Hartwick Pines State Park

Saturday August 2, 2014
From Cadillac it’s about 70 miles to Hartwick Pines, located off I-75 north of Grayling.  This is lumber country.  White pine was logged from northern Michigan from mid-1800s to early 1900s.  The state park lies on a track of virgin pine bought by Karen Hartwick in 1927 to protect it from being logged, although some of the area was logged.

She donated the land to the state to honor her late husband Edmund, who died in WWI.  In 1934 the Conservation Corps built the logging museum.  What attracted us here is the relatively modern full hookup campground, one of only three FHU CGs in Michigan; and the logging history.  Probably to compare to what we learned in Tillamook, OR last year.

The park is really nice.  Our site was asphalt with a good deal of growth separating us from our neighbors.  After the zoo at Mitchell, it is appreciated.
After getting setup we visited the logging museum and walked a 1 1/2 mile trail through some virgin pine.  A big tree here is a white pine about 2 to 3 feet in diameter.  Unfortunately many of these virgin trees are dying, in distress, or have fallen.  It appeared to us that maple, hemlock, and beech were taking over the area.

 

By comparison, in Tillamook, little of the virgin Douglas Fir trees exist due to logging and forest fires.  Oregon has been reforesting for the last 40 to 50 years, and these trees are in the 2 to 3 ft diameter.  However, a few stumps and snags suggest the virgin trees were 4 ft and up in diameter.

The logging museum did a good job of interpreting the life of a logger in northern Michigan during 1850 and 1915.  Note that the time frame is about 50 years before Oregon’s logging heyday.  There is no doubt this was dangerous work.  Medical help was nonexistent and the winters here are brutal.  They logged year round.

 

Sunday August 3, 2014

Today we started out on a “scenic drive” within the State Park which took us into areas that were logged but also still contained some virgin pine.  Well as you can see in the picture, it was a single lane dirt road.  We were praying not to encounter another vehicle.  The stuff we put the truckie through!

The “road” or more like a trail was not as nifty as we have seen, but guess we have been to too many places.  We did encounter what we think was an old logging camp.  When logging stopped in an area the men gathered their equipment and left.  Sometimes they would dissemble their buildings, but often not.  This one did not stand the test of time very well.

Back on the main road, we drove over to the two small lakes inside the park, Bright and Star.  They are unique in that they are very small and very deep, about 30 feet; and the water is crystal clear.  They were formed by the Wisconsin Glacier and have no feed or drain streams.  The State Park plants trout in these lakes.  From the fishing pier Dan tossed a couple spinner baits; no luck.



Some other pictures follow:

As you know we are attracted to natures details, and love to take pictures of them.

Monday August 4, 2014

One of the reasons for visiting the Hartwick Pines area was to learn more about the Civilian Conservation Corps.  Dan’s father was a member of the CCC in the early thirties, and was assigned to a camp in northern Michigan.  The logging museum was built by CCC, and we learned of a museum in North Higgins Lake State Park that had many photos and records about the CCC, so that was today’s destination.

In the way of background, if not familiar with the CCC, it was part of FDR’s New Deal to get young men to work with the objective of restoring and preserving the US natural resources. It existed between 1933 and 1942.

About 100,000 young men between the ages of 16 and about 25 were employed in northern Michigan for reforestation and improving state parks.  Dan’s father joined to provide necessary income to his family.  The men were allowed to keep about $5 per month while the rest, about $30, was sent home.

 

Unfortunately, we were unable to find any information here about his service, but did find other resources to maybe help in our research.

The CCC museum was interesting, but a big part of the facility was the explanation of what these guys did to get these trees replanted.  We had no idea what was involved.  It is a multistage process to get from pine cones to seedlings and takes months to complete.  The seedlings are 2-3 years old before they can be planted.

 

The cones are roasted, seeds separated, “dewinged”, then planted in beds. They have to be watered and protected from birds and critters.  They are then packaged for shipment and then sent to areas for planting.  White, Red, and Jack Pine, and White Spruce are the primary types of trees.  Today it is the companies’ responsibility to reforest the areas they lumber.

 

Tomorrow we head home.  Stay tuned for our next adventure.  An email will be forthcoming to tell you when and where we’re headed.