North Country History with Rob Burg

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest is just the latest place in North America to be affected by wildfires. Wildfires have been increasing over the last several decades due to numerous factors. Logging, agriculture, land development, inconsistent land management and fire protection, and climate change have all been factors leading to this increase. The ongoing "Camp" fire (the name of the fire, not a campfire) provides us with a real time learning resource on how these fires may occur and spread. I visited the Boundary Waters and Superior National Forest near Ely and Winton, Minnesota last August, camping for four days just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. I am heart broken by what I am seeing from this beloved place. My hopes are that no one becomes a casualty of this fast moving fire and that it burns itself out before it causes too great of damage to the forests and property. To learn more about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the Superior National Forest, and the Ely, Minnesota region, check out the links below.Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, U.S. Forest Service sitehttps://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/recreation/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wildernessThe Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Areahttps://www.friends-bwca.org/explore/Superior National Foresthttps://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superiorEly, Winton, and the Boundary Waters Tourism and Recreationhttps://www.ely.org/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

With this episode we honor Memorial Day with the story of Russell A. Alger. Alger rose from poverty in Ohio, when he was orphaned at age 12, to a lumberman and cavalry officer in the Civil War. Having moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1860, he engaged in the lumber business in the Grand River valley. After the Civil War began in April 1861, Russel Alger volunteered for the Union Army in August, 1861 as a private in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, commanded by Col. Phil Sheridan. He was then commissioned as a Captain when the regiment was mustered into federal service in September. He rose up from Captain to Major in the 2nd, promoted to Lt. Colonel of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, and finally to Colonel and in command of the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment in 1863. With this regiment, he served in George Armstrong Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade at Gettysburg. Alger was mentioned by Custer for distinguished service at Gettysburg, and in 1864, while a part of General Phil Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign, he again was noted for valor at the Battle of Trevillian Station, where he was also severely wounded. Alger resigned his commision soon after and returned to Michigan, settling in Detroit. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson included Russell Alger in the lists of officers receiving promotions to brevet ranks. Alger was promoted to the honorary rank of Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers. In 1867 he was again breveted by President Johnson, this time to Brevet Major General of Volunteers. Having moved to Detroit, General Alger soon re-entered into the Michigan lumber business. Involved in several lumber companies, the most notable being the Alger, Smith and Company, in which he was president and primary partner of the firm. His lumber operations centered on the AuSable River in Iosco County, the Huron Shore in Alcona County, the eastern Upper Peninsula, including Manistique and the Kingston Plains. The Alger, Smith, and Company also operated a large mill and had extensive lumber operations on the north coast of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. Other lumber operations were in California, Washington state, Alabama, and Florida.Alger did not limit himself to just the lumber business, but was also involved in Republican politics in Michigan and on the National level. Alger was elected as the Governor of Michigan in 1884, serving a single 2-year term from Jan. 1, 1885 to Jan. 1, 1887. As governor, he was involved in trying to break the 1885 sawmill strike in Bay City and Saginaw. Also during his term of office, he saw the creation of two new counties in the Upper Peninsula- Iron and Alger, the creation of a State Board of Pardons, and the establishment of the Michigan College of the Mines, today's Michigan Technological University in Houghton. In 1888, Russell Alger sought the Republican nomination for U.S. President. He lost to Benjamin Harrison, the eventual victor in the race, defeating incumbant President Grover Cleveland. In 1897, Alger was appointed to the office of Secretary of War in the new William McKinley administration. He oversaw the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He was considered a poor leader of the Army and despite the American victory, he was held responsible forr the poor logisitics, the Army Beef scandal, and the selection of General William Shafter to the command of the Cuba campaign. McKinley aksed for and received Alger's resignation as Secretary of War at the war's conclusion. Russell A. Alger's last involvement in politics came in 1902 when he was appointed by Governor Aaron Bliss to the vacant U.S. Senate seat that had been held by James McMillan, who had died in office. Alger was elected to permanently fill the seat and he served as Senator from Michigan until 1907 when he died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C.Sources for this episode:Fuller, George N. Governors of the Territory and State of Michigan. Lansing, MI: Michigan Historical Commission, Bulletin No. 16, 1928.Hotchkiss, George W. History of the Lumber and Forestry Industry in the Northwest. Chicago, Illinois, 1898.Kilar, Jeremy W. Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870-1905. Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1990.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

News this week out of the Trump Administration in Washington is that there are plans to relocate the headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with this there are plans to downsize the staffing of the forest service, downsize reseach offices from 57 to 19, and open up more of the federally owned forest lands to logging and other operations. There is also likely the plan to downsize or even eliminate national forests in specific areas as well. Thic commentary focuses mostly on an article in Bridge Michigan, an online magazine about public affairs in Michigan that centers on the planned closure of all four of the Forest Service research offices in Michigan and how that may effect our forests. This however will affect all of our region as the same will happen in Minnesota and Wisconsin as well. It may also indirectly affect Ontario and the rest of Canada. Bridge Michigan article:  House, Kelly."Trump administration plans closure of 4 Michigan  forestry research centers." April 3, 2026                                   bridgemichigan.com/michigan-environment-watch/trump-administration-plans-closure-of-4-michigan-forestry-research-centers/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In honor of Women's History Month, this week's guest Emily Macgillivray (The Outdoors Historian) joins the podcast to share the story of  Ozhaawashkodwekwe, also known as Susan Johnston, an Ojibwe woman born in the Chequamegon Bay region of Lake Superior (Wisconsin), married to an Irish fur trader and a leader of her tribal clan in Bawating (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) where she owned a large sugar bush on nearby Sugar Island in the St. Mary's River. Maple Sugar was an important food source and commodity for the indigenous people of the Great Lakes. It was an important part of the diet in the early Spring before other food was available. It was used for food preservation, similar to salt, and could be bartered for other food, exchanged for trade goods, and more. Emily also touches a bit on the indigenous experience in the fur trade and also the importance of re-learning indigenous history in the 21st century as compared to how it was traditionally taught in the past in both Canada and the United States.Emily Macgillivray is a historian and writer who lives in the Chequamegon Bay area of northwestern Wisconsin. She has worked as an educator focusing on histories of the Great Lakes, United States, and Canada, fo over fifteen years. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan and was an assistant professor at Northland College, where she also taught field courses focused on the Lake Superior watershed. She has also worked in both large and small museums focusing on Indigenous and Black historys. Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, Emily has also lived and worked in Kingston, Ontario, Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. She currently works in land use development for her municipal government. In her free time she combines her love of the outdoors and history in her wrting on Substack as The Outdoors Historian.You can follow Emily on Substack at substack.com/@theoutdoorshistorianCheck out Emily's website at theoutdoorshistorian.comTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

When the University of Michigan's School of Forestry was created in 1903, it was understood that an experimental forest was needed where forestry students could learn their trade. Saginaw, Michigan lumberman and University of Michigan Regent Arthur Hill stepped in and purchased an 80 acre tract of worn out farm land just east of the city of Ann Arbor for the program to develop the "Saginaw Forestry Farm" as Hill asked the University to name it. The Saginaw Forest, as it officially became known in 1919 served as a training ground for future professional foresters for many years. As the School of Forestry transformed into the School of Natural Resources, studies at Saginaw Forest expanded into the flora and fauna of the forest and the aquatic life in Third Sister Lake and nearby wetlands. The Saginaw Forest is now part of the School of the Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) where it continues to be a laboratory for students studying the environmental sciences and related fields.  Episode Sources:Arthur Hill, Saginaw County Hall of Fame. https://saginawcountyhalloffame.org/arthur-hillSaginaw Forest website. https://seas.umich.edu/about/field-properties/saginaw-forestTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Sportsmen and sportswomen have come to the Pigeon River Country for more than a century to recreate in the forest. Hunting and fishing have been the primary choices for outdoor recreation for many, but the state forest is also a prime spot for morel mushroom hunting, wild berry picking, camping, hiking and backpacking, horseback riding, and more. In 1986, one such visitor was former President of the United States Jimmy Carter.I first came across the fact that Jimmy Carter came to the Pigeon River in October 1986 to go Ruffed Grouse hunting from an article written by Dianna Stampfler in the September/October 2024 issue of Michigan History magazine. The article, "The Big Wild, Jimmy Carter in Michigan's Pigeon River Country" sparked my interest to dig deeper into this story. It also led me to Jimmy Carter's own account of this hunt in his 1988 book , "An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections." He shares this story in the chapter Ruffed Grouse, From Georgia to Michigan.Piggybacking on the story of Jimmy Carter's Pigeon River Grouse hunt is an explantion of the various types of recreation available in the Pigeon River Country State Forest. If you love the outdoors, there is likely something in the PRC for you to enjoy.Episode Resources:Carter, Jimmy. An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1988.Stampfler, Dianna. "The Big Wild, Jimmy Carter in Michigan's Pigeon River Country. Michigan History magazine. Lansing, MI: The Historical Society of Michigan, Vol. 108, No. 5. September/October 2024.