Michigan’s State Tree

Maine is nicknamed the Pine Tree State. But after Maine’s forests had been largely logged, the nation’s lumberjacks moved on to a new frontier farther west.

The biggest and most valuable tree in eastern North America in the nineteenth century was the eastern white pine, which Michigan adopted as its state tree in 1955. Early explorers found vast forests in the northern Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as neighboring Ontario (which also adopted the white pine).

The first explorers in the region were generally searching for furs. But they also found a seemingly inexhaustible supply of building material for those who followed.

As the Midwest evolved into an agricultural paradise, the demand for timber skyrocketed. For about a quarter of a century, Michigan led the nation in timber production.

Paul Bunyan

It was a heady era of hard work, fabulous wealth, growing industrial might, and even greater dreams. Out of North Woods lumber camps stepped Paul Bunyan, a giant woodsman whose closest companion was an ox named Blue Babe. What Pecos Bill was to Texas cowboys, Paul Bunyan was to Great Lakes lumberjacks. While Pecos Bill herded Texas longhorns, Paul Bunyan felled giant white pines.

It was an era that sorely needed Smokey Bear, as well. Unrestricted logging led to epic forest fires that destroyed forests and homes and took many people’s lives.

About 1900, Michigan lost its status as the number one timber producing state. But its forests remain commercially valuable, even if much of their romance lies in the past.

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