1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 661
five north is found to be in range 21, that township having in 1920,
194 of 353 inhabitants. The Indian Reservation extends into and
beyond sixty-five north, range 21 west, and includes the western half
of each township. It seems, however, that the census tabulation
given above is- of white settlers only, as the federal announcement of
population, for 1920, gives no figures for the Bois Fort or Vermilion
Lake Indian reservations, although the former was shown to have
210 residents in 1910, and the both reservations 881 inhabitants in
1900. Seven townships of sixty-six north are unorganized, Portage
(formerly Buyck) township embracing the other three townships,
range 17, 18 and 19, west. Four townships had no population in
1920, ranges 12, 13, 14 and 15. Logging operations probably are
responsible for the presence of 283 persons in township 66-16 in 1920.
Then there were fifty-four in 66-20 and twenty persons in 66-21.
Fractional townships of sixty-seven north, ranges 13, 14, 15 and 16
are uninhabited; township 67-17, in 1920, had eleven inhabitants,
67-18 had 123, 67-19 had ninety-eight, 67-20 had 261, and 67-21 had
twenty-three. Fractional townships sixty-eight north, ranges 14 and
15 and townships sixty-eight north, ranges 18 and 19, had no population
in last census, township 68-17 had four persons, 68-20 had 235,
and 68-21 had ninety. No figures were reported from townships
sixty-nine north, and only from one of 70 and 71 north, fractional
township 70-18, recording 145 residents in 1920.
The northern townships are mostly in virgin state and logging
operations will continue in them probably for another fifteen or
twenty years. Some of them have mineral possibilities.
The unorganized lands of St. Louis County figure in the tax
sheet to an appreciable extent. In 1919, the assessed valuation of
these areas was $2,364,023, and the taxes $163,117.59. The logging
companies probably are the principal taxpayers in the northern territory,
but some good farming acreages are opening. It is still possible
to homestead in the county, and some of the state lands, without
mineral rights, can also be bought almost as cheaply as from the
federal authorities.
The total assessed valuation of St. Louis County in 1877 was
$1,339,121.68. In the intervening forty-two years to 1919 the seemingly
infinitesimal eft'orts of the individual toiler within its limits have
brought an aggregate increase in the assessable wealth of the countv
to $357,787,544. The total taxes levied in 1877 were $29,034.41 ; in
1919 the taxes were $20,705,448.24.
St. Louis County is not only the largest of the state of Minnesota ;
it is also the wealthiest. The total value of taxable property in
the State of Minnesota in 1919 was $1,777,153,420. St. Louis County's
part of that total was $357,787,544, roughly one-fifth. From its mines
come more than half the yearly United States output of iron ore,
and from the operation of its mines chiefly comes the about three
million dollars it has of late years contributed to the maintenance of
the state administration ($2,894,650 out of a total requirement of
$14,373,427 in 1919). The result from a region which Proctor Knott,
in his historic ridiculing speech in 1870, as referred to "cold enough,
for at least nine months of the year, to freeze the smokestack off a
locomotive."
Review of the history of the organized townships of St. Louis
County follow, in alphabetical order.
Alango.—The township of Alango was organized February 8.
1910, under section 451 of the Revised Laws of Minnesota, 1905. Its