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CStPM&O & CNW Cobban Wisconsin A very small community by standards today,
Cobban was fairly |
              
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Cobban Ferry
Crossing the Chippewa River
prior to the bridge at Cobban was with a ferry during the open river
season and across the ice during the frozen river conditions. Surely
there were times when a condition existed half way between when it was
unsafe for either mode of crossing. There was always the problem of horses getting
"spooked" on a barge in the middle of the river. The ferry
system was run by the store owner just to offer his services to the customers
from
the other side of the river. The ferry was apparently several sizes
depending on who you talked to according to Emil Gerber. It's size was
20 feet wide and 30 to 60 feet long. If the people in the picture are 5
to 6 feet high, the length would be closer to 30 feet. It was constructed
of planks that were 3 inches thick by 16 inches wide. It was said that
one of the local farmers transported a load of sugar beets and 6 horses
at the same time. The ferry was guided by a cable that was 3/4 inch
thick and run from one bank to a concrete slab at the other near the
depot. In 1905 the ferry was frozen into the ice due to an early winter.
Apparently it was removed most every other year to prevent damage. The bridge shown below replaced the ferry
and has it's own unique history.
The Cobban Bridge
The Cobban Bridge was brought up from
the Yellow River by Chippewa Falls in the winter
by the
owner of the store to replace his ferry system with a more
efficient method of river crossing. This was accomplished before the
hydroelectric power dams
were built in Jim Falls and Chippewa Falls creating Lake Wissota in the early 1900's. The Bridge
was partially dismantled in Chippewa and was
pulled by teams of horses up the frozen river from Chippewa Falls on sleds (then called
Chippewa Junction) to Cobban. Amazing courage of the individuals that
make up this era. Imagine the mess if the bridge sections would have fallen through the thin ice. The
positioning of 
the old Chippewa Bridge at Cobban over the Chippewa River allowed
customers to cross the river and shop at the store or drop milk off without making a thirty mile round trip in either
direction if they chose to not take the ferry. As the 70 ton capacity
bridge was in the final stages of set-up, Gottlieb Gerber and a few
others took a half barn door and painted on it "LOAD LIMIT FIVE
TONS" and hung it on the East end of the bridge. This was intended
as a joke and it stayed there until the some time in the 1940's. This
could be the beginning to the current status of the bridge as a limit of
5 tons. This old girder bridge still stands functionally today, has one lane traffic,
and hardwood cross-plank roadbed
with additional hardwood planks for the tire paths. As you walk or ride over on a bike, you can see
the water beneath through the gaps in the wooden planks.
The next bridge to the south was in Chippewa Falls or to the north was Cornell, depending on which direction
you wished to travel.
Cobban Floods
A few floods over the last century
claimed much personal property, but the residents worked hard to keep
the community together. The picture at the left shows the Omaha
tracks under water during the flood of 1941. To the right side of the
tracks, the Cobban store can be seen. The depot is to the left almost directly
across the tracks from the white Cobban store. The lumber mill can be
seen as the larger building to the far right near the top.
The Cheese Factory
The
second Cheese Factory being
built in Cobban in 1916 by the Shultz
Brothers. The building
stands today surviving many floods and time. Picture on left reflects 1916
while picture on right reflects nearly 90 years later. Milk was brought
in by the local farmers to be sold to the factory. Butter fat from
the milk was used to make cheese and other dairy products. The Factory
was a source of income for the dairy farmers as well as the employees of
the factory.
Cobban Store
The
second Cobban Store was rebuilt in 1923. It looked much like the first
one (shown on left) that was severely damaged in a flood in 1922. To the
right of the second store build was a weigh scale used for weighing
entire wagons of produce as they arrived for export. Sugar Beets and
potatoes were a common commodity for the Cobban area.
Cobban Depot
Cobban
Depot was used for passenger service as well as processing the merchandise
that left and entered the Cobban Community. The siding near the
station was tended by Emmett Yeager. He used a small white horse to
position railroad cars so the could be loaded or unloaded. The cars
would
then be staged for pick-up by the Omaha as it came through on it's
scheduled stop. They would hitch the horse to the car and the horse
would lean into the traces (sometimes called tugs) and it would stay
leaning until the car began to move. Sometimes 
the
motion was started by a man with a tool called a "Johnson Bar"
by prying it under the wheel of the car. As it began to move the horse
would take bigger steps until the car was "spotted", then someone
would set the hand brake on the car. The horses job was then done until
the next car needed to be moved. The depot has been gone since shortly
after the flood of 1941.
Lumber and Shingle Mill
Lumber
was an export from Cobban area. Many trees were transformed into
building material for area communities as well as residents of the
Cobban community. Shown at the left are stacks of lumber set to dry so
it can be used without warping after construction. Seasoned lumber was a
commodity that came from the "Big Mill" that kept Cobban
flourishing as long as it lasted. When the area became "logged
out" the lumber mill vanished as did much of the town.
The Shingle Mill was originally owned by Stevens and
Jarvis Lumber Company of Eau Claire, Wisconsin and was later purchased
by Julius Miller who was part owner of the Cobban Store. The
material
for manufacturing shingles came from around the Cobban area. There were
many logs lying in the woods that were either missed due to deep snow or
left to stay because of the red sawdust coming from the crosscut
saw. This would indicate that
the log might be getting soft inside. Only logs of solid stature
were accepted at saw mills years ago. Much of the lumber is made
today from what years ago was called
firewood. Also 
brought to the shingle mill was the tall stumps
that were still standing in the woods. Lumbermen would cut high to avoid
hollow bottoms in the trees. Another source of logs was called
"river pigs". These were logs that had been lodged in the
river bottom and long the sides of the river banks after log drives were
complete. The logs that were intended for shingles were cut into lengths
of 20 inches then fed through a horizontal saw, sorted, trimmed, and
bundled.
Cobban Today
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| Cobban WI, viewed from across the Chippewa river in the winter from the "River Road" Highway 178. |
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| Directly South of Cobban is a small outlet from the river that required a small bridge to cross the entrance. This particular bridge used log piles driven into the river bed for support. | A 1920's style farm house in the background between Cobban and the railroad bridge. The depot was located in this area would have been the "Milk Pick-up" point for rail transportation from the farm to the dairy just a few miles South |
If you have any information, stories, corrections, or pictures regarding this or any of the other towns along the Hannibal branch line, Please let me know, < E-mail > along with your permission to publish your personal memories in an attempt to keep the history available for future generations. Non-digital pictures
and documentation will be returned upon request.Thanks
for looking,Doug Stoll
