CM-1 - Hartwick Pines State Park Traditional Cache

With an area of 9,672 acres, Hartwick Pines is one of the largest state parks in the Lower Peninsula.

The Story Behind The Pines In 1927, Karen Michelson Hartwick purchased over 8,000 acres of land, which included 85 acres of old growth white pine, from the Salling-Hanson Company of Grayling. Mrs. Hartwick was a daughter of Nels Michelson, a founding partner of the Salling-Hanson logging company. A short while later, Mrs. Hartwick donated the land to the State of Michigan as a memorial park to be named for her husband, the late Major Edward E. Hartwick of Grayling. Edward Hartwick had died overseas during World War I. Also wishing to commemorate the logging history of the region and of her family, Karen Hartwick requested that the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum be built in the park.

In 1934 and 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps work crew located within the park built two log structures to house this museum. Today, the museum uses exhibits, artifacts and photographs, to recreate the atmosphere of a logging camp and tell the tale of the "shanty boys" who turned Michigan's vast forests into timber. Period settings depicting a bunkhouse, mess hall, blacksmith shop, camp office and van (store) give the visitor a sense of what logging camp life was like.