Hemingway forest?   James Smith
  Jun 20, 2006 15:37 PDT 

In some of the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway, he mentions
visiting forgotten and bypassed "cathedral" forests of virgin hemlock
trees in Michigan. Does anyone know if these patches of virgin forest
were real (I suppose they were, because the Nick Adams stories are
autobiographical). If so, do they still exist, or were they finally
leveled?
Re: Hemingway forest?   Lee Frelich
  Jun 20, 2006 16:38 PDT 

James:

Yes, they exist in The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and
Sylvania Wilderness Area (the latter a national forest wilderness).

They are both in western Upper Michigan.

Lee
RE: Hemingway forest?   James Smith
  Jun 21, 2006 03:24 PDT 

Thanks! I was wondering if the Porkies were the area he was using in the
stories. On one hiking site I visit, one backpacker posted some
photographs of the Porkies, and the pines he hiked through were
impressive. Truly enormous trees.
RE: Hemingway forest?   Ernie Ostuno
  Jun 21, 2006 20:33 PDT 

Lee, James,

Last year I went up to Petoskey, MI for a vacation and found out that
Hemingway had a house in the Petoskey area way back when. That would be
in the NW Lower Peninsula. Check out this link:

http://www.lostgeneration.com/article3.htm

There may have been some stands of old hemlocks 100 years ago up there,
but perhaps most fell victim to the tanneries by the time Hemingway wrote
the stories. The "sand dune forests" of western Lower Michigan have a
few stands of old growth beech/hemlock surviving to this day. Here's a
couple nice ones I have been to:

http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/michigan/hoffmaster/hoffmaster_state_park.htm


http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/michigan/leelanau_state_park.htm