Sportsmen and sportswomen have come to the Pigeon River Country for more than a century to recreate in the forest. Hunting and fishing have been the primary choices for outdoor recreation for many, but the state forest is also a prime spot for morel mushroom hunting, wild berry picking, camping, hiking and backpacking, horseback riding, and more. In 1986, one such visitor was former President of the United States Jimmy Carter.

I first came across the fact that Jimmy Carter came to the Pigeon River in October 1986 to go Ruffed Grouse hunting from an article written by Dianna Stampfler in the September/October 2024 issue of Michigan History magazine. The article, "The Big Wild, Jimmy Carter in Michigan's Pigeon River Country" sparked my interest to dig deeper into this story. It also led me to Jimmy Carter's own account of this hunt in his 1988 book , "An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections." He shares this story in the chapter Ruffed Grouse, From Georgia to Michigan.

Piggybacking on the story of Jimmy Carter's Pigeon River Grouse hunt is an explantion of the various types of recreation available in the Pigeon River Country State Forest. If you love the outdoors, there is likely something in the PRC for you to enjoy.

Episode Resources:

Carter, Jimmy. An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1988.

Stampfler, Dianna. "The Big Wild, Jimmy Carter in Michigan's Pigeon River Country. Michigan History magazine. Lansing, MI: The Historical Society of Michigan, Vol. 108, No. 5. September/October 2024.

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Among the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota in the 1930s was the development of Gooseberry Falls State Park, one of Minnesota's most popular state parks along the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1934 the CCC arrived to build a camp on a bend of the Gooseberry River where it descends to Lake Superior. The work that Company 2710 would do at Gooseberry Falls for the next seven years included the construction of numerous stone buildings and other structures that have become some of the best examples of stone and log construction that were popular in both national and state parks during the Great Depression.

In August 2025, as part of my 2025 Podcast Tour, I visited Gooseberry Falls State Park and camped overnight to explore the history and architecture of the park. I will share that with you in this episode.

Episode Sources:

Benson, David R. Stories in Log and Stone: The Legacy of the New Deal in Minnesota State Parks. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2002.

Gooseberry Falls State Park interpretive panels text. Circa 1996. No authorship given.

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Conservationist and Forest Advocate P.S. Lovejoy called the Pigeon River Forest "The Big Wild." It is one of the largest contiguous forest lands in Michigan at now over 118,000 acres. Like much of the forests of the Great Lakes, it has had its rebirth in the 20th century after the success of the 19th century lumber industry and the subsequent wildfires that followed.

Ernest Hemingway summered with his family in Northern Michigan while he was growing up. Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1898, Young Ernest Hemingway and his family traveled to Petoskey every summer where they had a cottage on nearby Walloon Lake. Ernest loved fishing and his fishing adventures took him as far a field as "the pine barrens" east of Vanderbilt that was the home of the Black, Pigeon, and Sturgeon rivers, along with fishing trips in the Upper Peninsula. The pine barrens were the cutover and burned over land that had once hosted great forests of white pine and hardwood and would soon become the Pigeon River Country State Forest.

Another visitor to the area was P.S. Lovejoy, a forester and conservationist, who would first see the land in 1919. Although it was still recovering from logging, fire, and failed attempts at afgriculture, he saw in his mind "The Big Wild," a roadless area of forests hosting a wide variety of wildife, including the newly reintroduced Rocky Mountain Elk. His idea was for a wildland that contained no conveniences for visitors. It was wilderness in it's truest form. While his idea was not matched by reality, it became the basis for one of Michigan's unique state forest lands. What began as a 6,500 acre forest reserve (like Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake Forest Reserves), grew over the next century to 110,000 acres.

In December, 2025, a new land purchase of the 8,500 acre Black River Ranch grew the forest to now more than 118,000 acres.

This episode of the North Country History with Rob Burg podcast shares some of the history of the creation of this state forest and covers the newest addition to the forest in the 21st century.

Resources used for this episode:

Franz, Dale Clarke. Pigeon River Country. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1985/revised edition 2007.

Heckman, Kerry. Showcasing the DNR: A Landmark Investment in Public Land. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lansing, Michigan. December 10, 2025. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDNR/bulletins/3ff3542

Kates, James. Planning a Wilderness: Regenerating the Great Lakes Cutover Region. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 2001.

Websites with Further Information:

Official Michigan Department of Natural Resources website: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/places/state-forests/prc

Website for the Pigeon River Country Association, the non-profit 501c3 organization that partners with the DNR, and the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center, and educational and visitor center housed in the historic former forest supervisor's home: https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/

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