Date of Award
4-1984
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Anthropology
First Advisor
Dr. William Cremin
Second Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth B. Garland
Third Advisor
Dr. Robert I. Sundick
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
In an attempt to generate predictive statements about site structure and location, the nature of lumber industry development is examined through historical and environmental relationships between logging sites, early logging methods, transportation technology, and the presettlement forest as reconstructed from the original General Land Office surveyor field notes and plats. Eighteen historic logging sites recorded on the Huron National Forest and within the Au Sable River watershed comprise the data set. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (a) to reconstruct the lumber industry history along the Au Sable River, and (b) to develop a means of locating, identifying, and assessing the physical remains of logging activities. Analytical results suggest that logging site distribution may be correlated with technological developments and historical trends in timber demand. By presenting a more timely picture of the vast forests the nineteenth-century lumbermen knew, presettlement forest reconstructions may be invaluable to future archaeological studies of the lumber industry.
Recommended Citation
Dinsmore, Rebecca Ellen, "Archaeological Perspectives of the Lumber Industry in Northern Lower Michigan, 1865-1920" (1984). Masters Theses. 1505.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1505