cooperative movement: one meeting of its members would approve joining the cooperative central, the next meeting would upset the previous decision. The result was that the Farmers Store Association remained outside the Central for many years, even though it sold products supplied by the Central. This reluctance to join resulted finally in the establishment of a third cooperative in the town in 1932. Meanwhile, the Finnish Supply Company and the Farmers Store Association had for years discussed merging, but nothing came of these efforts, and in the end the Finnish Supply Company went out of business. In addition to these cooperative enterprises, however, there were also four privately owned stores in Brimson, one of them being the general store of Gust Tuura.

Brimson also had a Finnish temperance society, founded in 1936, with Alex Nisula as chairman, but it was short-lived. The Finnish Aid Committee during World War II had Uno Kivi as chairman. A local chapter of the MFAHS was organized in Brimson in 1946.

Lake Vermillion and its Iron Mines

One of the remarkable geographical features left in the northeast corner of St. Louis County by the Ice Age is the striking chain of lakes and waterways, with its center formed by the Vermilion Lake basin, which filled with water as the ice retreated northward. The shoreline is broken up by numerous islands and promontories which break up any widespread waves into patches of mirror-smooth water between the steep banks and the islands, unusual in that one will be all dark with fir, another thick with pine_ i. third all birch. These islands silhouetted against the sky form the background for beautiful sunsets, a part of the lure which has attracted sportsmen and vacationers to build their cabins here where the Indians once used to roam.

The interest of the white man in this region was originally a more utilitarian one, a search for copper made by the expedition of J. G. Norwood up the St. Louis River valley and its tributaries. No copper was found, but Norwood's report suggested that iron might be there. In 1863, the blacksmith son of a trapper was given small samples of iron ore by the Indians, and he sent them to the surveyor, George R. Stuntz, to look over, but the latter's first opinion was that the find was insignificant. It was not until he made a trip to the area himself with Captain Pratt and brought back many pounds of sample ore that Stuntz became convinced that mineral resources actually were there in quantity. In 1865

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