6. Timber Business

After World War I, William investigated the timber business. At that time, trees near the Lakehead were too small to be made into construction lumber. They were usually cut down and shipped as small logs (pulpwood) to paper mills in Chicago, Detroit and other cities. Transporting the pulpwood to the shipping locations was often difficult. Roads were of poor quality. When water levels rose in the rivers during the spring thaw, it was possible to float logs down to the loading docks in Thunder Bay. This was a low-cost mode of transportation, but many streams contained tight bends, rocks, and snags that made it difficult to float and drive the pulpwood.

William organized the Kyro Rivers Improvement Company to clear the rivers of obstructions and expanded his business operations into the pulpwood field. His company signed contracts to purchase pulpwood from farmers and other land owners. He then hired lumberjacks to improve the waterways, and -- after the ice had melted and the water dams were opened in the spring of the year -- to float the pulpwood to Lake Superior at Port Arthur. William invented a special tool, mounted on a long pole that the lumberjacks could use to manipulate floating logs. We do not have much information about this tool, but we understand that it, or a similar tool, is still in use today.

The lumberjacks were allowed to cash their paychecks in the Kyro-Hellberg general store. They had to walk the length of the store with cash in their hands and were quite likely to buy something. The business flourished.

William Kyro was the second person in the Lakehead to purchase a private automobile. In the early 1920's, the first road linking Port Arthur and Fort William to Duluth, Minnesota, was completed. Anna Kyro with her three children and sister-in-law, Hilja Kyro (Niilo's wife), in a Dodge open-air touring car, was recognized as the first woman to drive the newly constructed road from Port Arthur along the shore of Lake Superior to Duluth, a distance of about 200 miles. At that time, such a trip was a notable adventure. Paved roads did not exist outside cities. Flat tires were a frequent problem. The new route was a rough, primitive dirt road hugging high and dangerous cliffs. Gasoline stations were few and far between. The fact that a woman made the trip with three small children and without the help of a man was considered daring. An article describing the feat was published on the front page of the Duluth newspaper.

In 1922 William Kyro made a serious business error. He signed personal contracts with farmers in the fall of the year to buy their future, winter-harvested, pulpwood before his having obtained signed sales contracts with paper mills to purchase the pulpwood to be delivered the following spring. William expected prices to hold steady, but in the spring there was an economic recession and a sudden drop in the price of pulpwood. He was obligated to purchase the pulpwood from the farmers at the contracted price and to deliver it to the paper mills at the then lower market price. In order to make good on his contracts he was forced to sell his business interests and even his home at 371 Foley street. He lost nearly everything.