It has been said that Michigan's nineteenth-century white pine stands were the finest the world has ever seen. More than 150 feet tall, covered vast areas from the Bay City, Muskegon line north. This work recounts how an abandoned, cutover, and often burned wilderness has been converted once again into highly productive and protected public lands.

Navigation was interrupted on Lake Huron and as far downriver as Detroit because of the heavy smoke. More than 200 people lost their lives. "Michigan's State Forests" recounts how an abandoned, cutover, and often burned wilderness has been converted once again into highly productive and protected public lands. For more than 100 years, these lands have been preserved, managed and developed to form one of Michigan's great assets, not only for economic development but also as enhancements to our quality of life.