A Cash Crop at Bertram

Wild Ginseng is a fleshy-rooted herb native to cool and shady hardwood forests of North America – Minnesota to the Atlantic and south through the Appalachian Mountains. It has been harvested extensively over the centuries and now is quite rare. Most ginseng currently is produced through commercial cultivation.

Early settlers of the Monticello and Bertram Lakes area were forced to supplement their income from meager crops by, in essence, “living off the land”. A sudden and extraordinary demand for this product in the 1850’s and 1860’s produced a temporary “boom” for the people of Wright County. In almost every town a “purchasing agent” was employed and cash promptly paid for every pound of ginseng brought in. Whole families would go into the woods and work for days gathering their precious commodity, often abandoning other important work.

Many citizens prospered greatly from this endeavor and turned a near destitute region into one of comparable wealth. It helped improve farms at a time when many pioneer families were struggling – especially during the Civil War when many young men were away fighting.

Eventually the trade dwindled but in the meantime agriculture advanced to a state where the ginseng trade was no longer needed.

The Bertram Lakes areas was important at this time and provided the ginseng necessary for many of the surrounding settlers to survive. The area between Bertram and Long Lakes was a primary location for the growth of Ginseng.