White Pine
White pine was an important forest tree in northern Minnesota until the early 1900Ős. Standing taller than than a 200 hundred foot building, 85 percent of all white pine was logged off and dumped into Silver lake where it would go into the sawmill. The lake was so full of white pine you could run across it on them. Then after the mill shut down in 1929 the bark and left over logs rotted to the bottom of the lake. You can still see some of them today.
Nature
In Virginia Minnesota nature flourished before the white man came, there were two clean lakes, white pine, deer, and other beautiful animals and plants then in 1890 the settlers cleared the land and built the town of Virginia. Nature quickly left the land of Virginia.
Silver Lake
When pioneers first came they found a lake that they named silver lake because when the sun shone the lake shimmered silver, that is how it got its name. It was so clean that you could drink out of it, but not today because of the white pine that settled to the bottom and rotted making it all mucky.
Wildlife
Before the settlers came the land was full of animals because of the clean lakes and tall white pine. There was deer, raccoons, moose, loons (and other birds) wolves, fish, bears and other animals. Today I only see two species that stayed, the fish and the birds.