Solon Springs – Douglas County
Solon Springs, Douglas County WI
Upper Lake St. Croix is the center of the water highway which first brought the European explorers, missionaries, and fur traders to the interrior of the American continent. More than 300 years ago explorers and traders came from Montreal in birch bark canoes by way of the Great Lakes, then up the Brule River to what is currently known as the North Country Hiking Trail. This was the portage route from the Brule to Lake St. Croix. The first known European to have used this trail was a French fur trader named Daniel Greysolon Dulhut in the year 1680. There is a historical marker along the hiking trail today with his name. The route continued down the St.Croix River to the Mississippi. The first written record of a permanent settlement in the area is of a Chippewa village on Crownhart Island on Lake St. Croix in 1832. Traders often stopped at the native American village before continuing down the river.
In 1852, four years after Wisconsin became a state, George Stuntz was employed to survey the Wisconsin – Minnesota boundary line, Within two years, there were seven small shacks in the area, but no way to get south for supplies. With axes and crowbars and 14 men, Stuntz cleared a road for 57 miles, from St. Louis Bay to the St. Croix River. On his first trip south he brought back three yoke of oxen and two cows. He later helped to plat the village of Solon Springs, then known as White Birch.
The construction of the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad from Trego (Then called Superior Junction) to Superior in 1883 greatly increased the flow of settlers into and around the White Birch area. The town of White Birch prospered as a Sportsman’s Paradise. Tourists began to visit and enjoy White Birch from Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities with several passenger trains giving good service. The original White Birch Depot was an exact duplicate of the ones at Gordon, Minong, and hundreds of other locations.
Near the end of the 1800’s a South Superior native proposed to a water bottling factory. He invented a liquid vending machine and patented it November 4, 1902. Tom F. Solon was that inventor and began the Solon Springs Bottling Company, which was located in a two-story frame building just north of the mouth of Leo Creek. White Birch residents got behind the new bottling company, which was expected to bring fame and prosperity to the village. In 1896 White Birch was renamed Solon Springs in honor of Thomas Solon and his contributions to the community.
Visit Solon Springs Wisconsin online at www.solonsprings.net
