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
Karen Hartwick and Hartwick Pines State Park
Hartwick Pines State Park, located near Grayling, Michigan is a special place that preserves one of the few remaining Old Growth White Pine Forests in Michigan. On today's episode, special guest Hillary Pine joins the podcast to talk about the park and how it was created through the efforts of Karen Hartwick. Hillary is the Northern Lower Peninsula Historian for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan History Center.
In the late 19th century the area that is now Hartwick Pines State Park was logged by the Salling, Hanson, and Company of Grayling. In 1893, in the midst of cutting a large tract of pine, the loggers stopped where they were due to the Panic of 1893, a now little known economic depression of the time period. Home construction was stopped dead in its tracks, so the lumber industry was stalled as well. The Salling, Hanson, and Company (SHCo.) left a stand of approximately 85 acres of pine. When they resumed logging the area about three years later, they deemed this tract of pine to be too small in size to warrant the expense of operating a camp and the logging railroad maintenance to finish the cut. Instead they turned their attention to a nearby 8,000 acre tract of pine.
The SHCo. never cut this remaining stand and it became a local landmark for area residents to drive a wagon or later automobiles out to the pines to picnic. Rasmus Hanson, the president of the SHCo. unsuccessfully tried to sell the stand to the state of Michigan to create a state park, but this was a time when the state was gaining land at no cost through tax reversion. Karen Hartwick, the daughter of Nels Michelson, a former partner in the SHCo. was persuaded to step in to purchase the land and donate it to the state to create a state park in the memory of her late husband, Grayling native Major Edward E. Hartwick, who died serving his country in World War I.
Episode Resources
Miller, Gordon K. "A Biographical Sketch of Major Edward E. Hartwick, Together with a Compilation of Major Hartwick's Letters and Diaries Written During the Spanish-American and World Wars." Detroit, MI, 1921 (Heritage Books reprint).
Pine, Hillary. "Hartwick Pines, A Story of Love," "Michigan History magazine." Vol. 102, No. 1, January/February 2018.
Hartwick Pines Logging Museum website, Michigan History Center
https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hp
Hartwick Pines State Park website, Michigan DNR, Parks and Recreation Division
https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/parks/hartwick