Pickerel-Crooked Lakes Watershed

History 
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the northern portion of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula was home to the Ottawa (Odawa) nation. The total population of the early Ottawa is not known, though it has been estimated to be somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000. The Ottawa made their home here for hundreds of years, establishing and maintaining villages along the Lake Michigan shoreline and along the Inland Waterway. These villages were connected by a series of footpaths which allowed the natives to travel overland (many of our highways roughly follow these paths). More important for travel were the waterways, by which distance could be covered quickly. The Inland Waterway, connecting Crooked Lake at the western side of the lower peninsula with Lake Huron at Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Plan 9 Cheboygan, was the most efficient travel option. Using canoes, the Ottawa could travel from Crooked Lake to hunting grounds, seasonal fishing spots, and neighboring villages along the Crooked River, Burt Lake, Indian River, Mullet Lake, the Cheboygan River and, finally, Lake Huron. This route avoided the more challenging and dangerous trip around the peninsula on Lake Michigan. 

European explorers who arrived in the region in the early 1600’s greatly altered the lifestyle of the Ottawa. After the missionaries arrived, a trickle of French voyagers and trappers began flowing into the area and due to the abundance of fur-bearing animals, unlocked the gates for a market that changed forever the face of Northern Michigan. 

In 1808, John Jacob Astor established the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island, employing 2,000 voyagers during trapping season. The heavy predation decimated the populations of beaver, otter, mink, fox and other animals. By 1825, Astor’s fur company was finished. 

After the fur industry crashed, it was several years before any new industry took over. Widespread logging began around 1840, and intensified between 1860 and 1890. In the early part of the nineteenth century, virtually the entire Michigan territory was covered by vast forests. People began to realize the value of these stands of white pine, maple, oak, and beech, among others. One of the most valuable trees was the white pine, which grew to a height of 150 feet and often measured 3-4 feet in diameter. 

Land was cheap and easy to obtain in the early and mid-1800’s. This fostered the rapid growth of the logging industry. The work was difficult and slow, since it was all done by hand. With the opening of railroads in the region, the lumber industry boomed, reaching its peak after the Civil War, and continuing for the next half-century. Virtually all the forested land in northern Michigan was logged during this period. By the early 1900’s the lumber industry had sharply declined. 

The land was clearcut rapidly during this period, with no thought to environmental concerns. According to F. Clever Bald in Michigan In Four Centuries, “The loggers had no thought for the future. ‘Cut and get out’ was their motto. There was sharp competition, and to make money they believed that they had to clear the land as quickly as possible.” When the trees were cleared from an area, there was generally nothing left, but slashings and remains of trees too small to cut. As these branches and wood debris dried, they became prime fuel for forest fires. Disastrous forest fires broke out in the 1870’s and 1880’s due to these careless logging practices, destroying many homes and villages, and consuming valuable stands of remaining timber. 

Throughout this period of settlement and development, the Inland Waterway constituted an important transportation link between otherwise remote areas. Before the construction of railroads, the Waterway was the only means of transporting timber to the mills for processing and distribution. Logs cut along streams or rivers were heaped on the banks during winters, and then rolled into the water after the spring thaw to float downstream to towns near the rivermouths where they were converted into lumber. From there the lumber would be loaded on vessels and transported to various ports along the Great Lakes. Pickerel-Crooked Lakes Watershed.