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
Railroad Logging
In the post-Civil War era there was great growth in the United States. The Transcontinental railroad was completed linking the Pacific Coast with the East and opening the Great Plains and the West to settlement. Industrialization led to increased wealth and an influx of immigration to the country. All of this meant that cities, towns, and farms all grew. This growth demanded more lumber.
The lumbermen in the Great Lakes had experimented with a number of different ways to move the raw materials of logs to the sawmills in a more efficient way. By the late 1870s the railroads were becoming a better alternative to move logs to the sawmills, and the milled lumber from the sawmills to the consumer. In this episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, we discuss how this new technology was developed for the lumber industry. We learn a bit about lumbermen Winfield Scott Gerrish and Ephraim Shay and how they helped shape the lumber industry of the Great Lakes with their innovations.
If you enjoy this podcast, please visit this link to support the podcast. https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/new
Episode Resources:
Bajema, Carl and Janet Brashler. Blendon Landing: A Middle Nineteenth Century Logging Railroad, Sawmill and Shipyard Village in West Michigan. The Michigan Archaeologist, Vol. 43, Nos. 2-3, June-September 1997.
Huckle, Earl and Keith H. Johnson. "Cadillac's Shay Locomotive, Titan of the Timber." Save Our Shay Historical Preservation Project, Cadillac, MI, 1984.
Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era, 1840-1900." Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, MI, 1960.