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Among the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota in the 1930s was the development of Gooseberry Falls State Park, one of Minnesota's most popular state parks along the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1934 the CCC arrived to build a camp on a bend of the Gooseberry River where it descends to Lake Superior. The work that Company 2710 would do at Gooseberry Falls for the next seven years included the construction of numerous stone buildings and other structures that have become some of the best examples of stone and log construction that were popular in both national and state parks during the Great Depression.In August 2025, as part of my 2025 Podcast Tour, I visited Gooseberry Falls State Park and camped overnight to explore the history and architecture of the park. I will share that with you in this episode.Episode Sources:Benson, David R. Stories in Log and Stone: The Legacy of the New Deal in Minnesota State Parks. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2002.Gooseberry Falls State Park interpretive panels text. Circa 1996. No authorship given.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Conservationist and Forest Advocate P.S. Lovejoy called the Pigeon River Forest "The Big Wild." It is one of the largest contiguous forest lands in Michigan at now over 118,000 acres. Like much of the forests of the Great Lakes, it has had its rebirth in the 20th century after the success of the 19th century lumber industry and the subsequent wildfires that followed. Ernest Hemingway summered with his family in Northern Michigan while he was growing up. Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1898, Young Ernest Hemingway and his family traveled to Petoskey every summer where they had a cottage on nearby Walloon Lake. Ernest loved fishing and his fishing adventures took him as far a field as "the pine barrens" east of Vanderbilt that was the home of the Black, Pigeon, and Sturgeon rivers, along with fishing trips in the Upper Peninsula. The pine barrens were the cutover and burned over land that had once hosted great forests of white pine and hardwood and would soon become the Pigeon River Country State Forest. Another visitor to the area was P.S. Lovejoy, a forester and conservationist, who would first see the land in 1919. Although it was still recovering from logging, fire, and failed attempts at afgriculture, he saw in his mind "The Big Wild," a roadless area of forests hosting a wide variety of wildife, including the newly reintroduced Rocky Mountain Elk. His idea was for a wildland that contained no conveniences for visitors. It was wilderness in it's truest form. While his idea was not matched by reality, it became the basis for one of Michigan's unique state forest lands. What began as a 6,500 acre forest reserve (like Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake Forest Reserves), grew over the next century to 110,000 acres.In December, 2025, a new land purchase of the 8,500 acre Black River Ranch grew the forest to now more than 118,000 acres. This episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast shares some of the history of the creation of this state forest and covers the newest addition to the forest in the 21st century.Resources used for this episode:Franz, Dale Clarke. Pigeon River Country. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1985/revised edition 2007.Heckman, Kerry. Showcasing the DNR: A Landmark Investment in Public Land. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lansing, Michigan. December 10, 2025. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDNR/bulletins/3ff3542Kates, James. Planning a Wilderness: Regenerating the Great Lakes Cutover Region. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2001.Websites with Further Information:Official Michigan Department of Natural Resources website: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/state-forests/prcWebsite for the Pigeon River Country Association, the non-profit 501c3 organization that partners with the DNR, and the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center, and educational and visitor center housed in the historic former forest supervisor's home: https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In honor of Black History Month, I want to introduce a unique story in Michigan History to my listeners, the story of Frank W. May, a man who was born into enslavement in Kentucky prior to the American Civil War, and after emancipation raised himself to the ownership of a sawmill in Detroit and a lumberman owning a modest logging operation in Otsego County in the Northern Lower Peninsula in the 1890s.In 2017 I had an article about Frank May published in Chronicle, the membership magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan, title "Frank W. May's Spirit of Enterprise." It was based on research that I conducted in 2016 mostly through the Detroit Public Library's Burton Historical Collections. I don't quite remember how I came across Frank May and his connection to the Michigan lumber industry, but I knew that it was a story that needed to be shared with a wider audience. In this episode I am casting that net further and I go back to that article and sharing it with the listeners of the podcast. The article that I wrote:Burg, Rob. "Frank W. May's Spirit of Enterprise."  Chronicle, Membership Magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan. Vol. 40, No. 2. pp. 20-22. hsmichigan.orgTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this special episode that both celebrates the one year anniversay of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast and celbrates the Christmas Holiday season, I share 19th Century writer John W. Fitzmaurice recounting of the celebration of Christmas in a Northern Michigan Logging Camp in 1883. Read from his book "The Shanty Boy.": Or, Life in a Lumber Camp, which recounts his experiences of traveling through the Northwoods and visiting logging camps in the 1880s while working as a hospital agent and drummer. He published his book, using a bit of dramatic liscense, in 1889 and is a good depiction of what the life in the camps was like for the shanty boys. Source MaterialFitzmaurice, John W. "The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp."  Cheboygan, Michigan: The Democrat Steam Print Co. 1889. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this bonus episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast, I am presenting the story of my late uncle, Dudley Foster and his experiences as a sailor in the U.S. Navy at the Invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. Dud and his wife Ang, my dad's older sister, retired to their own North Country retreat on the banks of the AuSable River just outside of Grayling, Michigan in the mid-1970s and lived out the remainder of their lives along the river. Dud kept a diary of sorts of his experiences during the Normandy Invasion, and it has been passed down to my cousin Caroline Foster, Dud's granddaughter, who was kind enough to share it with me.Although this was the only time that Dud was in combat, his World War II service neither began nor ended with the Invasion of Normandy on the shores of France. Before he could be drafted, Dud enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve and until he was called to active service, he and Ang were employed at Henry Ford's Willow Run Bomber Plant, producing the B-24 Heavy Bomber, the first mass produced airplane. When Dud was sent on active duty, Ang and their young son Mike (Micky) returned to their hometown of Chelsea, Michigan (mine as well). I believe this was sometime in 1943 and Dud was assigned to an LST (Landing Ship Tank) and sent to Great Britain to prepare for the opening of a second front in Western Europe to defeat Hitler's Nazi Germany.After the Invasion, Dud eventually returned to the United States and was transferred to the Pacific Theater where he would begin training for his next assignment, the Invasion of Japan. He was training as a crewman on a Rocket Barge that was a floating artillery battery that was to support the landings on the Japanese home islands. It was while he was in training that the Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan that ended World War II. In this episode, I read the passages of his diary about D-Day, which gives all of us the perspective of a young sailor in the fight of his life. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In 2014-2015 long before I became a podcaster I briefly had a blog called "A Taste of the North Country." In it I explored the food found in the North, both historic and contemporary. At the time I was only working as a freelance historical presenter and writer, so I was doing as much economizing with food as possible, including foraging wild food (mostly wild berries), and doing my own canning. I was looking at this with the eye of the historical perspective. It also got me to think about some of the food that was historically eaten, such as in the logging camps.We have all seen the "Lumberjack Breakfast" on menus at diners and greasy spoons throughout the North Country. And even elsewhere where no lumberjack ever roamed. It is a breakfast meal with eveything on your plate. Did you ever think of where the name came from. In this blog post, I talked about the origin of this meal going back to the logging camps. For this bonus episode of the podcast I am sharing that blog post with you.Can you still find "A Taste of the North Country?" Why yes you can! Although I stopped writing it when my work situation improved in 2015, first working as the winter caretaker at the Wellington Farm U.S.A. historic agricultural museum, where I took care of the livestock for the winter, then I was hired as the museum director for the Lovells Township Historical Society; if you google the title, you will find it. However, as I tried to just bring it up while typing this, it won't connect on my laptop, though I have it on my phone. Here is the link if you want to try:atasteofthenorthcountry.wordpress.comVinegar Pie RecipeThis is the recipe we used at the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum.One Pie Shell1/4 Cup of Butter1/2 Cup of White Sugar2 Eggs1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar3 Tbsp of Vinegar*1/4 Cup of Flour1 Cup of Water**Dash of Nutmeg to taste (or can use cinnamon, cloves, or other spice of your choice)In a large bowl, blen white sugar, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg with fingers until no lumps remain. Stir in vinegar, eggs, butter, and water until well mixed. Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.Notes*Try a variety of vinegars. Distilled white vinegar may give the pie a taste similar to pecan pie filling (minus the pecans); Apple cider vinegar may give the pie an apple taste. Both of these would be historic adaptations.**The recipe calls for 1 cup of water, but at Hartwick Pines we found that when cooking on coals on a fire, that this makes the pie a little soupy. We have adjusted it to 1/2 cup of water and it is much better.Episode SourcesEllis, Charles. Among the Michigan Pines. The Current. Chicago: 1885, Vo. IIIFitzmaurice, John W. The SHanty Boy or Life in a Lumber Camp. Cheboygan, MI: Steam Democrat Press, 1889.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

