In this week's episode, we depart a little bit from what we've been talking about and get a little philosophical regarding forests and the wilderness. I want to introduce listeners today to Sigurd F. Olson (1899-1982), one of my personal heroes. Sigurd Olson was an educator, canoe guide, outfitter, writer, and a leading voice in the preservation of wilderness.

Sigurd Olson, the son of Swedish immigrants, his father being a Swedish Baptist minister, was born in Chicago and grew up in small towns in northern Wisconsin. After being educated at Northland College (Ashland, Wisconsin), and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Sig and his wife, Elizabeth, found their way to Ely, Minnesota where he was hired as a high school science teacher. To help make ends meet, as his family grew with the addition of two sons, Sigurd T., and Robert, Sig began working summers as a canoe guide in the Quetico-Superior border lakes, now known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area. In 1929, Sigurd and two partners purchased a canoe outfitters in nearby Winton, Minnesota. His high school teaching position would lead him to be on the faculty of Ely Junior College, and eventually as the college's dean. During this period, Sigurd Olson also began writing, first for outdoor magazines and periodicals, with his subjects ranging from canoeing, fishing, camping, and other recreational pursuits, to his greatest topic, the importance of wilderness on our well being.

This latter subject matter would become his life pursuit. Making Ely his homebase for the remainder of his life, Sig became one of the great voices in the movement to protect wilderness areas. He was not as well known as his contemporary Aldo Leopold; Sig's voice was able to reach both the great leaders and also the everyday outdoorsman. He found his greatest audiences through nine books that he wrote beginning with The Singing Wilderness in 1956. His last book, Of Time and Place, was published posthumously in 1982. Sigurd Olson also served as president of the National Parks Association and The Wilderness Society. In the 1960s he was a part of a special advisory committee to Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Interior for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Sigurd Olson's accolades include being the namesake of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, and the recipient of the John Burroughs Medal in 1974 for being recognized as the year's best nature writer.

Sigurd F. Olson died on January 13, 1982 from a heart attack while snowshoeing at his cabin, Listening Point.

Today, Olson's cabin, Listening Point, the subject of his 1958 book of the same name, is owned by The Listening Point Foundation. Their office is in the former Sigurd and Elizabeth Olson residence in Ely. The residence also includes Olson's writing shack. The last sentence that he typed remains in his typewriter: A New Adventure is coming up/ and I'm sure it will be/ A good one.

All three sites are open for visitors, in season.

Sigurd Olson's books and books about him:

• The Singing Wilderness (1956)
• Listening Point (1958)
• The Lonely Land (1961)
• Runes of the North (1963)
• Open Horizons (1969)
• The Hidden Forest (1969)
• Wilderness Days (1972)
• Reflections From the North Country (1976)
• Of Time and Place (1982)
• Songs of the North. Howard Frank Mosher, ed. (1987)
• The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The Early Writings, 1921–1934. Mike Link, ed. (1988)
• The Collected Works of Sigurd F. Olson: The College Years, 1935–1944. Mike Link, ed. (1990)
• The Meaning

Send us a text

Hartwick Pines State Park, located near Grayling, Michigan is a special place that preserves one of the few remaining Old Growth White Pine Forests in Michigan. On today's episode, special guest Hillary Pine joins the podcast to talk about the park and how it was created through the efforts of Karen Hartwick. Hillary is the Northern Lower Peninsula Historian for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan History Center.

In the late 19th century the area that is now Hartwick Pines State Park was logged by the Salling, Hanson, and Company of Grayling. In 1893, in the midst of cutting a large tract of pine, the loggers stopped where they were due to the Panic of 1893, a now little known economic depression of the time period. Home construction was stopped dead in its tracks, so the lumber industry was stalled as well. The Salling, Hanson, and Company (SHCo.) left a stand of approximately 85 acres of pine. When they resumed logging the area about three years later, they deemed this tract of pine to be too small in size to warrant the expense of operating a camp and the logging railroad maintenance to finish the cut. Instead they turned their attention to a nearby 8,000 acre tract of pine.

