Lumberjack Steam Train - Laona, Wisconsin

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Lumberjack Steam Train - Laona, Wisconsin

Take a trip back in time with on the Lumberjack Steam Train vintage train from the 1800’s.  You can sit in a rare cupola caboose as you travel into an actual site of a Northwoods logging camp.

The “4-spot” Steam Locomotive was built in 1916 by the Volcan Iron Works in Pennsylvania and purchased in 1926 and brought to Laona for use in the logging industry.  The steam engine pulls two all steel passenger coach cars and three cabooses for your pleasure.

You will board the Lumberjack Steam train at the 1880’s Soo Line Deport where you will buy your tickets just like they did at the time.  The ride will take you out to the site of an Old Logging Camp.  Lumberjacks numbered their camps and the site you will visit was Camp 5. 

The site contains some of the old buildings which were part of the farm such as the old Hog Barn which now serves as a Petting oral, the Blacksmith Shop which is now a part of the Museum and the old Slaughter House.  In the distance is the old Boarding house and several original barns, as well as the “Woods Boss’s House”.   Your ticket is not only for the train ride but also into the logging camp where you can wander around and get the feel of what it was like for the loggers that spent so much of their lives living here.

Visiting the museum you will watch the “Northwoods Saga” video with gives a short history of logging.  It also shows modern logging techniques.  It will help you understand the importance of logging to Wisconsin economy.

The museum is filled with artifacts that show the life of the loggers.  There are tools and machinery the farm used to plant and harvest crops.  Antique household appliances, sleighs and buffalo blankets and old dugout canoes.  There are collections of original script and coins along with the original account ledgers.  There is the cumbersome two man saw, cruiser equipment and stamp hammers used by the lumberjacks who struggled in the cold winters to harvest trees.  Framed pictures on the walls depict some of the most arduous tasks performed in the life of these hearty people.  The methods used to transport logs to the railroads and rivers are also featured in the museum.  You will learn how draft horses managed to pull huge sleds piled thirty feet high with logs.  You will learn how the cooks were considered the most important people at the camp!  You will see Paul Bunyan size cooking tools including frying pans three feet across and imagine a cook using them to prepare a lumberjack sized breakfast of flapjacks, eggs and sausage!

Location: ¼ mile west of the junction of Highways 8 & 32 on Highway 8.

Phone: 715-674-3414

Email: info@lumberjacksteamtrain.com

The logging camp is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.