Michigan’s Forests Topic 1104

Michigan’s ForestsTopic 1104

History of Logging in Michigan

Mr. Christensen

Today’s Objectives

• Identify characteristics of Michigan’s pre-settlement forests

• Identify individuals and events that impacted Michigan’s forests

• Describe Michigan’s Logging era and its aftermath

• Describe Michigan’s forests today, their economic impact, and how they are managed

The Forests of Michigan in 1840

From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html

Michigan’s Logging Era

• 1840’s NewYork’s Forests cannot meet demand

• From 1869 to 1900 Michigan is NO. 1 in logging

• Michigan’s lumber value exceeds the value of the California gold rush by 1 Billion $

• 160 Billion Board Feet (four foot by eight foot stack five times to the moon and back)

From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studieshttp://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html

Michigan in 1840

Michigan Logging

• THE TARGET Cork Pine 300 years old 200 feet tall and 5 to 7 feet in diameter

• Land is $1.25/acre

• 1862--Homestead Act—160 acres

• Surveyors

• Timber Cruisers—look for Pine Groves

Logging Camps

• Two foremen and seventy men

• 20 teams of horses

• 7 yoke of oxen

• Cold Weather Job—ice roads

• 4:00 AM until Dusk

• Choppers/Sawyers/River Hogs/Boomers and Jam Crackers


Shanty Boys


Choppers


Skidders

Logging in Winter

From Michigan History Magazine at: http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/

Big Wheels invented by Silas Overpack in 1776


Silas Overpack

From the Mihcigan Forests Forever Teachers Guide website at http://www.dsisd.k12.mi.us/mff/


Gabriel Horn

Log MarksLog Marks 1842

•Log Piracy

•Assist in sorting process



Boomers


Log Jam job for the Jam Crackers

Log Jam on the Grand River in 1883

Jam Crackers would dynamite the log jams to break them upFrom Michigan History Magazine at : http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/

Narrow Gage Railways


Introduced by Winfield Scott Gerrish in 1776

Sawmill at Menominee (1832)


p


Michigan 1840

Results of Logging

• Lumber Barons—men who made their fortunes in logging

• Stumps were cleared and farming began• Massive fires in the debris and underbrush

in 1871(Manistee/Saginaw 2 million acres), 1881(thumb 280 dead) and 1908 2 million acres

• Erosion

Return of Michigan’s Forests

• Conservation Movement Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and John Muir

• 1895 First State Park (Mackinac Island)

• 1900 First State Forests (Roscommon & Crawford Counties

• Great Depression—Land Abandoned—Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1933

Michigan 50 CampsPlanted 500 million treesFought FiresBuilt 7,000 miles of roadImproved StreamsStocked Lakes with 150 million fishBuild Seney Wildlife Refuge

State Forest SystemFour Million Acres20% of Michigan’s Forests2nd largest state forest system

National Forests2.6 Million Acres

ThreatsIntensive browsing of deerForest ownership/parcelization

Michigan’s Forests Today

• 11.5 Billion Trees, more are added each year, they cover 53% of Michigan

• Trees are smaller, fewer pine, tamarack and hemlock more aspens, red maple and paper birch.

• Tallest tree—white pine 201 feet in (Marquette County) and largest tree Black Willow (Grand Traverse County)

Michigan’s Forest Industry Today

• Forestry is a 12 Billion $ industry plus 3+ billion $ from forest based recreation

• Forest industry provides 200,000 jobs and over 1.3 billion board feet of lumber annually

• Highly mechanized forest harvest and replanting

Michigan’s Forests Topic 1104

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