Bemidji’s second 25 years noticed development in inhabitants, enterprise and tourism

The second quarter century of Bemidji’s history was perhaps the most dynamic of all 25 years in the city’s development. Wood had originally drawn people to the area, and sawmills continued to flourish, but the harsh city of the late 19th century had matured into the northern central hub for railroads, hauling freight and passengers and removing vast amounts of wood.

Since its appointment as the seat of Beltrami County in 1897, the city had seen steady growth in schools and businesses. In 1920 Bemidji had 7,086 inhabitants. In the mid-1940s there were almost 10,000.

Ralph Gracie is pictured in 1917. Four years later, his body was sent home for the funeral. (Photo by the Beltrami County Historical Society)

The 1920s brought home men from World War I, not all of them alive. In 1921, the body of Ralph Gracie, Bemidji’s first victim in World War I, was sent home for the funeral. Gracie was flying with the American 17th Aero Squadron with the British Royal Air Force when his plane was shot down in August 1918. His body, which was not recovered at the time, was later found, buried in a German cemetery and sent home. Bemidji’s American Legion Post was founded in 1919 and named after Gracie.

The number of students in Bemidji’s schools had grown rapidly, with school buildings filling up faster than new schools could be built. Bemidji’s first high school graduates had graduated from the Central School. The first high school was built for $ 50,000 between America and Irvine Avenues and Sixth and Seventh Streets. It opened in 1910 but burned down on January 17, 1921. A new, impressive Bemidji High School was being built on 15th Street – then on the northern edge of town – on land that had been part of the first county fairground. It opened in September 1922. In 1919, Minnesota’s sixth State Normal School opened in Bemidji, and in 1921 it officially became the Bemidji State Teachers College.

After Bemidji’s first high school was destroyed by fire in 1921, a new school was built on 15th Street – what was then the northern edge of the city – on the site of the first fair. It opened in September 1922. (Photo by the Beltrami County Historical Society)

The ban had come in Bemidji (December 1914) with a treaty decision of 1855 banning the sale of spirits on Indian territory. Salons closed. (The 1914-15 city register listed 27, but other censuses nearly doubled that number.) With bars closed, people gathered in private homes to socialize. In the mid-1920s, after the Volstead Act dried up the whole country, improvements to the highways made possible by Bemidji smugglers and rumblers to pass through the city.

In the Lakeland PBS television documentary “Bemidji: Between the Wars,” produced by the late Gary Burger, Buiford Qualle recalled “visitors” to his uncle’s garage, the People’s Oil Company, where travelers could park their cars overnight. Jellyfish described “big touring cars from Chicago, full of liquor. The drivers gave my uncle or one of his men a good tip to look after the cars ”that were heading towards the west coast.

Although saloons were closed, other business was just beginning. In 1920, Ira P. and Ira H. Batchelder, father and son, Bemidji Woolen Mills opened. In 1922, St. Anthony’s Hospital closed when the Benedictine Sisters were relocated, but Northern Minnesota Lutheran Hospital opened in the same location on Dewey Street later that year. Fires in planers and mills on Lake Bemidji indicated the decline of the large sawmills in Bemidji. On November 8, 1924, a fire in Crookston Mill # 1 destroyed 24 million feet of select white pines. The wood was valued at $ 750,000.

This aerial view shows the Crookston Lumber Mill on the south shore of Lake Bemidji with Nymore in the foreground. (Photo by the Beltrami County Historical Society)

The fire burned so hot that Midway Drive was shut down. Smoke and debris from the fire could be seen for miles, and people on the west side of the lake climbed onto their rooftops to keep their homes from catching fire. The mill stayed open until 1930, but then moved to Oregon, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed.

With the disappearance of a major employer in the city, the growing popularity of the automobile, and the improvement of the highway system, tourism took center stage, not just for summer visitors but all year round.

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In October 1929 the stock market crash sent the country into the Great Depression, but Bemidji was less affected than many parts of the US In “Bemidji: Between the Wars”, Chet Swedmark (1922-2011) of Bemidji shared his memories of the days of the Depression. “We have never been hungry – we have harvested a lot of berries. We didn’t have a cent to buy something, but we always ate well – lots of game. ”

Music and entertainment were still important. People held dances in their homes. The Kiddie’s Drum and Bugle Corps, comprised of 5 to 13 year olds, practiced weekly and traveled to parades across the state, including Wisconsin and Canada, every weekend during the summer. Fundraising support from the Legion and its aides provided travel and uniforms.

Meanwhile, Bemidji’s efforts to make itself known as a vacation destination included some major ventures including the construction of the Fireplace of States, a construction management project. State Re-Employment Office District Manager Harry Roese invited representatives from all 48 states, all national parks, every district in Minnesota and all Canadian provinces to bricks and stones to Bemidji for a “Chimney of States” send, a unique structure that he hoped would attract visitors to Bemidji.

Charles Budge, a local architect, drew plans for the fireplace and the building in which it would be housed. Mark Morse, a local bricklayer who recently built a stone fireplace on the lakeside college campus, created the Fireplace of States in 1934. It was built in an octagonal log cabin on Bemidji Avenue at the end of the lake on Third Street and can now be viewed at the tourist office.

Bemidji was a summer destination from the start, but the growing popularity of the automobile and the construction of improved roads brought more and more visitors to the city.

An aerial view of the Lake Bemidji waterfront shows the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues between the Dock on Third Street and the Armory. (Courtesy photo by Jim Aakhus)

In 1932, Bemidji held its first winter carnival with an impressive ice castle near the armory on the lake. The 1937 Winter Carnival featured several days of sports and activities, and the unveiling of Bemidji’s icon Paul Bunyan. Babe, which was first built to ride a 1½ ton truck, led the parades and performed in other parades across the state, including St. Paul’s Winter Carnival. An estimated 10,000 people attended Bemidji’s 1937 Carnival.

Before it was placed next to the Paul Bunyan statue, Babe the Blue Ox performed in parades on a truck, with the vehicle’s exhaust exiting through Babe’s nostrils. (Photo by the Beltrami District Historical Society)

By the dawn of the 1940s, the Works Program Administration had contributed to much work around the lake by the mid to late 1930s, including Lake Bemidji State Park, which continued until the United States entered World War II. Like the rest of the country, Bemidji moved forward as the threat of war thwarted his plans. On December 20, 1941, five wagons with materials for rural electrification were unloaded in Bemidji and stored and assembled at the county fairground. Soon after, rural Bemidji had electricity.

On January 9, 1942, the Bemidji pioneer reported that 248 men from Beltrami District were already on duty and a second group would soon be enrolled. A third group would shortly leave for the preliminary investigation at Fort Snelling. In a December 22, 1978 column by local historian Art Lee in the Bemidji Pioneer, Lee pointed to the labor shortage in Bemidji as well as the college student shortage that began with the Depression in the 1930s. In 1944, only 123 students were enrolled at Bemidji State College. The war against Germany finally ended on May 8, 1945, but Japan did not surrender until August 14, and the Bemidji veterans returned.

NEXT: Like the rest of America, Bemidji saw growth after World War II