The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 7, number 3, March 1924

              a chippewa good samaritan osborn strahl before settling in the st croix valley in 1850 i had spent several years in the wilds of interior wisconsin about the famous lumbering streams coming from ohio in 1845 it was in border times before the introduction of civil law when the winnebago the menominee the chippewa and fierce lawless whites often came in contact and made life hideous for any timid fellow at that time a lumberman on these streams had but primitive ways of prosecuting his business and he encountered many a difficulty many a disappointment many a hazard and many an escape for the dollars he sought aye and there was many a doom too for the wild waters laugh at the puny strife of man then the raft the bark canoe the skiff and human loco motion in summer and the ice sledge in winter were the only commercial facilities of travel it was all hard work and no mistake but men like the wild woods the wild waters the wilderness solitudes and the hilarity and freedom of camp life i can remember many a night spent on the ground rolled in a blanket miles away from companions and the delight of running the rapids and falls with our rafts for dangerous as it was we fellows liked it — yes any man who was half a man took delight in it on the chippewa river at the main falls where the city of chippewa falls now stands the government built a sawmill in the early days to make lumber for building forts along the mississippi river especially at prairie du chien afterwards the property fell into private hands in about 1845 h s allen styled king of the chippewa on account of boom privileges and assumption of arbitrary power was as chief owner of those old mills in great power on the chippewa and woe was the malediction meted out to all intruders unless they paid him tribute in some way