The Erickson Tree Plantation Dad planted the trees circa 1958-1960

Dad owned the “Weining Farm” just south and east of the original “Homestead” in the mid to late 1940’s. I believe this farm consisted of a 320 acred parcel and an 80 acre parcel. Eventually mother and dad purchased the 80 acre homestead. Of the 400 acres, about thee fourths were tillable. Until about 1958, dad raised beef cattle, worked for the state highway department, worked at the Rajala sawmill in Bigfork and cut pulp in his spare time. Dad always wanted to be a carpenter. He attended Agriculture School in Grand Rapids and studied carpentry after returning from World War II. Dad and Mother decided that they would eventually move to the Twin Cities and that dad would work in construction. About the same time, circa 1958, dad put his land in “Soil Bank” and began planting spruce and pine trees on the tillable land. This was a three year summer project. Initially, as I remember, dad borrowed or rented a tree planter from the M&O. I believe this refers to Maintenance & Operations with the Minnesota Forestry. As it turned out, the M&O tree planter was very difficult use. It was built on a very large frame, had four wheels and a rather long hitch. Picture a four wheel hay wagon, only smaller. The M&O planter needed a rather large tractor to pull it. Dad was able to use his Farmall H. The planter required hydraulics to raise and lower the the planter at the beginning and end of each row of trees. Making planting even more difficult, when you added the planter to the Farmall, the length made it very difficult to turn turn at the end of the field and begin the next row. Another difficulty was planting in wet ground. The Farmall and planter would often get stuck. It wasn’t long before dad decided that he needed to try something different. He decided to build a smaller planter that would attach to the 3-point hitch on a Ford N tractor. Dad designed and my grandfather Floyd Topping built the tree planter you see above. Floyd was a was an expert welder and worked in the iron mines in the northern Minnesota. I remember watching dad and Floyd building the planter at Harold Burton’s farm shop across the road from the resort. It was fun to get back to the farm and see the new planter in operation. Dad borrowed Tommy Evenson’s Ford N tractor. It worked perfect. There were several neighbors that helped with planting… Gordon Kinn and Vernie Johnson helped a lot. Mother and I would also drive the tractor. I was pretty young and don’t believe I drove tractor the first summer. Still pretty young, I probably drove the second and for sure the third summer. There may have been other’s that helped. I just don’t remember. One thing, very important to dad, was to have straight rows. Keep in mind, an old tractor like the Ford N, the streering was not tight. At the end of each row, dad would never fail to look back to make sure I was driving straight. Sometimes I had to make a correction on the next row. My best recollection is driving the tractor for dad when we planted the homestead 80. We received the Pine and Spruce seedling bundles from the Forest Service. It seems to me that they were delivered to the farm in 1,000 tree bundles. Dad would have them stacked near the pump house so that we could easily keep them wet. Pine seedlings were planted in dryer and sandier soil. Spruce seedlings were planted in low areas and wetter soil like clay. The Ford N with the planter attached was much shorter. At the end of the field, the 3-point hitch would easily lift the planter out of the ground with dad sitting on it. The tractor was small enough to make a sharp u-turn and be in perfect position to start the next row. The Ford N tractor, even with the planter attached, was light enough, I don’t remember ever getting stuck or loosing traction, even in wet ground. When the subject of how many trees dad planted, different numbers were floated around. Dad always use the number 250k. I believe this number to be fairly accurate. I have done a little research and it appears that this number is accurate based on 400 acres if 25 percent was not tillable. This link will take you to a visual explanation of the tree planter and how it worked… Explanation When we moved from the farm, dad stored the tree planter at Grandpa & Grandma Topping’s resort. Some years later the resort was sold. I sort of lost track of it. I think it ended up with mother’s brother Bill. Of course Bill passed away. When we moved Appleton to Andover, I attempted to track it down. I don’t remember why but I contacted Calvin and asked him about the planter. I remember Calvin telling me that he would see what he could do. Within a day or two, Calvin brought the planter to me in Andover. After all that time, I was worried that we could not track it down. Thank God for Calvin. When I retired and sold our home in Andover, Dennis was storing it for me in his shed. All of a sudden, he sold his house and reminded me that I needed to track the tree planter down again as I had moved to Las Vegas. Dennis told me that the planter was still at the house. I contacted Dean or Joe and they were able to check with the new owner’s of Dennis’ house and retrieve the planter. Dean painted the planter and was able to store it until it could be taken to it’s rightful place at the homestead.

The Plantation