Century Lumber Days Sept. 24-26

Hartwick Pines Museum

a news release of Michigan DNR

Step back in time to the 19th-century at Hartwick Pines State Park's Logging Museum Sept. 24-26 and listen to a brass band, smell the aroma of food cooking over an open fire and watch as lumberjack re-enactors prepare for logging season. The annual "19th-Century Lumber Days" offers visitors the chance to experience what life was like at logging camps in the 1890s. The program takes place Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a reopening for a special event from 6:30 to 9 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Dodworth Saxhorn Band is America's premier 19th-century brass band. They have performed at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the White House and many other venues across the United States. The band brings America's past to life through music, song, audience participation, drama, poetry, dance and theatre. They will share their music through informal, strolling performances all weekend and through hour-long concerts on Friday, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 25 at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the Logging Museum.

Food historian Susan Odom will present a selection of the wide variety of food that camp cooks served to the lumberjacks, and will discuss how important that food was to the men and the livelihood of the camp. Odom has demonstrated historic cooking at many historical museums and historic sites throughout the Midwest, including Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Greenfield Village. Cooking demonstrations will be ongoing throughout the weekend.

A Saturday-only special event, "An Evening in the Logging Camp" takes visitors back to 1896 to meet members of the Salling, Hanson and Company's "Section 9 Camp" as they prepare for the winter logging season. Visitors are invited to gather at the Visitor Center and walk by lantern light along the quarter-mile trail to the Logging Museum, where costumed interpreters will portray several members of the camp. Visitors will meet Karen "Bessie" Michelson (later Karen Hartwick), a local boardinghouse owner, the landlooker, the camp clerk, camp cooks, a teamster and the shanty boys. These camp members will talk with visitors about life in the camp, the variety of work that was done and the dangers of the job. This special event takes place Saturday, Sept. 25. Visitor Center doors will open for this event at 6:30 p.m.

Hartwick Pines State Park is located at 4216 Ranger Rd. in Grayling. The Logging Museum is administered by the Michigan Historical Center. This event is free. However, all motor vehicles entering a state park or recreation area must display a 2010 Motor Vehicle Permit, available for purchase at the park entrance or on-line through the Michigan E-Store at www.michigan.gov/estore. Cost is $24 for a resident annual and $6 for a resident daily. A non-resident annual is $29 and a non-resident daily is $8.

See Hartwick Pines Logging Museum
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