Michigan's Early Lumber Industry

Lumber has been an important part of Michigan since the earliest European settlements in the 1600s. With the founding of Detroit in 1701 by French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, there would be a continuous need for the harvesting of white pine and other trees near settled areas. Jumping ahead a century to the creation of the Michigan Territory and the fire that destroyed Detroit the same year, lumber became an even more necessary industry. Surveys of Michigan Territory and after 1837, the State of Michigan, uncovered the true amount of forests that were contained in our state's boundaries, especially those of the pine forests. With the movement of the American population further west to the new Midwest (formerly the "Old Northwest"), including Michigan and the growing city of Chicago, Illinois, there was an even greater need for logging.

This growth of population coinciding with the Michigan land surveys, the development of more efficient technology in both the forest and the saw mills allowed Michigan to become a leader in the lumber industry shortly after the end of the American Civil War.

Episode Resources:
Ambrose, Stephen E. "Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869." Simon and Schuester, New York, 2000.

Dunbar, Willis and George S. May. "Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State." William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1965 (revised edition 1980).

Hunt, Freeman. "Internal Commerce of the West: Its Conditions and Wants, as Illustrated by the Commerce of Michigan, Present and Prospective." "Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review," New York, Volume Nineteen, 1848.

Maybee, Rolland H. "Michigan's White Pine Era 1840-1900. Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, Michigan, 1960.

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