Lumberjack Park / Lumberjack Park

In 1926 when George Beck of Ithaca learned that one of the last stands of white pine in Gratiot County was going to be cut, he called on local lumberjacks and rivermen to buy the threatened forty-acre tract and preserve it as a memorial. The woodsmen organized the Lumberjack and Riverdrivers Association and in 1927 purchased the land for three thousand dollars. They elected Otis Terpening as their first president that year. By 1945 the mortgage had been fully paid through membership fees, donations, and fund-raising dinners. The Lumberjacks and Riverdrivers Association minutes of October 18, 1934, explained: “We shanty boys are growing old and our ranks keep getting thinner year by year, but when our day is ended we know our children’s children still can gather on this spot where the shanty boys have built their final camp.” The bunkhouse and cook shanty were completed in 1930, the pavilion by 1931, and the caretaker’s house in 1947. The park also features a band shell, a playground area and a nature trail.