Quick Summary
The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) recently digitized and uploaded a scrapbook documenting the University of Minnesota College of Forestry’s summer camp at Lake Itasca in 1912.
The University of Minnesota established a department of forestry within its College of Agriculture in the early 1900s. Students of forestry learned the best way to cultivate and manage forest crops on campus and in the field, particularly related to reforestation and fire prevention methods. They conducted hands-on experiments at research forests in northern Minnesota near Cloquet and Lake Itasca.
One forestry student, junior Thorwald Schantz Hansen, participated in an internship at the College of Forestry’s summer camp at Lake Itasca in 1912 and brought his camera along. He created a scrapbook of his experiences and eventually donated it to the Carlton County Historical Society. The Minnesota Digital Library recently digitized his 48-page scrapbook full of snapshots of work and play at the camp, and it is now available to browse on our website.
Hansen went on to lead a long career in forestry at the University of Minnesota’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Cloquet. You can see where it all started with this scrapbook of memories in MDL.
