Lumbering Through Time

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Lumbering Camp Manistee River

Michigan's Upper Peninsula holds a special place in the imaginations of many from the Midwest. The dense forests, expansive lakeshores, long rivers, and untouched spaces illustrate what the landscape of the Great Lakes region looked like before industry, before colonization. Covered today in national forests and state parks, abandoned lumber camps lay hidden within districts of forest. The logging industry is a story of the relationship between individuals, industry, and the environment (Karamanski, Deep Woods Frontier, 15). Today, the Michigan lumber industry has some of the best red oak and maple timber in the world; there are more than 150 registered foresters and 800 logging and trucking firms (MI DNR). Logging serves as a year-round industry of high-paid jobs, especially in rural communities. Making up 47% of the manufactured raw materials in the U.S., wood products and the logging industry are very important to the economy.

The lumbering history of the U.S. spans from the arrival of European settlers, colonization, through to the 21st century. The Midwest and the Great Lakes region supplied ample virgin timber in the early periods of contact. With dense forests and tributary waterways through forests, the region was well-suited to the lumbering industry. By 1880, the Midwest and Great Lakes area dominated the lumber industry; Michigan produced more timber than any other state in the region. The flourishing industry in Michigan during the 19th century was a product of geography. Waterway networks were crucial to the transportation of the logs. North of an imaginary species line between Muskegon and Saginaw dense forests grew white, jack, and Norway pines and other conifers over 200 ft tall. 

Alexis de Tocqueville remarked on the density of the forests on his journey to Saginaw. On his journey up the Flint River, he recalled, "The valley seemed to form a vast arena, enclosed on all sides by a black curtain of foliage. A few rays of moonlight illuminated the center of this arena, casting a thousand fantastic shadows, which played in silence over the fallen trees."

His journey to Saginaw in the early 19th century illustrated the dense forests and waterways. Describing the trees around him, he said: "Through a rather sparse patch of woods it was possible to see a fairly considerable distance, and what we glimpsed ahead was a cluster of tall trees, nearly all pines and oaks, shooting skyward. Confined to a fairly limited area and almost entirely deprived of sunlight, these trees had taken the shortest path to air and light. They rose as straight as a ship’s mast, high above the surrounding vegetation, and not until they reached a substantial height did they serenely extend their branches and bask in the shade of their own foliage."

Following the Flint and Cass Rivers to Saginaw with their Native guides, Gustave Beaumont and Tocqueville found Saginaw. He later wrote that "the rumble of civilization and industry will disrupt the silence of the Saginaw" and "the whisper of its waters will no longer be heard echoeing in the woods." The American felling of the forests was brutal and quick—Michigan's forests were almost desolate in 20 years, replacing the stillness and quiet with the noisy industry. 

The logging era is perhaps one of the most famous eras of growth in U.S. commercial history. Between 1840 and 1900, the logging industry reached its peak, and most of the Michigan forests were cut down for farms and to produce lumber for ships, mines, and building projects. The earliest lumbering was conducted by the French and British for the purpose of building forts and trading posts. Forests became one of Michigan's most sought after commodities. Michigan, as such, became synonymous with white pine lumbering, which was both a lucrative and dangerous business. Around 1855, white pine became the most desired species of lumber for trade—the extensive forests and navigable waterways in Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas made for a flourishing industry until 1900. 

There were two phases of the logging industry in Michigan: river logging and railroad logging. In the former phase, rivers provided the necessary transport for moving logs within easy reach of mills from either main rivers or their tributaries. Early sawmill and lumber centers were situated at the mouths of rivers. The first sawmill was built in 1832 at the mouth of the Menominee River in the Upper Peninsula. Communities like Muskegon (1837), Traverse City (1850), and Cheboygan followed suit. Lumbering operations took shape in Saginaw since six rivers coverged to form the Saginaw River, which empties into the Bay and Lake Huron. In order for the lumber to be transported from the Midwest, it had to be transported from the forests to the ships; lumber was floated to the mills then the market along the Chippewa, Tittabawassee, Cass, Bad, Shiawassee, and Flint Rivers to the Bay.

