2 bank robberies, a train derailment, unsolved fires

Editor’s note: This Vault archived article was first published on December 1, 2022.

PINEWOOD, Minn. — Eighteen miles northwest of Bemidji, in the woods of Buzzle Township, is Pinewood — once an active logging camp filled with loggers and early settlers. Throughout its history, this once bustling community has become a place of unsolved mysteries, two bank robberies, a bizarre train derailment, and multiple fires.

The town was officially settled in the early 1900s, its vast forests became home to the lumber industry, and the Soo Line Railroad brought settlers and loggers from across the country. As logging camps grew, Pinewood’s population grew with it. East Pinewood School was built, along with a church, saloon, post office and even a movie theater. But over time, all these buildings were abandoned, left to rot, destroyed by fire or torn down for new construction.

Today, a large stone structure stands in the bush off the old main street of Pinewood. Cracked and left to crumble, this stone was once a safe inside the People’s State Bank, and its story involves a gang of robbers, a missing money bag and a gun battle.

The People’s State Bank served the residents of Pinewood until it closed in the 1930s. The first robbery in late November 1921 was unsuccessful. The front door was broken in and the lock on the infamous safe was picked, but no money had been taken. But the stories of the second heist would be told for years to come.

On September 29, 1922, an explosion shook the sleeping residents of Pinewood. The safe inside the People’s State Bank had been blown to pieces and the front door of the bank had been blown off its hinges. The front page of the Bemidji Pioneer that afternoon reported on the robbery:

“Armed with rifles loaded with large shot, a gang of at least five bank robbers invaded Pinewood early this morning, blew up the vault of the People’s bank, and got away with about $1,100 in cash and a quantity of bonds. The efforts of the townspeople to stop the robbery failed, the robbers continued their work even after being fired upon, and made their escape in an automobile, or possibly two, which they had left about a quarter of a mile east mile of the city. After cutting all telephone and telegraph wires leading out of the city, the bandits began their work on the bank between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., destroying the vault with three separate charges, one of the explosions blowing up part of the bank. building.”

Al Thompson, a Soo Line agent, was involved in the fight with the bandits. A stray bullet shattered a nearby window and Al’s brother was wounded. Fortunately, no one else was hurt that night.

Years later, in an interview conducted by the Works Progress Administration, Carl Clauson, a teller who was in charge of the bank at the time, explained the theft in more detail in the Works Progress Administration Project Journals in 1937.

“The exact value of the loss has never been ascertained, as several bonds and other valuable securities were taken, and about $30,000 in notes, besides the cash on hand,” he related. “Everything inside the safe was removed, but only a small portion of the dynamite blew the contents of the safe into pieces of paper and it looked like a rat’s nest.

The next morning a bag of pennies was found between Pinewood and Solway and some burnt checks near Lake Itasca, the only money recovered from that night. The thieves were never found, no one ever came forward and no one was charged for the murder.

“It wasn’t the James brothers who robbed the bank!” says Lois Jenkins. Jenkins, a researcher for the Beltrami County Historical Society, grew up near Pinewood.

When the Soo Line Railroad was discontinued in 1963, the tracks that once ran through Pinewood were pulled out of the ground or buried in the ground.

“The dam west of Pinewood is on the Nelson Dam road. Now it’s dirt, they covered the rails with a wooden frame in the early 1950s,” Jenkins explained. “But there is a rumor that there was an accident on that scaffold many years ago. Leon Olson claims he was there to see it happen.”

Leon Olson, who grew up near the Pinewood area, claims a train derailed and fell off the trestle west of town into the Clearwater River. According to Olson, it was a long road down, but luckily no one was hurt in the incident. Olson provided an image to prove the crash occurred, but the image is hard to make out. A record of the accident has not yet been found.

Fires also ravaged the area, often from unknown causes, taking thousands of acres in their wake. The most recent fire was in 1973 and destroyed over 2,700 acres. Some believe it was started by a garbage fire, but no one is sure. Jenkins tells of another rumor that the fire was started by a group of students at Bemidji State University.

“They called themselves ‘Rangers.’ A group of students bought a church on Buzzle Road and used it for parties in the early 1970s,” says Jenkins. “And because of vandalism or misfortunes, the church caught fire and burned. This fire could have started the Pinewood fire of 1973. Of course, this is all hearsay, but it would have made for an interesting story.”

Today, all that remains of the town are a few abandoned buildings, the dilapidated saloon, what’s left of the waterfront, Buzzle City Hall, and the Pinewood American Legion.

According to Jenkins, the town hall was a dance hall where all kinds of events were held. Loggers abandoned the area when the timber disappeared and logging operations and sawmills closed. And as other towns in the area grew in size, many moved out of Pinewood where there were more job opportunities.

There are probably more unsolved mysteries in Pinewood, shrouded in mystery, distorted by years of rumor, or buried in the ground.

Editor’s Note: The Beltrami County Historical Society is in partnership with the Bemidji Pioneer

a series of monthly articles highlighting the history of the area.

For more information about the Historical Society, visit

www.beltramihistory.org.