One of the greatest extinction events happened in the forests of the Great Lakes region and Eastern North America: the Passenger Pigeon. Kyle Bagnall, the Park Naturalist for the Mackinac State Historic Parks joins me as my guest to talk about this bird, that was once the most populous bird species on the planet and how it came to being extinct in the early 20th Century. Kyle, a fellow environmental historian, and I discuss the life and history of the Passenger Pigeon, its impact on the environment, and the impact of human relations with the bird. Through loss of habitat, over hunting, and small birth numbers, the population of these great birds declined dramatically until "Martha," the last Passenger Pigeon died in captivity in 1914.Kyle is the park naturalist for the Mackinac State Historic Parks, which includes Mackinac Island State Park, Fort Mackinac, Colonial Michilimackinac, and Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park. Kyle has been in this position since 2021. Prior to this, he was the historian for the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, Michigan for 22 years and also at the Whiting Forest, Dow Gardens, also in Midland. Kyle mentioned two new books available through the Mackinac State Historic Parks:Wonders of Mackinac: A Natural History of Mackinac Island  https://www.mackinacparks.com/books/wonders-of-mackinac-a-natural-history-of-mackinac-islandArch Rock: Unsurpassed in Nature’s Handiwork.                                                         This one is not currently available online, but can be purchased at the Mackinac State Historic Parks.Episode Resources:Mershon, William B. The Passenger Pigeon. New York: The Outing Company, 1907. It is available online through Google Books. Sharkey, Reginald. The Blue Meteor: The Tragic Story of the Passenger Pigeon. Petoskey, MI: Little Traverse Historical Society, 1997.Other Recommended Sources:Greenberg, Joel. A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction. New York: Bloomsberg Publishing, 2014.  https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/feathered-river-across-the-sky-9781620405352From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. (Documentary Film) You can currently stream it free on The Bryan Museum (Galveston, Texas) YouTube page:  https://youtu.be/sjwyO5BGluI?si=GxiBx-wOSZ69K8aG To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

From July 31-August 16 I went on my first official North Country History Podcast Tour to the Northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Northern Wisconsin, and Northeastern Minnesota. I visited numerous places, learned a lot of new information and met many great people. In this final episode of the second season of the podcast, I recount my tour, visiting the numerous places that I stopped at. Many of the places that I visited and the information that I learned will be included in Season Three of the podcast, tentatively to be launched in January 2026. Places that I Visited on the 2025 Podcast TourFrederic Community Library, Frederic Michigan. I presented my "Deward: Michigan's Last Lumber Boomtown" program. https://www.crawfordcolibrary.org/Pigeon River Country State Forest https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/state-forests/prc https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park https://www.mackinacparks.com/attraction/historic-mill-creek/Birch Lodge, Trout Lake, Michigan       https://www.birchlodge.com/Fiborn Quarry      https://mkc.caves.org/preserve_fiborn.htmlKitch-iti-kipi, "The Big Spring," Palms Book State Park https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/parks/PalmsBookPeshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo, Wisconsin  https://peshtigofiremuseum.com/Cathedral Pines, Chequamegon-Nicolet, National Forest https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/chequamegon-nicolet/recreation/cathedral-pinesLumberjack Steam Train and Camp 5 Museum, Laona, Wisconsin https://www.lumberjacksteamtrain.com/Pioneer Park Historical Complex, Rhinelander, Wisconsin https://rhinelanderpphc.com/St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin https://www.nps.gov/sacn/index.htmSnake River Fur Post, Pine City, Minnesota           https://www.mnhs.org/furpostHinckley Fire Museum, Hinckley, Minnesota   https://hinckleyfiremuseum.com/Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, Mille Lacs, Minnesota https://www.mnhs.org/millelacsForest History Center, Grand Rapids, Minnesota https://www.mnhs.org/foresthistoryEly, Minnesota                   https://www.ely.org/                                                      https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/offices/kawishiwi-ranger-district    Gooseberry Falls State Park  https://www.exploreminnesota.com/profile/gooseberry-falls-state-park/8224Drummond Woods, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest  https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/regions/eastern/DrummondWoods/index.shtmlNorthern Great Lakes Visitor Center, Ashland, Wisconsin        https://nglvc.org/Ottawa National Forest Visitor Center, Watersmeet, Michigan                          https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/ottawa/recreation/ottawa-national-forest-visitor-centerContact Rob Burg and the North Country History with Rob Burg Podcast: [email protected] the podcast: https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Happy Labor Day! To conclude this three part series on the Labor of Logging, we look into the work at the saw mills and in the milltowns. In 1885 it was reported that there were 50,000 men working in the lumber industry in Michigan, with 20,000 employed in saw mills. As I like to say about the lumber industry, it was to Michigan in the 19th century as what the automobile industry was to the state in the 20th century. It was the major industry that drove the state's economy. And it was the individual men that worked in the forests, on the rivers, and in the mills that carried this industry on their backs.All areas of the lumber industry included dangerous work and the saw mills were no exception. This week I will discuss the working conditions, wages and hours, and the growing labor movement in the saw mills in the 1880s. I then follow this with the labor of various other populations in the milltowns, including African Americans, women, and children. Episode Sources:Ellis, Charles. Among the Michigan Pines. Chicago, IL: The Current, Volume III, 1885.Fitzmaurice, John W. The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp. Cheboygan, MI: Democrat Steam Print, 1889.Kilar, Jeremy W. Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870-1905. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1990.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this second part of the Labor of Logging, I look at the labor involved with the Spring River Drives and the use of Boom Companies. The labor was the most important part of the log drives, without the men working the rivers, the logs would have never made it down the rivers to the sawmills. The drives could be very dangerous, with many men seriously injured or killed. I share a first-person account of Elmer Nolan about the danger of breaking rollways and river driving on the Tittabawasee River in the 1880s. Then we take a look into the workings of a log boom company that would control the entire driving operations on a river. Using the Menominee River Boom Company of Marinette, Wisconsin as an example, we learn of the stratification of a river drive operation and how the various jobs were broken down and performed. Last, we look at one of the most popular lumberjack songs, "The Jam at Gerry's Rocks" and how the loggers and river drivers kept the memory alive of their friends who were lost on the river drives.Episode Resources:Burke, Fred C. Logs on the Menominee: The History of the Menominee River Boom. Menasha, WI: Banta Publishing Co., 1946.Nolan, Herbert. Logging the Tittabawassee: In Memory of Camp Sixteeners. 1939. Reprinted in 1970 and by Printer's Devil Press, Tawas City, MI in 2005.Rickaby, Franz. Pinery Boys: Songs and Songcatching in the Lumberjack Era. Originally published by Harvard University Press, Boston, 1926. Revised edition by University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2017.If you'd like to support the podcast, please go to this link: https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this first of two parts episodes in honor of Labor Day, we learn about the work that was done in the woods through the memories of John J. Heilala, who was a sixteen year-old boy who went to work in an Upper Peninsula logging camp, Ferguson's Camp 33, in 1904. John Heilala shared these memories 48 years later in an article of the same title in the March 1952 issue of Michigan History magazine. We hear of some of the work that was done through this first person account. John Heilala went on to a career as a mining engineer and surveyor in the Upper Peninsula. He wrote this account when in his sixties. I discovered this article about twenty years ago and used it as a teaching tool at the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum for many years. When working with schoolchildren, it was great to find something with experiences from someone close to their own age. If you would like to support the podcast, please visit this link and choose your support level.https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newEpisode Resources:Heilala, John J. In an Upper Michigan Lumber Camp, Michigan History Magazine, Vol. 36, No. 1, March 1952. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Like Paul Bunyan and his companion, Babe the Blue Ox, agropelters, side hill gougers, and squonks, the Hodag was a mythical being found in the forests of the North Country. The Hodag was "discovered" by Eugene Shepard of Rhinelander, Wisconsin in 1896 and aided in its creation by Luke "Lakeshore" Kearney, a skilled woodcarver and storyteller. Like many of these tall tales and mythical beasts, the hodag was ferocious and always hungry. And in Rhinelander, much beloved. I encountered my first several hodags in Rhinelander on my recent visit on my 2025 Podcast Tour. If you find yourself in this former lumbertown on the banks of the Wisconsin River, see how many hodags you might encounter. And visit the Pioneer Park Logging Museum, which has been preserving Rhinelander's lumber heritage since 1932, making it the oldest lumber museum in the United States.Episode Sources:Cox, William, Henry Tryon, Lake SHore Kearney; compiled and edited by Matt Lake. Hodags and Billdads and Squonks. Parnilus Media: Media, PA. 2021.Kortenhof, Kurt. Long Live the Hodag: The Life and Legacy of Eugene Simeon Shepard, 1854-1923. Hodag Press: Savage, MN. 2023 (second edition).Places to Visit: Pioneer Park Historical Complex, Rhinelander, Wisconsin https://rhinelanderpphc.com/To Support the Podcast, go to this link: https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

This episode is an opinion piece on where do you think "Up North" begins. Is it a geographic location or where you start to feel that you are "Up North." I will tell you where I think "Up North" begins in Michigan. I don't have an opinion on Wisconsin or Minnesota, but if you are from these states or vacation in them, then you know. Same if you live in Michigan, my "Up North" is not necessarily your "Up North"; but guess what? We're all correct. Think about how "Up North" makes you feel. This is what I call "the Spirit of the North Country."Episode Resources: This is an opinion piece so there are no source material. But if you feel the need to be inspired, read Sigurd Olson, Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, or anything about the northwoods or activities you love. I would recommend reading them while sitting under a big pine tree listening to the whispering pines at a cabin, cottage, campsite or resort.Support:If you enjoy the podcast, tell a friend. You can also support the podcast by going to this link:https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

