Transcript History of Logging in Michigan

Michigan’s Forests
Topic 1104
History of Logging in Michigan
Mr. Christensen
Today’s Objectives
• Identify characteristics of Michigan’s presettlement 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)
Michigan in 1840
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
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
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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
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Choppers
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Skidders
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Logging in Winter
From Michigan History Magazine at: http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
Big Wheels invented by Silas
Silas Overpack
Overpack in 1776
From Michigan History Magazine at: http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From the Mihcigan Forests Forever Teachers Guide website at http://www.dsisd.k12.mi.us/mff/
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Gabriel Horn
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Log Marks 1842
•Log Piracy
•Assist in sorting process
Log Marks
From Michigan History Magazine at:
http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
Boomers
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Log Jam job for the Jam Crackers
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Log Jam on the Grand River in
1883
Jam Crackers would dynamite the log jams to break them up
From Michigan History Magazine at : http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
Narrow Gage Railways
Introduced by Winfield Scott Gerrish in 1776
From Michigan History Magazine at: http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
Sawmill at Menominee (1832)
From Michigan History Magazine at: http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/logging/
From the Mihcigan Forests Forever Teachers Guide website at http://www.dsisd.k12.mi.us/mff/
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
—http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
Michigan 1840
p
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
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
From the Mihcigan Forests Forever Teachers Guide website at http://www.dsisd.k12.mi.us/mff/
From:Michigan EPIC Center for Michigan History Studies
http://michiganepic.org/lumbering/LumberingBriefHistory.html
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 Camps
Planted 500 million trees
Fought Fires
Built 7,000 miles of road
Improved Streams
Stocked Lakes with 150 million fish
Build Seney Wildlife Refuge
State Forest System
Four Million Acres
20% of Michigan’s Forests
2nd largest state forest system
National Forests
2.6 Million Acres
Threats
Intensive browsing of deer
Forest 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