Most of the cutting was done in the winter when the ice made it easier to move the logs towards the water edge. After the spring melt, the logs were floated down rivers and across lakes to sawmills. The sawn lumber was loaded onto ships and carried to markets. Only when swampy grounds had frozen over could the cutting begin. In order for the rivers to make efficient waterways, the channels had to be cleared of any rocks or trees that might jam or catch the logs—effectively dredging the rivers and destroying native fish habitats. Dams were built to control flood stages and increase the carrying capacity or speed of the rivers. Streams were cleared for "drives," destroying more water habitat, and "rollways" and log slides changed the lanscape of the river banks. Swampers cleared the road to the river, and the riverhogs followed the logs down river to stop river jams. Many of the best lumberjacks could leap from log to log on the river and look for problems.

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Daily Report of Tug River Queen

Cheboygan became a boom town in light of the nation’s insatiable appetite for lumber.  Lumber barons like Thompson Smith and Millard D. Olds made the equivalent of millions of dollars via the woods, shipping their lumber across the Great Lakes and into the country’s growing cities. In 1844, Alexander McLeod built the first sawmill on Main Street, Cheboygan. An abundance of tall and straight pine trees and an easily accessible river made it an ideal location for the lumber trade. Early operations floated logs into Duncan Bay where they could then be shipped around the country, mainly to Chicago. By 1883, Alan Teelander argued that Cheboygan had become established as one of the leading lumber centers of northern Michigan, which is evident in the list of lumber outputs from the sawmills there that year:

  • Thompson Smith: Sawed lumber, 26,000,000; on dock, 10,500,000; lath, 10,000,000.
  • William Smith: Sawed lumber, 7,000,000; lath, 3,000,000.
  • W. & A. McArthur: Sawed lumber, 14,000,000; on dock, 500,000; lath, 2,000,000; pickets, 30,000.
  • Southern Michigan Cedar & Lumber Company: Sawed lumber, 4,000,000; on dock, 1,000,000; shingles, 8,000,000; shingles on dock, 1,000,000.
  • Quay & Son: Sawed shingles, 2,500,000.
  • J. B. McArthur: Sawed lumber, 7,500,000; on dock, 1,000,000.
  • Nelson & Bullen: Sawed lumber, 20,000,000; on dock, 2,000.000; lath, 2,000,000.
  • Young & Co.: Sawed lumber, 2,500,000; on dock, 700,000.
  • Mattoon, Ogden & Co.: Sawed, 3,500,000; on dock, 1,200,000.

One of the premier lumber companies in northern Michigan was Olds Lumber Company. Millard David “M. D.” Olds was born on March 10, 1860 in Hartford, MI. He began his life in the lumber industry in the Shelby stave mill. He then moved to Vanderbilt, MI, where he entered the stave business with a Mr. Hinkley. In 1892, Olds moved to Cheboygan, MI, where he built his own stave mill. The mill burned down five years later. From 1897 to 1904, he bought and sold timber and timberlands. In 1904, Olds purchased the Clark and Nelson Sawmill on the east bank of the Cheboygan River. The Nelson Mill was very successful, employing about 125 men. It closed down around 1916. When the old Nelson Mill was torn down, Olds bought the Cheboygan Lumber Co., which included the McArthur Dock. He renamed the company the Olds Lumber Co. The mill had a capacity of 30 million feet of lumber per year. A shrewd businessman, Olds sold his mill waste to the Cheboygan Paper Co., beginning in 1910, to use as burner fuel. This saved him from hauling the waste away and burning it himself. Olds also had his own car ferry, consisting of two scows, the Schoolcraft and the River Queen. He also hauled bark for the Pfister-Vogel Leather Co. In 1908, the Metz Fire ravaged timberlands from Metz to Cheboygan. Olds then bought Pfister-Vogel’s burnt hemlock timberlands and built his own railroad, the Cheboygan-Presque Isle Line Railroad Co., to quickly remove the timber before it became infested. Olds sold the bark and waste products back to Pfister-Vogel. He made a very large profit on the land, lumber, bark, and waste products ventures. Besides owning vast quantities of timberlands in northern Michigan, Olds also owned some in Oregon. There, he also had his own railroad to facilitate the work. Logging companies also supported the shipping industry. 

