Copper Country State Forest is a state forest in the west-central Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Like other Upper Peninsula state forests, Copper Country is made up of clear cut parcels of forest land in thinly settled portions of counties such as Baraga County and Dickinson County. The state of Michigan acquired these land parcels after they had been stripped of their old growth trees in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; today, the state manages the land for reforestation. In many cases, the second-growth trees that have sprouted throughout Copper Country land are pulpwood trees such as aspen and birch.
In addition to pulpwood logging, the Copper Country land is valuable for active recreation, such as camping, fishing, and hunting. Many of the towns and cities of the Upper Peninsula have an active culture of whitetail deer hunting.
Famous quotes containing the words copper, country, state and/or forest:
“He had put, within his reach,
A box of counters and a red-veined stone,
A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells,
And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art,”
—Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (1823–1896)
“This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together, on the eve of being arranged into mountain, plain, plateau. The country was still waiting to be made into a landscape.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“The Indian attitude toward the land was expressed by a Crow named Curly: “The soil you see is not ordinary soil—it is the dust of the blood, the flesh, and the bones of our ancestors. You will have to dig down to find Nature’s earth, for the upper portion is Crow, my blood and my dead. I do not want to give it up.””
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program. Montana: A State Guide Book (The WPA Guide to Montana)
“The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss. They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)