Glacial Landscape

Glacial Landscape. . , The Great Lakes Region was once covered by glaciers that were more than one mile thick. These heavy ice sheets advanced and retreated over time, exerting forces that sculpted the land below. , , Approximately 10,000 years ago, after global temperatures rose, the last glacier retreated northward from Michigan. Glaciers left behind the land formations and waterways seen in Michigan today. , , Large Boulders , You won't see any exposed bedrock in the area, as sediment deposited by the glaciers ranges from 250 to 800 feet thick. However, glaciers carried boulders to Michigan from as far away as northern Canada. , , These rocks are called "glacial erratics." You can see this one along the Old Growth Trail in Hartwick Pines State Park. , , Kettle Lakes , Blocks of ice occasionally broke off the receding glacier and were covered in glacial sediment , a mix of rocks and gravel. The depression left in the ground after the ice block melted is called a kettle. , , Some of these low areas filled with water to form kettle lakes. Most Michigan inland lakes, such as nearby Higgins Lake, were created by this process. , , High Plains , Grayling is situated on an outwash plain, an area composed of sand and gravel deposited by meltwater flowing out from the glacier. Just north of here are the "Grayling Fingers," five upland plateaus composed of glacial sediment with valleys between them. These "fingers" run north to south and are the highest point of the northern lower peninsula's high plains. South of Grayling lies an east-west trending moraine, which is a ridge of rocks and sediment carried along by the ice sheet and deposited as the ice melted. , , Hartwick Pines State Park , During the white pine logging era (1870-1900), most of Michigan's forests were clearcut for timber. The largest stand of surviving old growth trees is here in Hartwick Pines State Park. , , Land Donation , Karen Hartwick, daughter of local lumber magnate Nels Michelson, was searching for a way to memorialize her husband Edward, who died in Europe while serving in World War I. , , In 1927, Karen purchased over 8,000 acres of land from the Salling and Hanson Logging Company and donated it to the State of Michigan. The deed required the construction of a memorial building dedicated to Edward Hartwick and a logging history museum. , , This generous gift provided jobs during the Great Depression, a refuge for native plants and wildlife, and a place for people to experience the towering white pines that were cut down elsewhere. Eighty-five acres of this parcel were old growth trees. Forty-nine acres can still be seen today. , , 1935 Park Dedication , Mrs. Karen B. Hartwick . . . has enriched us all by preserving for us a thing of beauty that might easily have gone the way of other forests, were it not for her devotion. , Governor Frank D. Fitzgerald , July 19, 1935 , , A Surveyor's Memory , When I first came to Crawford County, I worked for the government on a survey. That was back in [18]69....I shall never forget ... those pines, tall, stately trees, eighty, ninety, a hundred, and a hundred and forty feet; as straight as a rifle barrel, and limbless to the top. , , ...As I think back now, it was a magnificent sight. The Hartwick Pines were too small to be cut when compared with what was standing. I like to see the efforts at reforestation, but it will take a long, long time. , John J. Higgins , government surveyor