The North Western Lumber Company of Eau Claire, Wisconsin was organized in 1873. An amendment to the Articles of Incorporation, June 22, 1881, stated:
The business and purpose of the corporation shall be to buy, sell, lease and generally to deal in all kinds of property, real, personal and mixed, to mortgage, bind and encumber any or all of its property, real and personal.
The company engaged in lumbering operations from its inception until 1918, when the depletion of timber supplies became critical. From 1918 until the dissolution of the company in 1972, its main business was the management of its land assets and their liquidation. The company sold its main saw mill in Stanley on January 26, 1921. A carpenter shop, planing mill, and various barns and buildings previously used in lumber operations, were sold shortly thereafter. Land sales of cut-over areas increased as timber sales decreased. From 1910 to 1920 the company sold 51,300 acres of land worth 1,165,104 dollars. Almost half of this acreage, 25,600 acres, was sold in 1919 and 1920 alone. The value of land sales for the year 1930 was 92,409 dollars. Land records show that in that year the company still had 78,349 acres of land yet to be sold. The year 1940 brought 18,586 dollars in sales. In 1955 land sales by North Western Lumber were about 14,000 dollars. The land sales occurred primarily in Price, Taylor, Sawyer, Chippewa, and Clark Counties.
The Stanley, Merrill, and Phillips Railway Company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the North Western Lumber Company. It was organized August 12, 1893, and continued operations until 1924, when it leased part of its line to the Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. A minute book in the collection shows that the railroad was reorganized in 1902.
