The trees grew big in Estes Brook almost a hundred years ago when this picture was taken of the Foley Bros. logging operation about the year 1885. This huge load of logs was loaded on the old Limon Beden farm. Limon stands in the center of the picture on the load. The Beden farm was the first place West of the Estes Brook school (now torn down). Big evergreens covered the area from south of Estes Brook area northward into Granite Ledge Township. Many of the trees were more than a yard across. This load totaled 16,440 feet of logs. A four-horse team hauled the big load to the Foley Bros. Mill over winter logging roads. Chains were used to bind the logs and build such huge loads. Emil Nelson was two years old when he came with his parents from Sweden in 1894 and settled in Section 35 of Maywood Township. Emil remembers the Foley Bros. logging days and the logging camp they had in Section 36 of Maywood Township. This was about one mile west of the Beden farm where the logs were loaded. Loggers lived in this camp while cutting the timber in the area. At noon, the camp cook would bring dinner to the men in the woods using a team and sled as seen in the picture at the left. A logging road from the Estes Brook area westward to Foley went on a direct route coming out near the former Don Wruck place on Highway 28. You can still see the trail through the swamp east of the old railroad tracks. This road went through swamps and could be travelled in the winter. In summer the settlers used the year around road that headed northward to Oak Park, then west to Barneby, and came into Foley north of the Elementary School and onto Broadway Avenue near the Co-op Station.

-- from "Picture Story of Early Foley Days"
Benton County News, Foley, Benton County, Minnesota
Tuesday, April 18, 1979
Photo from Joe Kotsmith's Foley Historical Collection