The lumber boom of the second half of the 19th Century in the Great Lakes Region was fueld by the demand for more lumber due to the fast growth in the United States after the Civil War. This included the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the opening of places like the Great Plains for new settlement. To meet this growing demand, new technology was introduced and perfected to aid in the greater harvesting of the forests and to increase the supply of wood products to the consumer. In last week's episode we covered one part of this with the introduction of railroad logging that allowed more of the forests to be accessed and for logging to expand into a year-round operation. This week we discuss the evolution of the sawmills to increase the amount of lumber that could be cut at the mills. The earliest sawmills in North America, dating back to the 1630s in Maine, were water-powered affairs. These mills required a swift stream to provide the energy to operate the crude saws located within the mills. These were saws that to the uninformed looked rather like a large sawblade that was used for sawing logs by hand placed into a frame that was moved by the water current below or aside the mill. These saws were faster than cutting by hand (two men) pulling a pit saw to cut a log into lengths of planks.  Waterpowered sawmills were continuously improved to make them faster and more efficient. Eventually the circular saw blade would be introduced and with the addition of steam power around 1840, this would make sawmills able to provide lumber for not just small communities, but for growing cities as well. Circular saws would be the major technolgy for the next thirty years, but along with the railroad, the next evolution in the lumber industry would be the band saw. Like most of these technologies, the band saw was invented earlier than it's popular adaptation, and was a product of Great Britain's Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The band saw eliminated most of the waste of the circular saw and with a much faster saw, increased the amount of lumber being cut. Band saws would not totally eliminate the use of circular saws though. The circular saw remained an important tool in large mills to do prep cuts and work on smaller jobs. Small mills, and even portable mills relied on the cheaper and lighter circular saws for small jobs. If you would like to support the podcast, please visit this link:https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newNote: In the episode I keep mentioning that England was where the saws, the steam engine, etc. were invented. What I really meant was Great Britain. Scotland was just as much an important location of industrialization and innovation as England. The inventor James Watt was Scottish, not English.Episode Resources:Fries, Robert F. Empire in Pine: The Story of Lumbering in Wisconsin 1830-1900. William Caxton, Ltd. Ellison Bay, WI. 1951, (1989 revised edition).Mabel Edwards Secord Papers. The Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Salling, Hanson and CompanyBusiness Records. The Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Wakerle, Mary. Correspondence relating to Frank Kellogg. Historical newspaper clippings and letter. Received in 2014.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In the post-Civil War era there was great growth in the United States. The Transcontinental railroad was completed linking the Pacific Coast with the East and opening the Great Plains and the West to settlement. Industrialization led to increased wealth and an influx of immigration to the country. All of this meant that cities, towns, and farms all grew. This growth demanded more lumber. The lumbermen in the Great Lakes had experimented with a number of different ways to move the raw materials of logs to the sawmills in a more efficient way. By the late 1870s the railroads were becoming a better alternative to move logs to the sawmills, and the milled lumber from the sawmills to the consumer. In this episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, we discuss how this new technology was developed for the lumber industry. We learn a bit about lumbermen Winfield Scott Gerrish and Ephraim Shay and how they helped shape the lumber industry of the Great Lakes with their innovations.If you enjoy this podcast, please visit this link to support the podcast. https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/newEpisode Resources:Bajema, Carl and Janet Brashler. Blendon Landing: A Middle Nineteenth Century Logging Railroad, Sawmill and Shipyard Village in West Michigan. The Michigan Archaeologist, Vol. 43, Nos. 2-3, June-September 1997.Huckle, Earl and Keith H. Johnson. "Cadillac's Shay Locomotive, Titan of the Timber." Save Our Shay Historical Preservation Project, Cadillac, MI, 1984.Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era, 1840-1900." Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Climate change is not new. The Great Lakes experienced a change to the climate after the 19th century lumber industry resulting in wildfires and other significant events. This episode covers how this happened and how it was able to be reversed over time.The 19th century lumber industry in the Great Lakes region was an economic boom that created wealth and encouraged settlement and the development of communities, but left the former timberlands a wasteland. Without the moderating forest canopy, the cutover lands were susceptible to extreme weather conditions; warm and dry soils and air, strong storms, greater runoff, and wind, that eroded the landscape and affected the surrounding freshwater basins. The enormous amount of slash became a prime cache of fuel for wildfires. The conflagrations in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin during the 1870s to 1920s contributed to this changing environment. In 2023 I presented a paper, "Fire Follows the Axe: Climate Change and the Lumber Industry in the Upper Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th centuries"  at the annual Association of Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) conference held at Sauder Village, Archbold, Ohio. Today's episode uses excerpts of that paper to show how the lumber industry and the resulting wildfires led to localized climate change. Through conservation and reforestation efforts, much of that climate change has been reversed, however, much of the environmental damage and effects of the climate change still remain. Climate Change is the elephant in the room and I will be featuring this topic in the future. This episode follows episodes in season 01 on the lumber industry, reforestation, and the Kingston Plains that are all part of this discussion, and will be followed in Season 03 with episodes on wildfires and attempts to farm the cutover. Episode Correction: At 29min 32sec, I mention the 1918 Cloquet Fire in Wisconsin. The fire originated in Cloquet, Minnesota, however it did spread into nearby Wisconsin as well.Episode SourcesBennett, Lauren. Deforestation and Climate Change. Washington, D.C. The Climate Institute, April, 2017.Bonan, Gordon B, David Pollard and Starley L. Thompson. Effects of  boreal forest vegetation on global climate. Nature. Vol. 359, 22 October, 1992.Bonan, Gordon B, F. Stuart Chapin III, and Starley L. Thompson. Boreal Forest and Tundra Ecosystems as Components of the Climate System. Climactic Change, Volume 29, 1995 Kluwer Publications, the Netherlands.Bonan, Gordon B. et al. Forests and Climate CHange: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests. Science, Vol. 320, 1444. 2008. Washington, D.C. American Association for the Advancement of Science.Comer, P.J., D.A. Albert, H.A. Wells, B.L. Hart, J.B. Raab, D.L. Price, D.M. Kashnian, R.A. Corner & D.W. Schuen (map interpretation); T.R. Leibfried, M.B. Austin, C.J. DeLain, L. Prange-Gregory, L.J. Scrimger, K.M. Korroch & J.G. Spitzley (digital map production). Vegetation of Michigan circa 1800: An Introduction of the General Land Office Surveys 1816-1856. Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Lansing, MI, 1995.Davidson, Debra J., Tim Williamson, and John R. Parkins. Understanding climate change risk and vulnerability in northern forest-based communities. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. Ottawa, ON. 2003. Gleason, Henry Allan, editor. Botanical Observations in Northern Michigan. Journal of The New York Botanical Garden. Vol. XXIV, No. 288, December, 1923.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this episode I conclude the miniseries on Logging in the Northeast by visiting Pennsylvania and exploring it's lumber history. During the mid-1800s, Pennsylvania led the nation in white pine lumber production until it was eclipsed by Michigan. Pennsylvania's lumber industry was dominated by two major river systems, the Susquehanna River flowing to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Allegheny River that flowed to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, then to the Mississippi River in the west. In this episode I explore the largest remaining stand of old growth white pine in the eastern United States at Cook Forest State Park, visit an operating steam powered sawmill and learn about the distillation of birch oil at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, and drive through the Allegheny National Forest and the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/For More Information:Cook Forest State Park                                                                     https://lumberheritage.org/Pennsylvania Lumber Museum                                                   https://lumbermuseum.org/Allegheny National Forest                                      https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/alleghenyPennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region                                   https://lumberheritage.org/Additional Sources:DeCoster, Lester A. The Legacy of Penn's Woods: A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1995. McCreight, I.M. "Cook Forest Park: Story of the Sixteen Year Battle to Save the Last Stand of Historic Penn's Woods. The When, The Why and How of It." 1936. PDF digital copy from the Pennsylvania State College (University) Library.Pennsylvania's Forests: Choices and Challenges. DVD, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2007. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Part 2 of my "Logging in the Northeast" miniseries has me exploring the forest history of the Adirondack Mountains in New York state.New York's Adirondack Mountains is the largest state park in the United States, protecting 6,000 square miles of land. Created in 1892, it is larger than many National Parks. It is a unique public-private partnership where many people live in numerous communities within the park. Where it is now a place of recreation, featuring 42 mountain peaks over 4,000 feet tall, 3,000 lakes, and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, including the headwaters of the Hudson River, the Adirondacks were once nearly stripped of its forest cover. I ventured into the Adirondacks in October of last year during my Northeastern vacation. It was a couple of rather rainy days, but the beauty of the Adirondack Mountains could not be hidden by the rain and fog. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/For Additional Information:The Adirondack Experience-The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake. https://www.theadkx.org/Adirondack Interpretive Center.                     https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-interpretive-center.htmlhttps://www.esf.edu/aic/index.phpEpisode Sources: "A Gift of Wilderness: The Adirondack Park." www.wildadirondacks.org/forever-wild-the-adirondack-park.html"Adirondacks: Lumber Industry and Forest Conservation."  