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 rebirth in the 20th century after the success of the 19th century lumber industry and the subsequent wildfires that followed.

Ernest Hemingway summered with his family in Northern Michigan while he was growing up. Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1898, Young Ernest Hemingway and his family traveled to Petoskey every summer where they had a cottage on nearby Walloon Lake. Ernest loved fishing and his fishing adventures took him as far a field as "the pine barrens" east of Vanderbilt that was the home of the Black, Pigeon, and Sturgeon rivers, along with fishing trips in the Upper Peninsula. The pine barrens were the cutover and burned over land that had once hosted great forests of white pine and hardwood and would soon become the Pigeon River Country State Forest.

Another visitor to the area was P.S. Lovejoy, a forester and conservationist, who would first see the land in 1919. Although it was still recovering from logging, fire, and failed attempts at afgriculture, he saw in his mind "The Big Wild," a roadless area of forests hosting a wide variety of wildife, including the newly reintroduced Rocky Mountain Elk. His idea was for a wildland that contained no conveniences for visitors. It was wilderness in it's truest form. While his idea was not matched by reality, it became the basis for one of Michigan's unique state forest lands. What began as a 6,500 acre forest reserve (like Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake Forest Reserves), grew over the next century to 110,000 acres.

In December, 2025, a new land purchase of the 8,500 acre Black River Ranch grew the forest to now more than 118,000 acres.

This episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast shares some of the history of the creation of this state forest and covers the newest addition to the forest in the 21st century.

Resources used for this episode:

Franz, Dale Clarke. Pigeon River Country. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1985/revised edition 2007.

Heckman, Kerry. Showcasing the DNR: A Landmark Investment in Public Land. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lansing, Michigan. December 10, 2025. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDNR/bulletins/3ff3542

Kates, James. Planning a Wilderness: Regenerating the Great Lakes Cutover Region. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2001.

Websites with Further Information:

Official Michigan Department of Natural Resources website: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/state-forests/prc

Website for the Pigeon River Country Association, the non-profit 501c3 organization that partners with the DNR, and the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center, and educational and visitor center housed in the historic former forest supervisor's home: https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/

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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 himself to the ownership of a sawmill in Detroit and a lumberman owning a modest logging operation in Otsego County in the Northern Lower Peninsula in the 1890s.

In 2017 I had an article about Frank May published in Chronicle, the membership magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan, title "Frank W. May's Spirit of Enterprise." It was based on research that I conducted in 2016 mostly through the Detroit Public Library's Burton Historical Collections. I don't quite remember how I came across Frank May and his connection to the Michigan lumber industry, but I knew that it was a story that needed to be shared with a wider audience. In this episode I am casting that net further and I go back to that article and sharing it with the listeners of the podcast.

The article that I wrote:

Burg, Rob. "Frank W. May's Spirit of Enterprise." Chronicle, Membership Magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan. Vol. 40, No. 2. pp. 20-22. hsmichigan.org

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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 Christmas in a Northern Michigan Logging Camp in 1883. Read from his book "The Shanty Boy.": Or, Life in a Lumber Camp, which recounts his experiences of traveling through the Northwoods and visiting logging camps in the 1880s while working as a hospital agent and drummer. He published his book, using a bit of dramatic liscense, in 1889 and is a good depiction of what the life in the camps was like for the shanty boys.

Source Material

Fitzmaurice, John W. "The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp." Cheboygan, Michigan: The Democrat Steam Print Co. 1889.

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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 his wife Ang, my dad's older sister, retired to their own North Country retreat on the banks of the AuSable River just outside of Grayling, Michigan in the mid-1970s and lived out the remainder of their lives along the river. Dud kept a diary of sorts of his experiences during the Normandy Invasion, and it has been passed down to my cousin Caroline Foster, Dud's granddaughter, who was kind enough to share it with me.

