Remembering Our Ancestors Through Genealogy

A History of Iron County Michigan by Jack Hill Published in 1955, "A History of Iron County Michgan" gives the history and other interesting facts about this Upper Peninsula county. The book was originally printed in two columns. In order to improve the readability of the pages on a web browser it was converted to single column by combining every two original lines. With this exception the transcription was done without changes or corrections. Chapter 9 - Reforestation And Conservation

40    HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     Chapter IX   REFORESTATION AND CONSERVATION    The science of forest management is a comparatively new one in the United States. It was not until the year 1891, while the pine logging was at its height in Iron County that Congress authorized the establishment of the first Forest Reserves within the public domain. These Reserves consisted of vast tracts of federal lands in western states and had no immediate effect upon the lands of the Upper Peninsula.    They were merely closed areas and were the responsibility of the General Land Office of the Department of the Interior until 1905 when they were transferred to the Department of Agriculture under the newly organized Forest Service. The reserves then became familiarly known as National Forests.    In 1924, Congress broadened the land purchase program to include those chiefly valuable for timber production in all parts of the United States. Under this law and others that provided for acquisi- tion of lands through exchange or donation, the government pro- ceeded to build the present extensive forest-conservation program that reaches into local areas.    During this period in the history of our county, the pine forests had been completely stripped and the virgin stands of hard- wood remaining consisted of isolated tracts of corporate owner- ship and lands inaccessible to profitable removal of timber. Fires raced uncontrolled during the spring and autumn seasons through the accumulated slashings of the lumbermen, destroying wildlife and thwarting the attempts of nature to restock the areas.    The local county and township officers were indifferent toward these fires and the State was slow in recognizing its responsibilities Under the office of State Game and Fish Warden enacted by the Legislature in 1887, game wardens were provided for the counties of   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     41   the state. While these early officials were theoretically respon- sible for general conservation, their offices, in the absence of state laws governing same, proved more honorary than actual.    The first incumbent in the county was the county mine inspector in addition to his duties as a warden. Thus forest fire control was nobody's business for a half century and was confined mainly to the prevention of property loss in the inhabited areas when all available help was impressed into the task.    As the lands were logged and further denuded by fires, the lumbermen lost interest in them and they were permitted to revert to the state as tax delinquent or sold to the Forest Service for a small consideration. By 1928, the government had acquired suffi- cient acreage in the Upper Peninsula to establish the Keweenaw Purchase Unit with a headquarters stationed at Munising.    Three years later, the government began the consolidation of its holding and the Purchase Unit was divided to form the Ottawa, Hiawatha and Marquette National Forests. The Ottawa Forest with which we are mainly concerned here was further divided into six Ranger Districts, the westerly three-eighths of the area of Iron County being set apart to form the Iron River Ranger District with headquarters at Iron River.    The economic depression following 1929 saw the introduction of various relief work projects that advanced reforestation gener- ally. Chief among these was the Civilian Conservation Corps that was inaugurated in 1933 and terminated in 1942. The objective of the C. C. C. program was the employment and training of young men in various kinds of work under organized supervision and during its existence, three 200 man work camps were consecutively in operation in the Iron River Ranger District.    Among the major accomplishments of the camps in this district are the present network of 120 miles of trucktrails that were con- structed for purposes of fire control and forest development and utilization, the installation of five lookout stations and forty miles of telephone lines for communiactions, the plantation of over five and one-half thousand acres of barren lands and thousands of acres of timber-stand improvement in the nature of pruning, thinning, releasing and disease control work of the natural restock areas.    The Civilian Conservation corps acting under the United States Forest Serice initiated the first organized fight against forest fires in this area and it succeeded admirably. With the adandonment of the C. C. C., the Iron River Ranger District has continued to con- solidate its land holdings through purchase and exchange and 1951 reports show 124,198 acres under government ownership.    The present (1953) ten year timber management program sets the annual sales of forest products at two million board feet of saw logs and ten thousand cords of pulpwood. The revenue derived therefrom is adequate to meet the normal operation expenditures of the district.    Coexistent with the conservation efforts of the U. S. Forest Service following 1932 were those of the State Department of Conservation.    The State now held thousands of acres of tax delinquent lands lying east of the National Forest boundary within the county. The initial objective of the Department was necessarily the control of fires which in addition to laying waste the forested areas, was exceeding- ly detrimental to all form of wildlife as well as fish.    Toward this end, several lookout stations were erected for fire detection and modern fire fighting equipment was provided for the centrally located District headquarters at Crystal Falls. While the department has not had the opportunity or means to develop its holdings to the extent of the United States Forest Service, it nevertheless maintains an efficient forest management and conser- vation program in the county.   42    HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   Due to its relation to forest conservation, it is appropriate at this point to mention Camp Filibert Roth on Golden Lake. This camp was established in 1935 by the University of Michigan as a sum- mer training camp for its students in forestry.    The original ten acre tract donated by Mr. M. J. Fox, head of the Von Platen, Fox Lumber Company of Iron Mountain, embraced one of the last large logging camps of the company in this area. These structures served the initial needs of the student for several years when the construction of additional housing was undertaken. By subsequent purchase of adjoining lands, the University now pos- sesses the entire west shore of the lake.    In our consideration of wildlife, it is interesting to note the changes in our deer hunting laws during the past sixty years. Prior to the year 1895, there was no limit on the take in season and a hunter could kill as many deer as he desired. During that year the first license was issued at a cost of fifty cents and the kill was re- stricted to five deer.    In the year 1897, the license fee was raised to seventy-five cents and in 1901 the kill was reduced to three. In 1905 the season limit was further reduced to two deer and the license fee increased to $1.75. In 1915 the kill was dropped to one deer and with the crea- tion of the Department of Conservation in 1921. This was changed to the one buck law which has remained to this time.