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.
Episodes
41 episodes
What is the Future of the U.S. Forest Service and our National Forests? A Commentary
News this week out of the Trump Administration in Washington is that there are plans to relocate the headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with this there are plans to downsize the staffing...
Susan Johnston/Ozhaawashkodwekwe: An Indigenous Woman in the North Country
In honor of Women's History Month, this week's guest Emily Macgillivray (The Outdoors Historian) joins the podcast to share the story of Ozhaawashkodwekwe, also known as Susan Johnston, an Ojibwe woman born in the Chequamegon Bay region o...
The Saginaw Forest: The University of Michigan's First Educational Forest
When the University of Michigan's School of Forestry was created in 1903, it was understood that an experimental forest was needed where forestry students could learn their trade. Saginaw, Michigan lumberman and University of Michigan Regent Ar...
The Big Wild--Michigan's Pigeon River Country State Forest, Part 2: Jimmy Carter and Recreation in the Forest
Sportsmen and sportswomen have come to the Pigeon River Country for more than a century to recreate in the forest. Hunting and fishing have been the primary choices for outdoor recreation for many, but the state forest is also a prime spot for ...
Gooseberry Falls State Park-The CCC along Minnesota's North Shore
Among the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota in the 1930s was the development of Gooseberry Falls State Park, one of Minnesota's most popular state parks along the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1934 the CCC arrived to build...
The Big Wild-Michigan's Pigeon River Country State Forest, Part 1: Ernest Hemingway & P.S. Lovejoy
Conservationist and Forest Advocate P.S. Lovejoy called the Pigeon River Forest "The Big Wild." It is one of the largest contiguous forest lands in Michigan at now over 118,000 acres. Like much of the forests of the Great Lakes, it has had its ...
Frank W. May-From Slavery to Lumberman
In honor of Black History Month, I want to introduce a unique story in Michigan History to my listeners, the story of Frank W. May, a man who was born into enslavement in Kentucky prior to the American Civil War, and after emancipation raised h...
Christmas in a Logging Camp
In this special episode that both celebrates the one year anniversay of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast and celbrates the Christmas Holiday season, I share 19th Century writer John W. Fitzmaurice recounting of the celebration of...
A North Country Veteran: Dud Foster's D-Day Experience
In this bonus episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast, I am presenting the story of my late uncle, Dudley Foster and his experiences as a sailor in the U.S. Navy at the Invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. Dud and ...
The Origin of the Lumberjack Breakfast
In 2014-2015 long before I became a podcaster I briefly had a blog called "A Taste of the North Country." In it I explored the food found in the North, both historic and contemporary. At the time I was only working as a freelance historical pre...
The Passenger Pigeon
One of the greatest extinction events happened in the forests of the Great Lakes region and Eastern North America: the Passenger Pigeon. Kyle Bagnall, the Park Naturalist for the Mackinac State Historic Parks joins me as my guest to talk about ...
Recounting my 2025 Podcast Tour
From July 31-August 16 I went on my first official North Country History Podcast Tour to the Northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Northern Wisconsin, and Northeastern Minnesota. I visited numerous places, learned a lot ...
The Labor of Logging, Part 3: Saw Mills and Milltowns
Happy Labor Day! To conclude this three part series on the Labor of Logging, we look into the work at the saw mills and in the milltowns. In 1885 it was reported that there were 50,000 men working in the lumber industry in Michigan, with 20,000...
The Labor of Logging, Part 2: River Driving and Boom Companies
In this second part of the Labor of Logging, I look at the labor involved with the Spring River Drives and the use of Boom Companies. The labor was the most important part of the log drives, without the men working the rivers, the logs would ha...
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'...
What the Heck is a Hodag?
Like Paul Bunyan and his companion, Babe the Blue Ox, agropelters, side hill gougers, and squonks, the Hodag was a mythical being found in the forests of the North Country. The Hodag was "discovered" by Eugene Shepard of Rhinelander, Wisconsin ...
The Spirit of the North Country
This episode is an opinion piece on where do you think "Up North" begins. Is it a geographic location or where you start to feel that you are "Up North." I will tell you where I think "Up North" begins in Michigan. I don't have an opinion on Wi...
The Evolution of the Sawmill
The lumber boom of the second half of the 19th Century in the Great Lakes Region was fueld by the demand for more lumber due to the fast growth in the United States after the Civil War. This included the completion of the Transcontinental Railr...
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 increas...
Fire Follows the Axe: Logging, Wildfires and Climate Change
Climate change is not new. The Great Lakes experienced a change to the climate after the 19th century lumber industry resulting in wildfires and other significant events. This episode covers how this happened and how it was able to be reversed ...
Logging in the Northeast, Part 3: Penn's Woods
In this episode I conclude the miniseries on Logging in the Northeast by visiting Pennsylvania and exploring it's lumber history. During the mid-1800s, Pennsylvania led the nation in white pine lumber production until it was eclipsed by Michiga...
Logging in the Northeast, Part 2: The Adirondacks
Part 2 of my "Logging in the Northeast" miniseries has me exploring the forest history of the Adirondack Mountains in New York state.New York's Adirondack Mountains is the largest state park in the United States, protecting 6,000 square ...
Logging in the Northeast, Part 1: Maine-the Birth of an Industry
Long before the lumber industry made it to the Great Lakes region, logging was an important industry along the Atlantic Coast and specifically in the Northeast of what became the United States. The first region to be impacted by this boom was M...
The Civilian Conservation Corps, Part 2: Big Shoulders: The story of CCC Boy Michael Rataj.
On this week's episode of North Country History with Rob Burg, I am joined by Bill Jamerson, an award winning documentary filmmaker turned author and performer, to discuss the life and experiences of CCC Boy Michael Rataj. Mike came from...
The Civilian Conservation Corps, Part 1: The New Deal's Outdoors Restoration Program
Conservation and Reforestation in the North Country was of great importance in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, several states had their own programs to bring back forests, and the United States Forest Service was created to replant fore...