Although this was the only time that Dud was in combat, his World War II service neither began nor ended with the Invasion of Normandy on the shores of France. Before he could be drafted, Dud enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve and until he was called to active service, he and Ang were employed at Henry Ford's Willow Run Bomber Plant, producing the B-24 Heavy Bomber, the first mass produced airplane. When Dud was sent on active duty, Ang and their young son Mike (Micky) returned to their hometown of Chelsea, Michigan (mine as well). I believe this was sometime in 1943 and Dud was assigned to an LST (Landing Ship Tank) and sent to Great Britain to prepare for the opening of a second front in Western Europe to defeat Hitler's Nazi Germany.

After the Invasion, Dud eventually returned to the United States and was transferred to the Pacific Theater where he would begin training for his next assignment, the Invasion of Japan. He was training as a crewman on a Rocket Barge that was a floating artillery battery that was to support the landings on the Japanese home islands. It was while he was in training that the Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan that ended World War II.

In this episode, I read the passages of his diary about D-Day, which gives all of us the perspective of a young sailor in the fight of his life.

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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 presenter and writer, so I was doing as much economizing with food as possible, including foraging wild food (mostly wild berries), and doing my own canning. I was looking at this with the eye of the historical perspective. It also got me to think about some of the food that was historically eaten, such as in the logging camps.

We have all seen the "Lumberjack Breakfast" on menus at diners and greasy spoons throughout the North Country. And even elsewhere where no lumberjack ever roamed. It is a breakfast meal with eveything on your plate. Did you ever think of where the name came from. In this blog post, I talked about the origin of this meal going back to the logging camps. For this bonus episode of the podcast I am sharing that blog post with you.

Can you still find "A Taste of the North Country?" Why yes you can! Although I stopped writing it when my work situation improved in 2015, first working as the winter caretaker at the Wellington Farm U.S.A. historic agricultural museum, where I took care of the livestock for the winter, then I was hired as the museum director for the Lovells Township Historical Society; if you google the title, you will find it. However, as I tried to just bring it up while typing this, it won't connect on my laptop, though I have it on my phone.

Here is the link if you want to try:

atasteofthenorthcountry.wordpress.com

Vinegar Pie Recipe

This is the recipe we used at the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum.

One Pie Shell

1/4 Cup of Butter

1/2 Cup of White Sugar

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar

3 Tbsp of Vinegar*

1/4 Cup of Flour

1 Cup of Water**

Dash of Nutmeg to taste (or can use cinnamon, cloves, or other spice of your choice)

In a large bowl, blen white sugar, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg with fingers until no lumps remain. Stir in vinegar, eggs, butter, and water until well mixed. Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Notes

*Try a variety of vinegars. Distilled white vinegar may give the pie a taste similar to pecan pie filling (minus the pecans); Apple cider vinegar may give the pie an apple taste. Both of these would be historic adaptations.

**The recipe calls for 1 cup of water, but at Hartwick Pines we found that when cooking on coals on a fire, that this makes the pie a little soupy. We have adjusted it to 1/2 cup of water and it is much better.

Episode Sources

Ellis, Charles. Among the Michigan Pines. The Current. Chicago: 1885, Vo. III

Fitzmaurice, John W. The SHanty Boy or Life in a Lumber Camp. Cheboygan, MI: Steam Democrat Press, 1889.

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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 this bird, that was once the most populous bird species on the planet and how it came to being extinct in the early 20th Century.

Kyle, a fellow environmental historian, and I discuss the life and history of the Passenger Pigeon, its impact on the environment, and the impact of human relations with the bird. Through loss of habitat, over hunting, and small birth numbers, the population of these great birds declined dramatically until "Martha," the last Passenger Pigeon died in captivity in 1914.

Kyle is the park naturalist for the Mackinac State Historic Parks, which includes Mackinac Island State Park, Fort Mackinac, Colonial Michilimackinac, and Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park. Kyle has been in this position since 2021. Prior to this, he was the historian for the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, Michigan for 22 years and also at the Whiting Forest, Dow Gardens, also in Midland.

Kyle mentioned two new books available through the Mackinac State Historic Parks:

Wonders of Mackinac: A Natural History of Mackinac Island https://www.mackinacparks.com/books/wonders-of-mackinac-a-natural-history-of-mackinac-island

Arch Rock: Unsurpassed in Nature’s Handiwork. This one is not currently available online, but can be purchased at the Mackinac State Historic Parks.

