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
David Ward's Timber Cruising Adventure
In the early Spring of 1854, 31 year-old David Ward, not yet known as "the Pine King" sought one of the state's greatest stands of "cork pine" (the highest grade of the Eastern White Pine) west of Otsego and Bradford lakes in Otsego County. This would be a race with the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company's timber cruiser, Addison Brewer for the same stand of pine.
With the backing of Detroit lumbermen and bankers Dwight, Smith, and Co. and William A. Howard, David Ward and his assistant, John Baily, and their packers would experience the extreme changes in Michigan's late winter and early spring weather from three and a half feet of snow, frozen rivers, and -30 degree Fahrenheit temperatures to south winds and fast warm-ups that melted most of the snow in a single day.
The competition with the "Soo Canal Company" men continued south to Detroit then northwest to the United States Land Office in Ionia, west of Lansing.
The outcome of this is that David Ward would purchase 16,000 acres of prime "cork pine" at a cost of $20,000. At the time of the purchase, this great pinery was located far from the lumber markets with no easy way to move the lumber and it was considered to be "Ward's folly." By the end of the Nineteenth century, a major north-south rail line would run through the heart of Ward's holdings, and much of the timber would already be harvested, though a little of this holding would be part of the Deward Estate that would be logged the following decade during the existence of Deward.
In this special bonus episode, I read David Ward's own account of this event from The Autobiography of David Ward, published in 1912, after his death.
Episode Resources
Ward, David. "The Autobiography of David Ward." New York, 1912 (Privately Printed).
This book might be found in some libraries. The Devereaux Library in Grayling, Michigan, part of the Crawford County Library System, has a non-circulating copy that is available for patrons to study. Reprints may be available as well, as the book has gone out of copyright and is now in the public domain.
Inflation Calculator, www.in2013dollars.com.
"$20,000 in 1854 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $756,359.52 today, an increase of $736,359.52 over 171 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.15% per year between 1854 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,681.80%"