The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-03-03
TIMBER IN THE u. p.
Some Facts Regarding Timber
Furnished by Hon. o. w.
Robinson.

| Robinson.
The following from the pen OF
Lieut.. Gov. o. w. Robinson, OF
Chassell, is taken from the Milwau-
kee Journal of recent date:
"Of pine timber there is but a
limited amount standing in the up
per peninsula, which is mostly in the
counties Of Chippewa, Luce, Alger
and Schooleraft, with still a small
amount left upon the headwaters of
the Menominee.
"Pine tributary to the Sturgeon
river, Ontonagon river and Kewee-
nav bay having been nearly ex-
hausted, the lum mbermen of these re-
gions are turning their attention
! more to hemlock and hardwood as
the future supply to their mills. The
amount Of hemlock tributary to the
Ontenagon and Sturgeon rivers and
Keweenaw bay is largely in excess
of the pine that originally stood on
the same tract of land. Tributary
to the Sturgeon river as an outlet,
there is standing today at least
400, ,000,G 600 of good hemlock, and
equally as much more along the
shores of Keweenaw and Huron bays.
IA stretch of country running
back from Chassell in a southwest
erly direstion to near Greenland, in
Ontonagon county, a distance of
fifty miles by fifteen miles wide, is
almost an unbroken hemlock forest,
a portion of which is tributary to
the Sturgeon river, the balance
tributary to the railroads traversing
that country.
North and east of L Anse, stretch
ing through to Arvou, in Baraga
county, is another large tract of
hemlock, which has been encroached
upon but very slightly. Other sec
tions of the country, with which the
writer is not familiar, contains large
tracts Of standing hemlock.
There is also more or less cedar
throughout the forests of the whole
| upper peninsula. In the more
southerly counties, the cedar has
been very largely cut, but in the
more northern and western
counties the cedar in the
swamps is still standing. OF the
hardwood forests, they are general
ly found along the mineral ranges.
Along the line of the recently
constructed Copper Range railroad,
from Houghton to Mass City, in
Ontonagon county, a distance Of
forty miles or more, there exists u
stretch of almost solid maple forests
varying from six to eight miles
along the mineral range. The same
can be said of other sections of the
country along the iron range farther
south. 1t is difficult to estimate the
amount of merchantable lumber con-
tanned in our hardwood forests, but
its value, if properly handled and
not allowed to become the prey to
forest fires, would reach into the
millions of dollars.
Scattered throughout nearly all
the forests of the upper peninsula
there exists a greater or less guam
tity of the finest quality of yellow
land black birch to be obtained in
the northwest. This timber is very
valuable, but owing to its great
weight it cannot be i1oated down
our streams, therefore, it is very. diff
fcult to get It into the market until
such time as we shall have better
railroad facilities for transporting
it to the mills.
up to the present time there has
been very little attention paid to the
manufacture of hardwood lumber,
but as the limited supply of pine is
exhausted, our mills throughout the
upper peninsula will turn their at
tention, not alone TO the manufac-
ture of bemlock and hardwood lum-
Der, but also TO the manufacture of
hardwood products, such as today
are being manufactured in other
sections OF the country where their
hard wood forests are becoming de-
pleted. y
HOmesteaders