www.nps.gov/articles/adirondacks-lumber-industry-forest-conservation.htmTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Long before the lumber industry made it to the Great Lakes region, logging was an important industry along the Atlantic Coast and specifically in the Northeast of what became the United States. The first region to be impacted by this boom was Maine. Maine, at the time a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later the state of Massachusetts until its own statehood in 1820, was one of the first regions where lumber would be the most important economic industry. Like in the Great Lakes region, it was the Eastern White Pine that was the monarch of the forest. This tree was important to settlers for construction material and as an economic commodity. For the British Royal Navy, it was as the source of ship's masts and other vital ship building material. The white pine trade, specifically the mast trade would become a source of dissidence towards the British Crown by American Colonists that would lead to the American War of Independence. The first water-powered sawmills were constructed in Maine in the 1630s and would be the primary source for milled lumber until the 1830s and 40s when steam-powered sawmills took over. Sometime around 1787 Oliver Leonard established his sawmill on Nichols Stream (now Blackman Stream) in the Town of Bradley. A saw mill on this site would continue to operate into the late 1800s. The site became the Maine Forest and Logging Museum, that was established in 1960. A recreation of the Leonard's Mill community is the centerpiece of the museum.Maine contributed in other ways to the lumber industry. In Joseph Peavey, a blacksmith in Stillwater, Maine was watching river drivers having a difficult time with mulitple tools to move logs in the Penobscot River. He sketched out an idea for a new tool and instructed his son to put it together in their blacksmith shop. The "Peavey Pole" as it became known, used a wooden tool handle, made of hardwood, typically of hickory, ironwood, or of another strong wood, usually between four and six feet long. At the front end of the pole, it was topped with an iron or steel pike that was driven into the end. About 12-18 inches below the pike, an iron or steel hook was attached. The end was pointed and how it was attached with a bolt through it, it could swing to catch the hook on a log. The user could then push, pull, rolled, and lift the log with his Peavey Pole, having it act as a lever. Joseph Peavey's invention quickly caught on in Maine and elsewhere and helped to revolutionize the industry.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode ResourcesA History of Maine Logging. Website: woodsplitterdirect.com/blogs/wsd/a-history-of-maine-loggingMaine Forest and Logging Museum, Inc. 2024. 64 Years of Living History at Leonard's Mills Bradley, Maine. Guidebook. Maine Forest and Logging Museum, 2024.Pike, Robert E. Tall Trees, Tough Men. New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1967.The Rich Lumbering History of the Maine Highlands. Website: themainehighlands.com/lumbering-in-maineVietze, Andrew. White Pine: American History and the Tree that Made a Nation. Guilford, Connecticut, Globe Pequot. 2018.Places to Visit for More Information:Maine Forest and Logging Museum, Bradley, Maine. Website: maineforestandloggingmuseum.orgPatten Lumbermen's Museum, Patten, Maine. Website: https://lumbermensmuseum.org/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

On this week's episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, I am joined by Bill Jamerson, an award winning documentary filmmaker turned author and performer, to discuss the life and experiences of CCC Boy Michael Rataj. Mike came from poverty in Detroit and came of age in the wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the CCC changed his life. Both Bill and I knew Mike and heard his numerous stories over the years, and we share some of our own stories and thoughts on Mike.Michael Rataj was the perfect representative of what the CCC did for more than 102,000 young men in Michigan and millions across the country. For many years Mike was involved with both the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni (NACCCA) and the Michigan Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni (MCCCA). Mike helped lead and organize the annual CCC Alumni Reunion that was held at Higgins Lake for many years, and was a volunteer and seasonal historical interpreter at the CCC Museum at North Higgins Lake State Park. In 1993 Bill Jamerson produced his film on the CCC in Michigan, titled "Camp Forgotten." Michael Rataj was a contributor to the film. In 2007 Bill published the historical novel "Big Shoulders" about the coming of age story of a teenager who joins the CCC. Mike Rataj was Bill's main inspiration for the story and many of Mike's own experiences were used in the book.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/For more Information:For Information on Bill Jamerson, his programs, films, book, and CD: http://billjamerson.com/For information on the CCC Museum, its hours and programs: https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hln-cccFor further information on the Civilian Conservation Corps in the United States: https://ccclegacy.org/For further reading about the CCC:Apps, Jerry. The Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin: Nature’s Army at Work. Madison, WI. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. 2019.Hivert-Carthew, Annick. Proud To Work: A Pictorial History of Michigan’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Wilderness Adventure Books. 2006.Rosentreter, Roger L. Roosevelt's Tree Army, Michigan's Civilian Conservation Corps. Lansing, MI. Michigan Bureau of History. 1986. (It is available online at: https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hln-ccc/ccc-in-michigan)Schueller, Mary J. The Soldiers of Poverty. Richfield, WI. Rustic Books. 2006.Sommers, Barbara W. Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota. St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2008Symon, Charles A. We Can Do It! A History of the CCC in Michigan 1933-1942. Escanaba, MI. Richards Printing. 1983. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Conservation and Reforestation in the North Country was of great importance in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, several states had their own programs to bring back forests, and the United States Forest Service was created to replant forests across the country. These programs did some good, early work, but the most important impact was made in the wake of the Great Depression.When Franklin D. Roosevelt was innaugurated as the 32nd president in 1933 he offered up his "New Deal" to put the country back to work. One of his most successful programs was the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps. This week I am joined by Phil Naud, a CCC historian, who speaks about the creation of the CCC, the work that they performed in Michigan, and about a special population of enrollees, Military Veterans of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the First World War (1917-1918).In Michigan, the CCC would do great work to stimulate the regrowth of the forests that were largely destroyed during the 19th century lumber boom, and by the wildfires that followed. More than 484 million trees were planted by the CCC in Michigan alone from 1933-1942. More than 102,000 men served in the CCC in Michigan, doing everything from planting trees, fighting fires, building roads, bridges, dams, and airfields, creating or improving parks and campgrounds, and doing stream improvement, among other jobs. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Corrections:At 7:02 I mention eight national forests in Michigan. This is incorrect. There are four in Michigan, eight in the Great Lakes region (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). The four in Michigan are: Huron NF and Manistee NF in the Lower Peninsula (they are managed jointly as the Huron-Manistee National Forest), and Hiawatha NF and Ottawa NF in the Upper Peninsula. The Marquette NF was also established in the Upper Peninsula, bust was later merged into the Hiawatha NF. At 13:19 I respond to Phil's comment about the U.S. Senator from Michigan who suggested work that could be done. I said Vandenburg (Senator Arthur Vandenburg from Grand Rapids). It was actually James Couzens from Detroit. Couzens had been an executive with the Ford Motor Company and Mayor of Detroit before he was elected to the U.S. Senate.Additional Reading:Carr, Ethan, Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture & the National Park Service. Lincoln, NE. University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books. 1998. (There is information regarding Recreational Demonstration Areas including Waterloo and Yankee Springs Recreation Areas in Michigan.)Cohen, Stan. The Tree Army: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-42. Missoula, MT. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. 1980. Rosentreter, Roger L. Roosevelt's Tree Army, Michigan's Civilian Conservation Corps. Lansing, MI. Michigan Bureau of History. 1986. (It is available online at: https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hln-ccc/ccc-in-michigan)Schueller, Mary J. The Soldiers of Poverty. Ritchfield, WI. Rustic Books. 2006. (This is the book I referenced of the enrollee going from southern Illinois to Wisconsin to Isle Royale.) Symon, Charles A. We Can Do It! A History of the CCC in Michigan 1933-1942. Escanaba, MI. Richard's Printing. 1983.Additional Online Information:CCC Legacy: https://ccclegacy.org/Higgins Lake Nursery and CCC Museum: https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hln-cccTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

This episodes marks the beginning of Season 2 of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast. We look at what will be coming up on Season 2 airing from June through August, 2025. But first we recap Season 1 as a refresher and also an introduction for new listeners. Season 2 will bring new guests to the podcast, take a look at the origins of the lumber industry in the United States in the Northeastern states of Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, explore some new topics in forest history and to also revisit the lumber industry discussing technological changes, and the labor force of the lumber industry.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Season 2 Schedule:June 2 S02.E02: Introducing Season 2 & Recapping Season 1.June 9  S02.E03: The Civilian Conservation Corps Part 1: The New Deal's Outdoors Restoration Program. With guest Phil Naud.June 16 S02.E03: The Civilian Conservation Corps Part 2: The Life of a CCC Boy. With guest Bill Jamerson.June 23 S02.E04: Logging in the Northeast, Part 1: Maine-The Birth of an Industry.June 30 S02.E05: Logging in the Northeast, Part 2: The Adirondacks.July 7 S02.E06: Logging in the Northeast, Part 3: Penn's Woods.July 14 S02.E07: Fire Follows the Axe: Lumber, Wildfires, and Climate Change.July 21 S02.E08: The Passenger Pigeon. With guest Kyle Bagnall.July  28 S02.E09: Lumber, Lakes & Lighthouses. With guest Bruce Lynn.August 4 S02.E10: Railroad Logging.August 11 S02.E.11: Sawmill Technology.August 18 S02.E12: The Labor of Logging, Part 1: Timber Cruisers, Shanty Boys, and River Hogs.August 25 S02.E13: The Labor of Logging, Part 2: The Men and Women of the Lumber Towns.2025 North Country History Podcast Tour: N. Lower Peninsula/Upper Peninsula of Michigan, N. Wisconsin, and N. Minnesota. July 31-August 16, 2025.Frederic MI: "Deward: The Last of Michigan's Lumber Boomtowns." Pigeon River Country State ForestMackinac State Historic ParksPeshtigo Fire MusemNicolet National ForestCathedral Pines Natural AreaLumberjack Steram Train & Camp Five MuseumRhinelander WISt. Croix River National Scenic RiverSnake River Fur Trading PostHinckley Fire MuseumForest History CenterEly MNSuperior National ForestGrand Portage National MonumentGooseberry Falls State ParkChequamegon National ForestOttawa National ForestHow to Connect with North Country HistoryEmail: [email protected]: The North Country History with Rob Burg Podcast https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/YouTube: North Country History with Rob Burg  https://www.youtube.com/@NorthCountryHistoryFacebook: Rob Burg-Environmental Historianhttps://www.facebook.com/RobBurgEnviroHistorianInstagram: North Country History https://www.instagram.com/northcountryhistory/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In 1917 with the United States of America's declaration of war against Germany, a call went out for volunteers to serve in the expanding U.S. Armed Forces. Not only were soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines needed, but so were lumberjacks, foresters, sawmill employees, and others who did work related to the lumber and forestry industries. These men were important support troops that were part of the unsung elements of all armies that go to war, the engineers. As mentioned in episode 14, Major Edward E. Hartwick of Detroit, formerly of Grayling, Michigan, served with these men, as the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the 20th Regiment of Engineers (Forestry). Edward Hartwick's biography, written by author Gordon K. Miller in 1921 sheds light on some of the work these men did to aid the war effort in France. Through diary entries and letters to his family, Major Hartwick described the work and living conditions of his soldiers. Engineers and other support troops, such as commissary, supplies, teamsters, and hospital personnel, among others, have always been important for armies to march and survive. Not everyone who serves, carries a weapon. Listen this week to learn a little bit about some of these soldiers of the First World War.