Episode Resources:

Mershon, William B. The Passenger Pigeon. New York: The Outing Company, 1907. It is available online through Google Books.

Sharkey, Reginald. The Blue Meteor: The Tragic Story of the Passenger Pigeon. Petoskey, MI: Little Traverse Historical Society, 1997.

Other Recommended Sources:

Greenberg, Joel. A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction. New York: Bloomsberg Publishing, 2014. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/feathered-river-across-the-sky-9781620405352

From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. (Documentary Film) You can currently stream it free on The Bryan Museum (Galveston, Texas) YouTube page: https://youtu.be/sjwyO5BGluI?si=GxiBx-wOSZ69K8aG

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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 of new information and met many great people.

In this final episode of the second season of the podcast, I recount my tour, visiting the numerous places that I stopped at. Many of the places that I visited and the information that I learned will be included in Season Three of the podcast, tentatively to be launched in January 2026.

Places that I Visited on the 2025 Podcast Tour

• Frederic Community Library, Frederic Michigan. I presented my "Deward: Michigan's Last Lumber Boomtown" program. https://www.crawfordcolibrary.org/
• Pigeon River Country State Forest https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/state-forests/prc https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/
• Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park https://www.mackinacparks.com/attraction/historic-mill-creek/
• Birch Lodge, Trout Lake, Michigan https://www.birchlodge.com/
• Fiborn Quarry https://mkc.caves.org/preserve_fiborn.html
• Kitch-iti-kipi, "The Big Spring," Palms Book State Park https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/parks/PalmsBook
• Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo, Wisconsin https://peshtigofiremuseum.com/
• Cathedral Pines, Chequamegon-Nicolet, National Forest https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/chequamegon-nicolet/recreation/cathedral-pines
• Lumberjack Steam Train and Camp 5 Museum, Laona, Wisconsin https://www.lumberjacksteamtrain.com/
• Pioneer Park Historical Complex, Rhinelander, Wisconsin https://rhinelanderpphc.com/
• St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin https://www.nps.gov/sacn/index.htm
• Snake River Fur Post, Pine City, Minnesota https://www.mnhs.org/furpost
• Hinckley Fire Museum, Hinckley, Minnesota https://hinckleyfiremuseum.com/
• Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, Mille Lacs, Minnesota https://www.mnhs.org/millelacs
• Forest History Center, Grand Rapids, Minnesota https://www.mnhs.org/foresthistory
• Ely, Minnesota https://www.ely.org/ https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/offices/kawishiwi-ranger-district
• Gooseberry Falls State Park https://www.exploreminnesota.com/profile/gooseberry-falls-state-park/8224
• Drummond Woods, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/regions/eastern/DrummondWoods/index.shtml
• Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, Ashland, Wisconsin https://nglvc.org/
• Ottawa National Forest Visitor Center, Watersmeet, Michigan https://www.fs.usda.gov/r09/ottawa/recreation/ottawa-national-forest-visitor-center

Contact Rob Burg and the North Country History with Rob Burg Podcast: rob.northcountryhistory@gmail.com

Support the podcast: https://northcountryhistorywithrobburg.buzzsprout.com/2422296/supporters/new

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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 employed in saw mills. As I like to say about the lumber industry, it was to Michigan in the 19th century as what the automobile industry was to the state in the 20th century. It was the major industry that drove the state's economy. And it was the individual men that worked in the forests, on the rivers, and in the mills that carried this industry on their backs.

All areas of the lumber industry included dangerous work and the saw mills were no exception. This week I will discuss the working conditions, wages and hours, and the growing labor movement in the saw mills in the 1880s. I then follow this with the labor of various other populations in the milltowns, including African Americans, women, and children.

Episode Sources:

Ellis, Charles. Among the Michigan Pines. Chicago, IL: The Current, Volume III, 1885.

Fitzmaurice, John W. The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp. Cheboygan, MI: Democrat Steam Print, 1889.

Kilar, Jeremy W. Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870-1905. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1990.

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