The White Pine, Michigan's state tree, was the impetus for the exploration and settlement of much of Northern Michigan by settlers of European descent. The White Pine's unmatched qualities as a building material--its wood is easy to work, and the trees grow tall and straight--made it desirable for the lumbermen who first exploited the primeval forests that blanketed Michigan in the first part of the 19th century.

White pine was relatively rare in the Great North Woods which, as a climax forest, consisted chiefly of hardwoods like Maple. Indeed, the lumbering companies employed special scouts to search out new stands of White Pine amid the sea of hardwoods for the ever-encroaching lumber camps. According to Bruce Catton (in his wonderful history Michigan), these scouts were adept at distinguishing the particular sound that White Pine make in the wind. They would climb to the top of a tall tree and listen until they heard the White Pine's distinctive--and fatal--sound.

Today most of the region's ancestral trees have long ago gone for ship's masts, telephone poles, or the 2x4s that rebuilt Chicago after its great fire. Only the Hartwick Pines remain as an example of the virgin stands of White Pine.

The White Pine has soft, flexible, 3-sided evergreen needles in clusters of 5, 2½"-5" long, and bluish green. Its twigs are slender and flexible, with rusty hairs when young, later smooth. Buds are egg-shaped, usually less than ½" long and gray-brown. The cones are 5"-8" long, without prickles, slightly curved, and resinous; each scale usually bears 2 winged seeds. At present they usually reach 50'-90' high but the original forest saw white pines reaching 150' and more.