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Sources:Guthrie, Jno. D., James A. WHite, Henry B. Steer, and Harry T. Whitlock. The Carpathians, Tenth Engineers (Forestry) A.E.F.-1917-1919. Roster and Historical Sketch. Washington, D.C., May 1940.Miller, Gordon K. A Biographical Sketch of Major Edward E. Hartwick, Together with a Compilation of Major Hartwick's Letters and Diaries written during the Spanish-American and World Wars. Detroit, 1921 (Privately Published). Reprint by Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 2015.20th Regiment of Engineers Website. Created by Bruce Porter. 20thengineers.com/ww1.htmlWorld War I: 10th and 20th Forestry Engineers. Webpage of the Forest History Society, Digital Collections. foresthistory.org/digital-collections/world-war-10th-20th-forestry-engineers/ To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this bonus episode of the North Country History podcast we commemorate Memorial Day today with Edward Hartwick. Most people know of Edward Hartwick as the man who Hartwick Pines State Park is named for, but what do most people know about Edward Hartwick? Edward Hartwick, a native of Grayling, Michigan was an army officer who attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Hartwick graduated from West Point in 1893 and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. Lt. Hartwick served with the United State Cavalry in the western United States in the 1890s with the 9th Regiment of Cavalry. The regiment, one of the famous "Buffalo Soldiers" regiments consisted of black soldiers, led by mostly white officers. Edward Hartwick would serve with the 9th at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898, then at Fort Huachuca, Arizona until he resigned his commission and left the Army in 1899. Hartwick married his childhood sweetheart, Karen "Bessie" Michelson, whose father, Nels Michelson, was an influential lumberman in Michigan. Nels Michelson helped to set up his son-in-law in the lumber business, parterning with Edward Hartwick in a small retail lumber business in Mason, Michigan, before Edward went out on his own, starting lumber businesses first in Jackson, Michigan, then in 1909, in Detroit, and starting up the Hartwick Lumber Company. This business would grow to five locations in the city by 1917 when Edward Hartwick would re-enter the Army.The U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, finally entering the Great War on the side of the Allies. Edward Hartwick immediately tried to volunteer for service in the expanding Army but was initially refused. At the time of the declaration of war, Hartwick was turning 46 and was deemed too old to go to war. The Army did have a need for experienced lumbermen and created the 10th Regiment of Engineers (Forestry) to provide needed lumber for fortifications, hospitals, barracks, and other military needs. It was soon evident that more forestry engineers were needed and in September 1917, the 20th Regiment of Engineers (Forestry) was established. It was then that Edward Hartwick was commissioned into the Reserve Officers Corps at the rank of Major, and appointed to the command of the 1st Battalion of the 20th Regiment of Engineers. Major Edward Hartwick immediately threw himself into the training and leadership of his men at Camp American University in Washington, D.C. and on November 11, 1917 the first two battalions of the 20th Regt. embarked for France. The 20th arrived in France on November 26, 1917 and soon was sent to southern France where they began their forestry work. Major Hartwick commanded his battalion in Dax, France. In March of 1918, Major Hartwick contracted Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis and died on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1918. He was initially buried at the American Military Cemetery in Bordeaux, France. His remains were exhumed in 1920 and returned to Detroit where they were reinturned at Woodlawn Cemetery. Major Hartwick was one of the many war dead who died not from wounds from battle, but from disease. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Sources:Miller, Godon K. A Biographical Sketch of Major Erdward E. Hartwick, together with a Compilation of Major Hartwick's Letters and Diaries Written During the Spanish-American and World Wars. Detroit, Michigan, 1921 (Privately published).To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In the early Spring of 1854, 31 year-old David Ward, not yet known as "the Pine King" sought one of the state's greatest stands of "cork pine" (the highest grade of the Eastern White Pine) west of Otsego and Bradford lakes in Otsego County. This would be a race with the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company's timber cruiser, Addison Brewer for the same stand of pine. With the backing of Detroit lumbermen and bankers Dwight, Smith, and Co. and William A. Howard, David Ward and his assistant, John Baily, and their packers would experience the extreme changes in Michigan's late winter and early spring weather from three and a half feet of snow, frozen rivers, and -30 degree Fahrenheit temperatures to south winds and fast warm-ups that melted most of the snow in a single day. The competition with the "Soo Canal Company" men continued south to Detroit then northwest to the United States Land Office in Ionia, west of Lansing. The outcome of this is that David Ward would purchase 16,000 acres of prime "cork pine" at a cost of $20,000. At the time of the purchase, this great pinery was located far from the lumber markets with no easy way to move the lumber and it was considered to be "Ward's folly." By the end of the Nineteenth century, a major north-south rail line would run through the heart of Ward's holdings, and much of the timber would already be harvested, though a little of this holding would be part of the Deward Estate that would be logged the following decade during the existence of Deward. In this special bonus episode, I read David Ward's own account of this event from The Autobiography of David Ward, published in 1912, after his death.  You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode ResourcesWard, David. "The Autobiography of David Ward." New York, 1912 (Privately Printed).This book might be found in some libraries. The Devereaux Library in Grayling, Michigan, part of the Crawford County Library System, has a non-circulating copy that is available for patrons to study. Reprints may be available as well, as the book has gone out of copyright and is now in the public domain.Inflation Calculator, www.in2013dollars.com. "$20,000 in 1854 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $756,359.52 today, an increase of $736,359.52 over 171 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.15% per year between 1854 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,681.80%"To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this final episode of the first season of the podcast, I am recording this remotely from the old lumber ghost town of Deward, Michigan. Deward lived as an actual town for just twelve years, 1900-1912, while the David Ward Estate logged off the last great pine lumber holdings of David Ward, Michigan's "Pine King" at the tail end of the white pine lumber boom. Deward was located on the banks of the Manistee River near where Antrim, Crawford, Kalkaska, and Otsego counties meet. This was in the center of Ward's last great holdings of white pine lumber. David Ward was one of the great figures of Michigan's 19th century lumber industry. Born in 1822 in Keene, New York in the Adirondack Mountains, David Ward first came with his father to Michigan, to assist him in timber cruising for Eastern clients in the newly opened Michigan Territory. His family soon followed his father and David to Michigan, settling in Newport in St. Clair County (today's Marine City). David Ward followed in his father's trade as a surveyor and timber cruiser, however he tried other employment before settling completely into the lumber industry. He worked as a school teacher, a commercial fisherman, and even studied medicine at the University of Michigan, but it was in the lumber industry that he would make his fortune. As a timber cruiser, David Ward was hired by others to seek out and purchase prime timberlands. Part of his payment was the right to reserve some of these purchases for himself. Ward was able to string together landholdings all over Michigan, primarily in the Saginaw River Valley and in the region of the headwaters of the AuSable and Manistee rivers. David Ward died in 1900 at the age of 78. His will stipulated that his heirs had to liquidate his timber holdings within twelve years. A sawmill was located on the Manistee River with a rail connection to Ward's own railroad, the Detroit and Charlevoix Railroad. The mill was completed in late 1900, though logging operations had already begun in the area, with logs initially shipped by rail to other mills. The mill cut its last logs in the Spring of 1912 and the town quickly shutdown.Michigan's last great stand of Eastern White Pine had been cut.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/EPISODE RESOURCESLeech, Carl Addison. Deward: A Lumberman’s Ghost Town. Michigan History Magazine. Lansing, Michigan. Vol. 28, No. 1, January-March, 1944. Maybee, Rolland H. Michigan’s White Pine Era 1840-1900. Lansing, Michigan. Michigan Bureau of History. 1988. Ward, David. The Autobiography of David Ward. New York. Privately Printed. 1912. Mabel Edwards Secord Papers. Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Ward Family Papers, 1872-1964. Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this week's episode we travel to Hartwick Pines State Park where I visit with my old friend and former coworker Craig Kasmer, the park's interpreter/naturalist to learn about the wildlife that live in the northern forests. The Old Growth Forest at Hartwick Pines State Park is a unique area. The large white pines that survived the lumber era is the main attraction, but they are not the only special part of this forest. The decaying logs and snags (dead standing trees) provide habitat for many species of wildlife. The wildlife in this forest and in other northern forests can vary greatly and are affected by outside forces from climate change to logging, fire, and construction. Craig talks about how the wildlife has been affected by all of these changes. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Learn more about Hartwick Pines State Park and its programs:https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/v-centers/hartwickTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this week's episode, we depart a little bit, and get a little philosophical regarding forests and the wilderness. I want to introduce listeners to Sigurd F. Olson (1899-1982), one of my personal heroes. Sigurd Olson was an educator, canoe guide, outfitter, writer, and a leading voice in the preservation of wilderness. Sigurd Olson, the son of Swedish immigrants, his father being a minister,  was born in Chicago and grew up in small towns in northern Wisconsin. After being educated at Northland College (Ashland, Wisconsin), and the University of Wisconsin, Sig and his wife, Elizabeth, found their way to Ely, Minnesota where he was hired as a high school science teacher. To help make ends meet, as his family grew with two sons, Sigurd T., and Robert, Sig began working summers as a canoe guide in the Quetico-Superior border lakes, now the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area. In 1929, Sigurd and two partners purchased a canoe outfitters in nearby Winton, Minnesota. His teaching position would lead him to be on the faculty of Ely Junior College, and later as the college's dean. During this time Sigurd Olson also began writing, first for outdoor magazines and periodicals, his subjects ranging from canoeing, fishing, camping, and other recreational pursuits, to his greatest topic, the importance of wilderness on our well being. Wilderness would become his life pursuit. Sig became one of the great voices in the movement to protect wilderness areas. Though he wasn't as well known as Aldo Leopold, Sig's voice was able to reach leaders and the everyday outdoorsman. He found his greatest audiences through the books he wrote beginning with The Singing Wilderness in 1956. Sigurd Olson also served as president of the National Parks Association and The Wilderness Society. In the 1960s he was a part of a special advisory committee to Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Interior for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Sigurd Olson's accolades include being the namesake of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, and the recipient of the John Burroughs Medal in 1974 for being recognized as the year's best nature writer. Sigurd F. Olson died on January 13, 1982 from a heart attack while snowshoeing at his cabin, Listening Point. Today, Olson's cabin, Listening Point, is owned by The Listening Point Foundation. Their office is in the Sigurd and Elizabeth Olson residence in Ely. The residence includes Olson's writing shack. The last sentence he typed remains in his typewriter: A New Adventure is coming up/ and I'm sure it will be/ A good one.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Sigurd Olson's books and books about him:The Singing Wilderness (1956)Listening Point (1958)The Lonely Land (1961)Runes of the North (1963)Open Horizons (1969)The Hidden Forest (1969)Wilderness Days (1972)Reflections From the North Country (1976)Of Time and Place (1982)Songs of the North. Howard Frank Mosher, ed. (1987)The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The Early Writings, 1921–1934. Mike Link, ed. (1988)The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The College Years, 1935–1944. Mike Link, ed. (1990)The Meaning of Wilderness: Essential Articles and Speeches. Edited and with an Introduction by David Backes. (2001)To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Hartwick Pines State Park, located near Grayling, Michigan is a special place that preserves one of the few remaining Old Growth White Pine Forests in Michigan. On today's episode, special guest Hillary Pine joins the podcast to talk about the park and how it was created through the efforts of Karen Hartwick. Hillary is the Northern Lower Peninsula Historian for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan History Center. In the late 19th century the area that is now Hartwick Pines State Park was logged by the Salling, Hanson, and Company of Grayling. In 1893, in the midst of cutting a large tract of pine, the loggers stopped where they were due to the Panic of 1893, a now little known economic depression of the time period. Home construction was stopped dead in its tracks, so the lumber industry was stalled as well. The Salling, Hanson, and Company (SHCo.) left a stand of approximately 85 acres of pine. When they resumed logging the area about three years later, they deemed this tract of pine to be too small in size to warrant the expense of operating a camp and the logging railroad maintenance to finish the cut. Instead they turned their attention to a nearby 8,000 acre tract of pine. The SHCo. never cut this remaining stand and it became a local landmark for area residents to drive a wagon or later automobiles out to the pines to picnic. Rasmus Hanson, the president of the SHCo. unsuccessfully tried to sell the stand to the state of Michigan to create a state park, but this was a time when the state was gaining land at no cost through tax reversion. Karen Hartwick, the daughter of Nels Michelson, a former partner in the SHCo. was persuaded to step in to purchase the land and donate it to the state to create a state park in the memory of her late husband, Grayling native Major Edward E. Hartwick, who died serving his country in World War I.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode ResourcesMiller, Gordon K. "A Biographical Sketch of Major Edward E. Hartwick, Together with a Compilation of Major Hartwick's Letters and Diaries Written During the Spanish-American and World Wars." Detroit, MI, 1921 (Heritage Books reprint).Pine, Hillary. "Hartwick Pines, A Story of Love,"  "Michigan History magazine." Vol. 102, No. 1, January/February 2018.Hartwick Pines Logging Museum website, Michigan History Centerhttps://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hpHartwick Pines State Park website, Michigan DNR, Parks and Recreation Divisionhttps://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/parks/hartwickTo leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this episode, we head north to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and discover "the Kingston Plains." This is an area of cutover and burned over land, known as stumpfields because the most predominant feature on the landscape is the vast amount of fire-scarred tree stumps. Typically during logging operations there would be a lot of "slash" left after the big (and sometimes not so big) trees were harvested. This would consist of the branches and limbs from the trees that had been removed from the trunks, trees of lesser or no value that needed to be removed for clear landings for the big pines, and anything that stood in the way for moving the logs out of the forest. These piles of forest litter would just sit in the cutover areas and dry out from the sun. They were susceptible to fires from a variety of means: lightning, sparks from trains, being intentionally burned to clear the land or carelessness with a match or a pipe of tobacco. In places with excessive amounts of slash, these fires would burn quick and hot. The Kingston Plains was one such place where this happened. Not once, but several times. In the case of the Kingston Plains, these fires burned so hot that seeds from the logged trees were destroyed and the nutrients that fertilized the soils were baked away. The results was a landscape that resembled a moonscape.This episode brings you to the site of the Kingston Plains in Alger county and reveals some of the background of the lumber operations that utilized this land. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).How to Visit the Kingston Plains:The Kingston Plains is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Lake Superior State Forest. It is located along the Kingston Truck Trail and the Adams Truck Trail in Alger county, south of County Road H58 and west of Michigan route M77. It is south of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The two main roads through the area are seasonal roads but are okay for most cars to follow. There are numerous two-tracks that branch off of the main roads that are not recommended for two-wheel drive or low clearance vehicles. There are a few state forest campgrounds in the area and there are two national park campgrounds in the nearby Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but the closest lodging is at the two ends of Pictured Rocks at nearby Grand Marais, and further west at Munising. Other visitor amenities are lacking nearby. There are no restroom or water facilities at the Kingston Plains, so please plan accordingly. Episode Sources:Botti, William B. and Michael D. Moore. "Michigan's State Forests: A Century of Stewardship." East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University Press. 2006.Burg, Rob. "Fire Follows the Axe: Climate Change and the Lumber Industry in the Upper Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th  centuries." Unpublished manuscript. Presented at the 2023 ALHFAM Conference, Sauder Village, Archbold, OH. 2023.Crowe, William S. (and edited by Lynn McGlothlin Emerick and Ann McGlothlin Weller) "Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan." Skandia, MI, North Country Publishing, Third edition, 2002.Dickmann, Donald I. and Larry A. Leefers. "The Forests of Michigan." Ann Arbor, MI, The University of Michigan Press, 2003.Fuller, George N. "Governors of the Territory and State of Michigan." Lansing, MI, Michigan Historical Commission, Bulletin No. 16, 1928.Murphy, Donovan. "On the Altar of Industry: A History of the Kingston Plains."  "Up Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region." Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI. Vol. 10, article 2. September 9, 2022. https://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=upper_countrySodders, Betty. "Michigan on Fire." Thunder Bay Press, 1997.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Near the end of the logging era, there was a realization that our forests were not the inexhaustible resource that was once thought. Throughout the United States there was an effort to reforest the cutover lands and develop a new system of modern forestry. In Michigan this began to happen in the Grayling-Higgins Lake-Roscommon area of the northern Lower Peninsula.In this episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast I go on location to the Historic Higgins Lake Nursery and the Beal Plantation where some of the early efforts of Michigan's reforestation movement began. I recorded these remotes in May 2024 during a vacation that took me from Higgins Lake to the central Upper Peninsula.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/For more information about the sites visited, please check out these links:North Higgins Lake State Park:https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/parksandtrails/Details.aspx?id=478&type=SPRKHiggins Lake Nursery and CCC Museum:https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hln-cccBeal Plantation:https://graylingmichigan.org/listing/w-j-beal-tree-planting-area/46/Episode Sources:Botti, William and Michael D. Moore. "Michigan's State Forests: A Century of Stewardship." East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University Press, 2006.Dempsey, Dave. "Ruin & Recovery: Michigan's Rise as a Conservation Leader." Ann Arbor, MI,  The University of Michigan Press, 2001.Dickmann, Donald I. and Larry A. Leefers. "The Forests of Michigan." Ann Arbor, MI, The University of Michigan Press, 2003.Hotchkiss, George W. "History of the Lumber and Forestry Industry of the Northwest." Chicago, IL, 1898.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

