August Klagstad – Altar Artist

Posted on July 26, 2016July 26, 2016

August Klagstad 1866-1949

Reared in a remote Upper Peninsula lumbering settlement, August Klagstad toiled in the mill piling pine slabs. But the high-pitched whine of the big saws could not drown out his dreams for a brighter future. When he exchanged his leather work gloves for brushes and a palette of oils—an artist emerged. A faithful Lutheran, Klagstad specialized in religious paintings. Today, Klagstad’s altar paintings can be found in churches throughout the United States. His “sermons on canvas” have inspired generations of worshipers in Michigan and across the nation. Read More...

Last Log Drive of Big Pine Era – 1929

Posted on January 16, 2016January 16, 2016

Log Drive on the Manistique River (1890’s Photo)

In July of 1929, the largest remaining stand of Michigan’s virgin white pine forest floated down the Manistique River toward the Stack Lumber Company sawmill in the town of Manistique. The giant pine had been scattered over 3,200 acres of swampy forest at the head of the Driggs River, a tributary of the Manistique River—in an area previously considered too inaccessible for logging operations. The 1929 drive included 600,000 feet of Norway and white pine, 1,000,000 feet of hemlock and 800,000 feet of hardwood (birch, oak, maple, elm and basswood). The log drive marked the end of big pine lumbering in Michigan which began along the Saginaw River valley in 1833. Once thought inexhaustible, the great pine forests were all logged off in Lower Michigan by 1895 and in Upper Michigan by 1905. A total of 190 billion feet of lumber had succumbed to the woodman’s axe. Read More...