The SHCo. never cut this remaining stand and it became a local landmark for area residents to drive a wagon or later automobiles out to the pines to picnic. Rasmus Hanson, the president of the SHCo. unsuccessfully tried to sell the stand to the state of Michigan to create a state park, but this was a time when the state was gaining land at no cost through tax reversion. Karen Hartwick, the daughter of Nels Michelson, a former partner in the SHCo. was persuaded to step in to purchase the land and donate it to the state to create a state park in the memory of her late husband, Grayling native Major Edward E. Hartwick, who died serving his country in World War I.

Episode Resources

Miller, Gordon K. "A Biographical Sketch of Major Edward E. Hartwick, Together with a Compilation of Major Hartwick's Letters and Diaries Written During the Spanish-American and World Wars." Detroit, MI, 1921 (Heritage Books reprint).

Pine, Hillary. "Hartwick Pines, A Story of Love," "Michigan History magazine." Vol. 102, No. 1, January/February 2018.

Hartwick Pines Logging Museum website, Michigan History Center
https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/museums/hp

Hartwick Pines State Park website, Michigan DNR, Parks and Recreation Division
https://www.michigan.gov/recsearch/parks/hartwick

Send us a text

In this episode, we head north to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and discover "the Kingston Plains." This is an area of cutover and burned over land, known as stumpfields because the most predominant feature on the landscape is the vast amount of fire-scarred tree stumps.

Typically during logging operations there would be a lot of "slash" left after the big (and sometimes not so big) trees were harvested. This would consist of the branches and limbs from the trees that had been removed from the trunks, trees of lesser or no value that needed to be removed for clear landings for the big pines, and anything that stood in the way for moving the logs out of the forest. These piles of forest litter would just sit in the cutover areas and dry out from the sun. They were susceptible to fires from a variety of means: lightning, sparks from trains, being intentionally burned to clear the land or carelessness with a match or a pipe of tobacco. In places with excessive amounts of slash, these fires would burn quick and hot. The Kingston Plains was one such place where this happened. Not once, but several times. In the case of the Kingston Plains, these fires burned so hot that seeds from the logged trees were destroyed and the nutrients that fertilized the soils were baked away. The results was a landscape that resembled a moonscape.

This episode brings you to the site of the Kingston Plains in Alger county and reveals some of the background of the lumber operations that utilized this land.

How to Visit the Kingston Plains:
The Kingston Plains is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Lake Superior State Forest. It is located along the Kingston Truck Trail and the Adams Truck Trail in Alger county, south of County Road H58 and west of Michigan route M77. It is south of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The two main roads through the area are seasonal roads but are okay for most cars to follow. There are numerous two-tracks that branch off of the main roads that are not recommended for two-wheel drive or low clearance vehicles. There are a few state forest campgrounds in the area and there are two national park campgrounds in the nearby Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but the closest lodging is at the two ends of Pictured Rocks at nearby Grand Marais, and further west at Munising. Other visitor amenities are lacking nearby. There are no restroom or water facilities at the Kingston Plains, so please plan accordingly.

Episode Sources:

Botti, William B. and Michael D. Moore. "Michigan's State Forests: A Century of Stewardship." East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University Press. 2006.

Burg, Rob. "Fire Follows the Axe: Climate Change and the Lumber Industry in the Upper Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th centuries." Unpublished manuscript. Presented at the 2023 ALHFAM Conference, Sauder Village, Archbold, OH. 2023.

Crowe, William S. (and edited by Lynn McGlothlin Emerick and Ann McGlothlin Weller) "Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan." Skandia, MI, North Country Publishing, Third edition, 2002.

Dickmann, Donald I. and Larry A. Leefers. "The Forests of Michigan." Ann Arbor, MI, The University of Michigan Press, 2003.

Fuller, George N. "Governors of the Territory and State of Michigan." Lansing, MI, Michigan Historical Commission, Bulletin No. 16, 1928.

Murphy, Donovan. "On the Altar of Industry: A History of the Kingston Plains." "Up Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region." Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI. Vol. 10, article 2. September 9, 2022. https://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=upper_country

Sodders, Betty. "Michigan on Fire." Thunder Bay Press, 1997.

Symon, Charles A. "We Can Do

Send us a text