North Country History with Rob Burg

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 Wisconsin or Minnesota, but if you are from these states or vacation in them, then you know. Same if you live in Michigan, my "Up North" is not nece...

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 Railroad and the opening of places like the Great Plains for new settlement. 

To meet this growing demand, new technology was introduced and perfected to aid in the greater harvesting of the forest...

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 increased wealth and an influx of immigration to the country. All of this meant that cities, towns, and farms all grew. This growth demanded more lumber. 

The lumbermen in the Great Lakes had experim...

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 over time.

The 19th century lumber industry in the Great Lakes region was an economic boom that created wealth and encouraged settlement and the development of communities, but left the former...

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 Michigan. 

Pennsylvania's lumber industry was dominated by two major river systems, the Susquehanna River flowing to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Allegheny River that flowed to the Ohio Rive...

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 miles of land. Created in 1892, it is larger than many National Parks. It is a unique public-private partnership where many people live in numerous communities within the park. Where ...

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 Maine. 

Maine, at the time a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later the state of Massachusetts until its own statehood in 1820, was one of the first regions where lumber would be the m...

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 poverty in Detroit and came of age in the wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the CCC changed his life. Both Bill and I knew Mike and heard his numerous stories over the years...

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 forests across the country. These programs did some good, early work, but the most important impact was made in the wake of the Great Depression.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was innaugurated as the...

This episodes marks the beginning of Season 2 of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast. We look at what will be coming up on Season 2 airing from June through August, 2025. But first we recap Season 1 as a refresher and also an introduction for new listeners. 

Season 2 will bring new guests to the podcast, take a look at the origins of the lumber industry in the United States in the Northeastern states of Maine, New York, ...

In 1917 with the United States of America's declaration of war against Germany, a call went out for volunteers to serve in the expanding U.S. Armed Forces. Not only were soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines needed, but so were lumberjacks, foresters, sawmill employees, and others who did work related to the lumber and forestry industries. These men were important support troops that were part of the unsung elements of all ar...

In this bonus episode of the North Country History podcast we commemorate Memorial Day today with Edward Hartwick. Most people know of Edward Hartwick as the man who Hartwick Pines State Park is named for, but what do most people know about Edward Hartwick? 

Edward Hartwick, a native of Grayling, Michigan was an army officer who attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Hartwick graduated from West Point i...

In the early Spring of 1854, 31 year-old David Ward, not yet known as "the Pine King" sought one of the state's greatest stands of "cork pine" (the highest grade of the Eastern White Pine) west of Otsego and Bradford lakes in Otsego County. This would be a race with the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company's timber cruiser, Addison Brewer for the same stand of pine. 

With the backing of Detroit lumb...

In this final episode of the first season of the podcast, I am recording this remotely from the old lumber ghost town of Deward, Michigan. Deward lived as an actual town for just twelve years, 1900-1912, while the David Ward Estate logged off the last great pine lumber holdings of David Ward, Michigan's "Pine King" at the tail end of the white pine lumber boom. 

Deward was located on the banks of the Manistee River ne...

In this week's episode we travel to Hartwick Pines State Park where I visit with my old friend and former coworker Craig Kasmer, the park's interpreter/naturalist to learn about the wildlife that live in the northern forests. 

The Old Growth Forest at Hartwick Pines State Park is a unique area. The large white pines that survived the lumber era is the main attraction, but they are not the only special part of this forest. ...

In this week's episode, we depart a little bit, and get a little philosophical regarding forests and the wilderness. I want to introduce listeners 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 minister,  was born in Chicago an...

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 His...

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 harves...

Near the end of the logging era, there was a realization that our forests were not the inexhaustible resource that was once thought. Throughout the United States there was an effort to reforest the cutover lands and develop a new system of modern forestry. In Michigan this began to happen in the Grayling-Higgins Lake-Roscommon area of the northern Lower Peninsula.

In this episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg ...