Editing Bemidji, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[File:CarsonsTradingPost1894.jpg|left|thumb|1894 photo of Carson's Trading Post.]][[Beltrami County, Minnesota|Beltrami County]] was established by an act of legislation on February 28, 1866.
[[File:Paul Bunyan and Babe statues Bemidji Minnesota crop.JPG|thumb|[[Paul Bunyan]] and Babe statues, Bemidji]]
Bemidji Township was surveyed by European Americans in 1874. It was organized in 1896, 24 days after the village of Bemidji was chartered, and is the oldest township in the county. In 1897, the county attorney declared the original Bemidji township organization illegal (no reason given) and the township reorganized on June 26, 1897.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bemidjitownship.com/history.htm|title= History|publisher=Bemidji Township}}</ref>

About 50 Leech Lake Indians lived along the south shore of the lake prior to the 1880s. They called the lake ''Bemidjigumaug,'' meaning "river or route flowing crosswise". Freeman and Besty Doud claimed 160 acres west of and including present-day Diamond Point; they were Bemidji's first homesteaders. The Porter Nye family soon followed them.

John Steidl's sawmill was on the east bank of the Mississippi River, close to Carson's Trading Post. Remore Hotel and Carl Carlson's blacksmith shop were on the west side of the river. Bemidji was incorporated on May 20, 1896, and by that time there were three publishing companies, Alber Kaiser, The Bemidji Pioneer, and the Beltrami County News. William Bartleson's Stage and Express Service was created to carry mail between Bemidji and Park Rapids. He was advertised by Speelman's Eagle, owned by Clarence Speelman, along with other stores. By 1898, railroads came to Bemidji and brought even more business. By 1900 the Village of Bemidji's population had grown to 2,000.

Thomas Barlow Walker and John S. and Charles Pillsbury invested millions into timber in 1874, since beaver pelts were nearing depletion by the mid-1890s. Walker owned Red River Lumber Company of Crookston, which claimed almost half of Beltrami County's timber. He soon sold his sawmill and timber claim to Thomas Shevlin and Frank Hixon. Logging was done in the winter and sawmilling in the summer. Crookston opened 13 logging camps, which provided jobs and homes for lumberjacks. Between 1907 and 1910 drought and forest fires came to northern Minnesota. Lumber production was Bemidji's major industry, but on July 19, 1914, a sawmill burned down, causing disaster for business. It was later rebuilt. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Bemidji's business profited, providing food, materials, and services for the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] and Youth Conservation Corps programs. During the war years lumber business stopped, but when men came back from war lumber business boomed, since many people needed homes.

By the 1870s, timber cruisers were already making forays into the great pine forests that surrounded Bemidji. They were seeking new timberlands for Walker, the Pillsburys, Henry Akeley, Charles Ruggles and Frederick Weyerhaeuser, the barons of the wood industry.

[[Art Lee]] created the story that the folkloric figure [[Paul Bunyan]] came from the Northwoods. Tales about [[Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox]] led to public sculptures of them in the 1930s.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} According to Discover America, the Paul and Babe statues are "the second most photographed statues in America," surpassed only by [[Mount Rushmore]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Discover America – Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox |url=http://www.discoveramerica.com/ca/minnesota/bji-paul-babe.html |website=Discover America |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005082422/http://www.discoveramerica.com/ca/minnesota/bji-paul-babe.html |archive-date=October 5, 2011}}</ref> The Rotarians of Bemidji commissioned the statue of Paul Bunyan during the [[Great Depression]] as a tourist attraction. It was unveiled on January 15, 1937, to kick off a Winter Carnival that drew more than 10,000 visitors.

Today Bemidji is an important educational, governmental, trade and medical center for north central Minnesota. The wood industry is still a significant part of the local economy, with Georgia-Pacific, Potlatch, and Northwood Panelboard all having waferboard plants in the local area. They use wood species that were once classified as waste trees.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bemidji Minnesota History|url=http://lakesnwoods.com/bemidji.htm|website=A Guide to Minnesota Communities|access-date=April 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822055736/http://lakesnwoods.com/Bemidji.htm|archive-date=August 22, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>