North Country History with Rob Burg
Your podcast on the Forest History of the Great Lakes Region. The forests of the Great Lakes have been home to people for centuries and have provided great resources and wealth, shelter, food, and recreation for many. But in the wake of these uses, the region has been environmentally damaged from deforestation, fire, and erosion, and are still recovering to this day. I will be your guide for exploring the forests and sharing stories of the forests and the people who have called them home.
About Rob Burg: Hi! I'm an environmental historian specializing on the forest history of the Great Lakes Region. I am a mostly lifelong Michigan resident and studied at Eastern Michigan University for both my undergraduate degree in History and graduate studies in Historic Preservation. My 35-year professional life has mostly been in history museums, including the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the Michigan History Museum, and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. I began my environmental history career with managing both the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum and the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum for the Michigan History Museum system, directing the Lovells Museum of Trout Fishing History, archivist for the Devereaux Memorial Library in Grayling, Michigan, and as the Interpretive Resources Coordinator for the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska. I am proud that the first person to ever call me an environmental historian was none other than Dr. William Cronon, the dean of American Environmental History.
North Country History with Rob Burg
Michigan's Lumber Boom
"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
*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 Sources
Allen, 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.