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 Labor of Logging, Part 1: In an Upper Michigan Lumber Camp
In this first of two parts episodes in honor of Labor Day, we learn about the work that was done in the woods through the memories of John J. Heilala, who was a sixteen year-old boy who went to work in an Upper Peninsula logging camp, Ferguson's Camp 33, in 1904. John Heilala shared these memories 48 years later in an article of the same title in the March 1952 issue of Michigan History magazine.
We hear of some of the work that was done through this first person account. John Heilala went on to a career as a mining engineer and surveyor in the Upper Peninsula. He wrote this account when in his sixties.
I discovered this article about twenty years ago and used it as a teaching tool at the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum for many years. When working with schoolchildren, it was great to find something with experiences from someone close to their own age.
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Episode Resources:
Heilala, John J. In an Upper Michigan Lumber Camp, Michigan History Magazine, Vol. 36, No. 1, March 1952.