Southern Sawyer County at the turn of the century was covered with a dense forest consisting of large quantities of pine, hemlock, basswood, maple and spruce. It is reported that the first white pine was cut in southern Sawyer County near what is now Couderay in about 1856. The exceptionally tall and straight trunks were floated down to New Orleans to be used for ship masts.

The majority of the big pine in the area was cut just after the turn of the century between 1900 and 1910. The pine was cut first because it was utilized for construction of buildings and the fact that green white pine logs could be floated down the rivers to the sawmills. The hardwood forests were cut in later years after the introduction of the railroad to the area.

During the early decades of the 1900’s numerous lumber camps and sawmills gave employment to hundreds of skilled and unskilled workers, many of whom came from the “old country” and were willing to work from daylight to dark often in freezing cold. The lumber industry supported such villages as Couderay, Loretta-Draper, Radisson and Winter.

As the families of these lumberjacks arrived in the area stores, hotels, schools, and churches sprang up. Roads were built connecting the villages and camps and finally the railroad arrived bringing supplies and more communication and taking out logs and finished lumber.