This episode is a continuation of the previous episode "Winter Logging." After the logs were cut in the winter they were moved to the banking grounds to await the Spring breakup of ice on the rivers to move the logs by water to the sawmills at the mouths of the rivers on the Great Lakes. River drives were the most dangerous aspect of the logging industry. It took a steady and skillful man to be able to handle logs on a river drive as they were shepherded to the sawmills. Injury and death could be encountered by the careless or just unlucky river driver. For this reason, only the best hands were hired to move the logs. They had to be agile on their feet and be skilled to handle the tools of the trade such as the pike poles and Peavey poles.  At the end of the drives in milltowns such as Alpena, AuSable and Oscoda, Bay City, Manistee, Manistique, Menominee, Muskegon, Oscoda, and Saginaw, the men were rewarded with their pay, alcohol, female companionship, and entertainment of all kinds. These men would walk tall as the greatest figures in the lumber industry.However there was a great environmental impact of the river drives on the rivers of the Great Lakes, some that we are still feeling today. The landscapes of the rivers changed by the impact of logs being dumped into the river. The rivers themselves changed, making them less suitable for aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, and it has taken a century, or more, for these rivers to recover. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Correction in Podcast: I kept mentioning Front Street in Bay City. It is actually Water Street that I was referring to.Episode Sources:Alexander, Jeff. "The Muskegon: The Majesty and Tragedy of Michigan's Rarest River." Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI, 2006.Allen, Clifford (editor). "Michigan Log Marks." WPA Writers' Project, Michigan State College, East Lansing, MI, 1941.Benson, Barbara E. "Logs and Lumber: The Development of Lumbering in Michigan's Lower Peninsula 1837-1870." Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 1989.Crowe, William S., and Lynn McGlothlin Emerick and Ann McGlothlin Weller (editors). "Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan." North Country Publishing, Skandia, MI, 2002.Foehl, Harold M. and Irene M. Hargreaves. "The Story of Logging the White Pine in the Saginaw Valley." Red Keg Press, Bay City, MI, 1964.Halsey, John R., Eric A. McDonald, and Rose Lockwood Moore. "The East Branch Big Creek Logging Dam and Sluiceway (20OD25), Oscoda County, Michigan."  "The Michigan Archaeologist." Michigan Archaeological Society, Grand Rapids, MI, Vol. 43, Nos. 2-3, 1997.Kilar, Jeremy W. "Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay CIty, and Muskegon, 1870-1905." Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, 1990.Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era 1840-1900." Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.Miller, Hazen L. "The Old Au Sable." William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1963.Nolan, Herbert. "Logging the Tittabawassee: In Memory of Camp Sixteeners." Printer Devil's Press, Tawas City, MI, 1970.Rector, William Gerald. "Log Transportation in the Lake States Lumber Industry, 1840-1918." The Arthur H. Clarke Company, Glendale, CA, 1953. To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Prior to mechanized transportation, logging and winter were synonymous. The only way to move logs upwards of 5-6 miles was on ice and snow. In the white pine region, this made winter the ideal season to be logging in the forests. Large log sleds were pulled by a team of two horses, or oxen in some locations, over roads that had been iced and carefully groomed over time to support the heavy loads. They were taken most commonly to a banking grounds along a river to wait for the Spring thaw and the opening of the rivers to transport the logs to the sawmills. In this episode, listeners will learn about the grooming of the roads and the uses of horses and sleds to move the logs, and how the "shantyboys" (the loggers' term for themselves) lived and worked in the forests during the coldest months of the year.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Sources:Benson, Barbara E. "Logs and Lumber: The Development of Lumbering in Michigan's Lower Peninsula 1837-1870." Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 1989.Ellis, Charles. "Among the Michigan Pines," "The Current." Chicago, Volume III, 1885.Fitzmaurice, John W. "The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp." Democrat Steam Print, Cheboygan, MI, 1889.Heilala, John J. "In an Upper Michigan Lumber Camp."  "Michigan History" Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, Vol. 36, No. 1, March 1952.Holbrook, Stewart H. "Holy Old Mackinaw, A Natural History of the American Lumberjack." The MacMillan Company, New York, 1938.Karamanski, Theodore J. "Deep Woods Frontier: A History of Logging in Northern Michigan." Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, 1989.Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era 1840-1900. Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.Nelligan, John Emmett. "A White Pine Empire, the Life of a Lumberman." North Star Press, St. Cloud, MN, 1969 edition (originally published in 1929).Sorden, L.G. "Lumberjack Lingo." Wisconsin House, Spring Green, WI, 1969.Wells, Robert W. "Daylight in the Swamp!" Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, 1978.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

"The lumber industry was to Michigan in the 19th century as what the automotive industry was to Michigan in the 20th century."* It was what most people outside of Michigan thought of when they thought of Michigan. And it was the period between the Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century that made Michigan the leader in lumber production.At the end of the U.S. Civil War the Michigan lumber industry resumed at a great pace. This was due in part with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad across the Great Plains and the Homestead Act that allowed people to stake a claim for land and develop it as a homestead or farm for free. These led to a mass immigration west and the need for more Great Lakes lumber. This episodes traces how the lumber industry was affected by this greater need and how innovation in transportation and cutting technology, both in the forest and in the sawmills, led to Michigan being a leader in the national lumber industry for nearly thirty years. This fueled Michigan's economy and set up the state for economic and industrial success in the 20th century.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/*A phrase that I coined and have been using since 1998 when I began my career in forest history at the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum, a Michigan History Museum field-site. Episode SourcesAllen, Clifford (editor). "Michigan Log Marks." WPA Writers' Program, Michigan State College, East Lansing, MI, 1941.Hotchkiss, George W. "History of the Lumber and Forestry Industry of the Northwest," Chicago, IL, 1898.Huckle, Earl and Keith H. Johnson. "Cadillac's Shay Locomotive, Titan of the Timber." Save Our Shay Historical Preservation Project, Cadillac, MI, 1984.Hunt, Freeman. "Internal Commerce of the West: Its Condition and Wants, as Illustrated by the Commerce of Michigan, Present and Prospective." "Hunt's Merchant Magazine and Commercial Review." New York, Volume Nineteen, 1848.Kilar, Jeremy. "Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870-1905." Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1990.Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era, 1840-1900." Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

Lumber has been an important part of Michigan since the earliest European settlements in the 1600s. With the founding of Detroit in 1701 by French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, there would be a continuous need for the harvesting of white pine and other trees near settled areas. Jumping ahead a century to the creation of the Michigan Territory and the fire that destroyed Detroit the same year, lumber became an even more necessary industry. Surveys of Michigan Territory and after 1837, the State of Michigan, uncovered the true amount of forests that were contained in our state's boundaries, especially those of the pine forests. With the movement of the American population further west to the new Midwest (formerly the "Old Northwest"), including Michigan and the growing city of Chicago, Illinois, there was an even greater need for logging.This growth of population coinciding with the Michigan land surveys, the development of more efficient technology in both the forest and the saw mills allowed Michigan to become a leader in the lumber industry shortly after the end of the American Civil War. You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Resources:Ambrose, Stephen E. "Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869." Simon and Schuester, New York, 2000.Dunbar, Willis and George S. May. "Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State." William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1965 (revised edition 1980).Hunt, Freeman. "Internal Commerce of the West: Its Conditions and Wants, as Illustrated by the Commerce of Michigan, Present and Prospective." "Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review," New York, Volume Nineteen, 1848.Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era 1840-1900. Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, Michigan, 1960.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this episode, listeners are introduced to the Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus). This tree, once rising upwards of 200 feet or more towered over the forests of eastern North America with trunks of six feet diameter. The European settlers to these shores found this tree to have an excellent quality of lumber that was both lightweight to work with and was buoyant to be moved by water from forest to sawmill. Not only was the white pine a valuable economic product for the residents of the New England colonies, but was also valued greatly by the British Empire's Royal Navy for ships masts. In Maine and New Hampshire, the British government restricted use of white pines larger than 24 inches in diameter for use solely by the Royal Navy. This led to protests and riots that helped spur on the American Revolution.In the 19th century the large amount of white pine found in the Great Lakes Region would contribute to the growth of the Midwest and create economic wealth and industry in the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In Michigan alone, the white pine was valued greater than the gold in California by a two to one margin, thus being nicknamed Michigan's "Green Gold." Besides the lumber industry, the Eastern White Pine has long been sacred to various indigenous people of eastern North America, has been home to wildlife that were important for the fur trade, and has figured prominently in the topics of environmental history with wildfires, reforestation, and climate change. All of these topics and more will be covered in future episodes of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast.You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/Episode Sources:Ellis, Charles, "Among the Michigan Pines."  The Current. Chicago, 1885, Vol. IIIHotchkiss, "History of the Lumber and Forestry Industry of the Northwest." Chicago, 1898.Hunt, Freeman. "Internal Commerce of the West: Its Condition and Wants, as Illustrated by the Commerce of Michigan, Present and Prospective." Hunt's Merchant's Magazine and Commercial Review. New York, 1848, Volume Nineteen.Vietze, Andrew. "White Pine: American History and the Tree that Made a Nation." Globe Pequot, Guilford, Connecticut, 2018.To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show

In this premier episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, you will meet me, environmental historian Rob Burg, learn of my love of the forests of the Great Lakes region, and why I think there are important stories to be told about these forests. The forests were home to numerous nations of indigenous North American people for centuries. It was the forests that held the wealth of furs that brought European trappers and traders to the Great Lakes in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. The lumber industry made a giant impact on the Great Lakes forests in the 19th century and this great industry supplied the necessary materials to build a nation. This brought great wealth to the lumber districts in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin in the United States, and also to Ontario, Canada. However with this wealth also came environmental devastation that the region is still recovering from, more than a century later. Following the lumber era, reforestation and conservation have taken root, and this has led to an abundance of forest recreation.  You can support the podcast by clicking on the "Support" button on the right (Desktop version) or the $ symbol at the top (Mobile version).https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/To leave a comment, send me a text here.Support the show