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Dennis Matheis, from cover of The Holland Fire of October 8, 1871
by Donald van Reken (ca. 1982)

On Sunday, October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire leveled a broad swath of Wisconsin and Michigan. Cast in the shadow of the Great Fire of Chicago at that same time, the fires at Peshtigo, Holland, Manistee, Port Huron, and beyond swept through the Midwest, devastating and eliminating towns in Wisconsin and in the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. The Peshtigo Fire has largely been forgotten as a result of the notoriety of the Chicago Fire, despite being more deadly. The unnaturally dry conditions in the fall of 1871 created conditions ripe for fires. Historians and meteorologists have pointed to the wind cyclones that formed over the eastern plains as the culprits for spreading the fires. The fires in Michigan devastated 2.5 million acres of forest (an area the size of the state of Connecticut). Between Peshtigo, Michigan, and Chicago, the wildfires of October 1871 killed between 1500 and 2500 people—the deadliest wildfire in recorded human history. Uninterrupted drought had plagued the Midwest in October of 1871, and the logging town of Peshtigo in northeast Wisconsin became a tinderbox waiting to blow. Residents fled into rivers and Lake Michigan to escape the firestorms that engulfed the town and spread into Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Coined as the Great Michigan Fire, that same Sunday, residents in Holland, Michigan, were served the same fate by hurricane-force winds and fires on the coast of Lake Michigan. The winds spread embers across the state and, in just 30 hours, forest fires marched through Grayling, Manistee, Big Rapids, Midland, Bay City, and finally reached Caro, where dry conditions were even worse. Faced with 100-ft flames, residents in the Saginaw Bay area, like those in Peshtigo, rushed into the waters of Lake Huron to escape the blaze. East Shore News (Oceana County), the Escanaba Tribune, and the Sanilac Jeffersonian are among the newspapers that reported on the devastation. The article in the Escanaba Tribune detailed that the “streets were lined with men, women and children fleeing for their lives.” In the same article, Mr. Place (the gentleman sent to the scene) confirmed the decimation of Peshtigo: the “fire came upon them so suddenly that it was not in the reach of mortal power to stay its fury.” The Sanilac Jeffersonian reported on the damages in Port Huron, specifically in Rock Falls, Sand Beach, Elm Creek, Port Hope, and Huron City where residents suffered estimated losses of $10,000 to $100,000. East Shore News described scenes of devastation from Muskegon and Peshtigo, told of how the city of Holland burned, detailed Big Rapids as “entirely destroyed,” reported every house in Birch Creek burned, and lamented that “most horrible scenes took place at Peshtigo.” We should never underestimate the destructive power of forest fires, even in the water-rich Great Lakes region.

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Main Drive Muskegon River, 1887

Logging had disastrous effects on the environment. Lumbering in the soft woods in most sections is now a dead industry. Most pine wood is now completely decimated and companies now focus on hardwood. Machineries and fire have swept away most of the old pine forests of northern Michigan. The industry and dredging practices that accompanied it removed large trees that would normally fall into streams providing both thermal and shelter protection, raising the temperature and pH of the waters, thus slowly killing and degrading the food webs and ecology for fish to survive. The roads created by lumbermen also introduced sediment into the waterways and change natural flow patterns. Areas which have sustained long histories of logging tend to erode more easily and are more susceptible to flooding. The dragging of the logs through the rivers also dug up the river beds, making it very difficult and unsuitable for fish breeding. The development of this industry eventually drew railroad companies into northern Michigan. The railroads eventually took over the transportation of the logs to the sawmills, but not before significant damage had been done to the rivers and streams. 

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