The wire grass fields of Anoka County
Horses were a necessity for pulling the gleaners—the machines that cut the grass.
A rail car filled with wire grass ready to ship to St. Paul. The nearest rail station for the company was in Forest Lake (all images from collection ID 3010.A)
These men were employees of the wire grass company. It is believed they were loading up to go out to the fields for work. The men lived in company camps. There were some tents used, but the company also put up substantial buildings for mess halls and bunkhouses.
“Rubber backs” were the nickname given to those whose job it was to stoop over and flop the rows of cut grass to get it to dry completely.
By Vickie Wendel
Article originally appeared in an ACHS newsletter dated Jan/Feb 2012
The northeastern part of Anoka County was home to a unique industry in the 1890s because of a tall, tough grass, called wire grass, that grew there. More accurately the grass was sedge grass, but locally the common name of wire grass was used. This grass was too coarse and hard for animal feed, but the American Twine Company believed the grass could be harvested and used to make twine. The company bought roughly 30,000 acres in the Columbus and Linwood areas to harvest grass. Their efforts at making twine failed, but other companies were interested in the grass and several invested in Anoka County’s wire grass.
The Crex Carpet Company wanted to use the long grass to weave rugs that would be lightweight and inexpensive. Another advantage was the ability of the plant material to hold paint or dye to decorate the rugs. This enterprise proved more successful than the twine and the company soon employed over 300 men during the busy seasons. They established four “camps” to house and feed the men working in the grass fields. The company also hired women, especially for the “flopping” crews—these bore the responsibility of turning the cut grass over to dry it thoroughly.
Wages in the wire grass business were one to two dollars per day, but if a man provided his own team of horses, he received twice as much. The average wage for men in the U.S. in 1910 was 26 cents an hour, or $2.06 for an eight-hour day. Pay in the wire grass camps was about average—unless you brought your horses, then it was very good pay.
Crews cut wire grass in much the same manner as grain, using a horse-drawn gleaner to cut the grass then laying the plants in rows to dry. Flopping crews turned the grass over to get it dry on the bottom side. Once the grass had dried, it was tied into bundles with twine, hauled to higher ground, and stacked. The company hired younger boys to make “wire grass knots”, which meant they cut a length of twine and tied a loop on one end. The bundle tiers used these to bind up individual bundles of wire grass. This work went on until the first snowfall. The stacks of grass bundles were fed into a hay press and bound into 200-pound bales. Once the ground was frozen, loads of these bales were hauled to the railroad for shipping to St. Paul.
Wire grass needed moist, swampy land on which to grow. Ditching efforts in Anoka County for roads and other projects in the early 1900s began to drain the wetlands and the wire grass no longer flourished. Competition from imports available after WWI made the grass in Anoka County unprofitable and operations had completely ceased by 1920. The Crex Carpet Company let most of the land in Anoka County go back for non-payment of taxes. Much of the area that once was wire grass land is now the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Center.
The images reprinted here are courtesy of Ken DuFresne. He had family members who worked in the wire grass fields and one scrapbook was filled with images of the wire grass operations. ACHS made digital copies of these photos to share them with researchers and patrons, allowing the family to retain the originals for their own heritage. In this situation, the community can benefit from the preservation and education of this history, while the images need not be separated from the family.
The Anoka County Historical Society has since added a couch to the collection made from the wire grass and a pair of bog shoes worn by the horses while they worked. Stop in and ask to see them!