Railroads and the Lumbering Frontier in Michigan

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The expansion of the lumber frontier in the Great Lakes region was constrained by the ability to move lumber from wilderness to centers of production. Within a brief timespan, from A.D. 1870 to 1900 thousands of miles of rail were laid to access the timber of the northern interior of Michigan. Once the timber was gone the railroads and the places they connected, lumber camps and mill towns, were abandoned and forgotten. While seemingly isolated, lumber camps were interconnected with economic developments throughout the Great Lakes region as outposts producing wealth for speculators living in Detroit, Saginaw, and Chicago. Ironically the nature of their productivity caused their demise as the deforested landscape expanded. Investigation of a lumber camp in Clare County, Michigan provides insights into the organization of late nineteenth century lumbering landscapes and the relationship of camp occupation to the boom-bust cycle of railroads and mills.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 168