BINGO–we hit the jackpot

Wednesday June 4, 2014
Harwick Pines State Park
Grayling, Michigan

 

 

 

At 7:30 we park on the road beside the jack pine forest.

 

 

Those of you who read yesterday’s post know that we had less than ideal conditions for seeing the Kirtland’s warbler and had to do a lot of pretty funny crawling around.  Still, I did manage to get one picture although he turned his back on me.  Guess he wasn’t much interested in being photographed.

Today we’re out to try again. The same group plus 2 new people are just starting out down the trail as we arrive.  It’s a cooler, less windy, blue sky, sunny day.  Perfect for birding.  Everyone has on shoes and long pants and long sleeves.  We head on down the open space between the two jack pine sections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know it’s going to be a great day when right off the bat I hear the familiar song of the Eastern Bluebird.  And there he is singing his little heart out on the power line.   It’s a good omen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good omen is RIGHT!

 

 

Also singing all around us is the Kirtland’s Warbler.   Today we don’t have to crawl around on the ground. 

He’s still hidden sometimes several rows back and you have to have a good eye to see him but we do and nearly everyone gets numerous pictures. 

We are out for nearly 3 hours again just following our singers around and enjoying them.  What a great way to spend a morning.

 

I get some great and not so great pictures.  Here are some of the former and a couple of the latter that I just liked because he was throwing his head back in song.

 

Judy, you really must come over and see him.  You’ll love it.  I thought of you the entire time.  You and Eric too Laurel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spot this in Grayling on the way back to the campground.  Wish it were lit up.  We love neon signs.

 

 

 

 

David loves all things CCC.

 

Therefore, after lunch we do go to see the Logging Museum in the park.

 

 

 

The CCC actually built these buildings at the site of the last logging camp in this area. 

We have seen the bronze statue of the “CCC Boy” at other parks where they have worked around the country.  Although it doesn’t seem that the statue is exactly the same in each place.  It is always a boy with his shirt off and a tool of some sort in his hand.

We learn that in Michigan between 1933 and 1942, the Michigan CCC planted 484 million trees, spent 140,000 days fighting forest fires and constructed 7,000 miles of truck trails, 504 bridges, and 222 buildings.  Their accomplishments also revitalized the Michigan State Park system, helped establish Isle Royale National Park and improved campgrounds in Michigan’s State Forests.  I still do not understand why we cannot pay people without work for these same sorts of efforts today.

 

 

 

The museum, which is very well done,  is in two separate buildings both built by the CCC whose camp was established July 1, 1933.  The first  building held the cooking and dining areas as well as the camp store where they men could buy things and the cost would be deducted from their pay.  Sounds like the mining towns in West Virginia.  “I owe my soul to the company store….”.  Can’t you just hear Tennessee Ernie Ford?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The details presented make these exhibits particularly interesting. 

Anyone ever had a vinegar pie?  Or want to make one?

 

 

I sure wouldn’t want to pay their grocery bill.  Although, look at the camp store prices and what the men were buying.

 

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The second building is the men’s bunk house. 

 

It houses the men’s sleeping quarters, descriptions of the  logging process and many of the hand tools used as well as some old pictures that show the heart breaking size of the trees they so proudly cut down.

 

Does anyone but me still have these old non spring loaded clothes pins?  Or any clothes pins at all?

 

The bottom bunks are open so you can try out the mattresses if you wish.  The top bunks have examples of the possessions of some of the men as indicated in wonderful old photographs.   They show that the men were very different.  They were not all local Michigan boys.  Some Michigan loggers came from eastern states like Maine or New York following the industry west in search of fresh sources of timber.  When they’d logged it all out in one state they moved on to clear cut the next.

Many lumberjacks were recent immigrants.  In early years, Canadian, German and Irish workers dominated the camps.  Around 1890 Scandinavians and Finns joined them in large ranks.  Many of their descendants remain.

 

 

 

They have an old mirror on the wall that the men used to shave.  We take our picture in its reflection.

 

 

 

I play with the model lumber train while David takes pictures of the axes, the saws and the log marks.  

 

I  find the information about life in the camp for the men much more interesting than all the displays of the tools of destruction they used.  So no pictures of those here.  See David’s blog.  HA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am saved by the kids.

Throughout the museum they have hands on areas with instructions for school  kids, or adults, to try out some of the things the logging men did.  In the bunk house, right next to the broom and washboard with suggestions to use them both was a checker set.  We sat down to play and I was just about to get soundly trounced when I was saved by the loud yelling and giggling of an approaching school group tour.   That’s our signal to go outside.

 

 

These are some really BIG tools.

Outside are some of the giant logging tools on display including a steam powered saw mill which is still demonstrated during special week-end festivals in the park.

 

 

As I said, BIG tools.

 

Neither of us can figure out what this one was used for. I am very surprised that there were no signs around any of the equipment to explain what it was used for.  All  of those  little signs say Don’t Climb on the Equipment.  Of course I didn’t see the one in front of this purpose unknown piece.

 

 

 

One last old growth tree stand to visit.

 

 

 

We have a little of the afternoon left so we take a driving tour through the old growth jack pine.   These are trees allowed to reach maturity but are not cut as are the ones being managed for the Kirtland’s Warbler.  They die a natural death as they would in an unmanaged forest.

 

 

 

 

Ruby looks tiny among them.

 

 

We have noticed a lot of wild lilac blooming on the road sides in this area.  Here on this dirt road loop, we are able to stop the car and have a smell.  Seems this little moth  is doing likewise.

 

 

 

And then, a delicious end to our stellar Kirtland’s Day.

 

We close out the day in a delicious way with a pizza on a gluten free crust.  We used quinoa flour for it and rolled it very thin.  Our only problem was that we could not get it onto the pizza stone as we don’t have a bread board.  So we put it on our regular metal pizza pan and put that on the stone.   The crust wasn’t crispy enough to suit us so perhaps we’ll make it on the stone and hope to heavens we can get it off when it’s cooked.  Taking that large stone as hot as it is out of the oven to get the pizza off of it doesn’t seem possible so it will have to come off with some sort of spatula.  Stay tuned.   It was delicious in any case.  

I’m also going to check with my gluten free expert Ruth for her recipe

 

 

 

 

And that’s our Wednesday in and around Hartwick Pines State Park.  
Here’s looking at you kid!