Activity #4 - Make Your Mark!

Many lumber companies used the same river to transport their materials to mills. To avoid confusion about which logs belonged to companies, loggers created marks to identify their logs at the end of a log drive, these marks were recognized by Michigan law.
This activity source material is from the 1943 book “Michigan log marks, their function and use during the great Michigan pine harvest” which was compiled by the Works Projects Administration and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. This is available free online at www.hathitrust.org

Activity Objective:
For students to understand how logging companies used special symbols called log marks to show who owned each log. These marks were stamped into the center of the log.

Resources:
Make your own log mark worksheet

Instructions:

1. Show the example of log marks (seen at right).
2. Print worksheet and example directions for students.
3. Have students explain their individual log marks.

 

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Logging in the Keweenaw

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