

In Shanty Boys, a book about the history of logging in the area, Ryan Gale used a section of this painting to show readers how the loggers would drive stakes into the logs and chain them together before they sent them down the Mississippi River (Gale 2022, 94).

Gale, Ryan. Shanty Boys: the Lumbermen of the Upper Midwest 1830-1940. Manitou Free Traders LLC, 2022.

Himrod, Anna. "Crow Wing County." In Who's Who in Minnesota. 35-45. Minneapolis: Minnesota Editorial Association, 1941.