Woodlot Cleared by Band of Indians

Today, the shade of Paul Bunyan hovers over a 60 acre wood-lot in the southern part of Genesee county, irresistibly drawn to the spot by ringing axes, the roaring of falling timber and the resounding screech of the buzzing saw.

When the saga of the mightiest of all lumbermen was enacted as the indominable Paul stalked the virgin woods of Northern Michigan the game of golf was only a pastime indulged in by herders of the Scotch highlands. Today the two forms of bodily energy - one strenuous, one mild - have found a meeting place.

Out at the Long Lake Country club an intrepid golfer tees up his ball and shouts "fore" before sending the little white ball screaming down the fairway. In the adjoining woods, to the west a stalwart Indian buck shouts a warning and another towering oak or maple tree comes crashing to the ground. The sounds combine to create a threnody in which the lamentations of the golfer mingle with the moans of the dying timber.

The farm on which the woodlot is located and on which stands the Long Lake golf course has been in the Elmer Crane family for several generations. During those years the timber has grown to great size and attained a value sufficient to warrent its cutting.

Thousands of feet of lumber have been cut, sawed and sold since operations began last January. The operators came in, bringing a portable mill and their own crews of woodsmen including several full blooded Indians and their squaws. If it were not for the modernistic touch of the automobiles and auto trailers one might well think himself in an old time lumber camp of the eighties.

While the Indian bucks work at felling and trimming the timber their squaws carry on household operations in typical shacks or hogans and weave baskets between times. Some of the basketry is beautifully designed and all done in a fine workmanlike manner.

It is estimated that six or more weeks will be required to complete felling and sawing the remaining timber. In the meantime it is possible to take the children and show them a rather typical lumber camp and a little something about lumbering operations. There may not be many more opportunities. It is said there are no other timber lots as large as the Crane forest in the lower part of the state.