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
The Kingston Plains
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.
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_country
Sodders, Betty. "Michigan on Fire." Thunder Bay Press, 1997.
Symon, Charles A. "We Can Do