colorful as this one." The same might well be said in terms of the history of the Finns involved in the region.

It was in 1882 that the company sent John Owens to set up a sawmill on the shores of Vermilion, so that timber would be available for building purposes and for mining operations. It took six days to haul the 1,660-pound machinery from Duluth to the site. The sawmill began its operations, and in short order it was possible to erect some 30 buildings. Stuntz laid out the plans for a town, and he named it after one of the directors, Charlemagne Tower. Tower became, in 1883, the first established community in St. Louis County north of Duluth. From the same year dates the incorporation of Breitung Township (named after Edward N. Breitung) of which Tower is a part. The other mining townships were incorporated later: Morse, 1887; Kugler in 1904; Vermilion Lake in 1912.

All supplies for this new mining town had to be brought from Duluth. The first stop on this trip of several days was usually Cloquet River; mail in winter reached its destination by dog sled. In 1884, however, things had progressed to the point where the railroad was brought from Two Harbors to Tower, which also got its first store, and a bank. The first school was built in 1885, the first newspaper appeared in 1888, and in 1889 Tower became a city. The mines themselves, however, are located nearer another spot which later was given the name Soudan.

Incidentally, since several mines were important for the Finns and many Finnish families, it would be in order to list the most significant ones here: Soudan Mine, begun in 1884, which produced at least 14,780,092 tons of ore up to 1956; Consolidated Vermilion, opened in 1916, producing 22,893 tons, (closed); McComber, opened 1917, producing 8,386 tons, (closed); Armstrong Bay, opened 1915, producing 4,748 tons, (closed. )4 Although the first borings were made at what was known as the Lee Mine, where considerable ore was indicated, not a ton has been extracted from Lee since 1888.

The distance from Tower to Soudan was enough to make it quite a hardship to walk to the mines every day and back home again, so a small-gauge railroad was built in 1890 to connect the two. It made about 10 trips per day, but three years later, proving to operate at a loss, it was discontinued. With or without this tie between them, there were several apparent differences between the two. In the first place, Soudan had practically no

4. Bulletin of the University of Minnesota. Mining Directory Issue. Minnesota, 1956

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