Yankee, Canadian and European setlers flocked to Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley in the 1850s to harvest the vast forests of white pine. Towns grew up over night. Before long, those "inexhaustible" forests were gone and the towns built to support the lumber industry had to find new reasons to exist.

The award-winning Settlement & Survival exhibit follows the changes that took place between 1850 and 1925, a time when the scent of pine gave way to the smell of rubber tires, and the whine of sawmill blades was replaced with the hum of electric generating plants.

A book based on the exhibit is available from the Chippewa Valley Museum Press.