A retrospective visual study of social change: the pulp-logging industry in an Upper Peninsula Michigan county1

Abstract

Abstract This article outlines a strategy for reconstructing and visually documenting social change after the change is already largely completed. The example used is the pulp-logging industry in Ontonagon County, Michigan, in which change occurred slowly until 1970–1985, when a profound transformation took place. Notes Jon Rieger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Louisville and is one of the founders of the visual sociology movement. His work has concentrated on the study of social change using visual measurement. 1This article is a revision of a paper (Rieger Citation2002) given at the Annual Meeting of the International Visual Sociology Association, Santorini, Greece, in July 2002. I would like to thank the Visual Studies editors and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful critical comments as this paper was prepared for publication. 2While the discussion in this paper tends to treat social change as if it could be "framed" into episodes, it must be kept in mind that change is actually a continuous and seamless process. The measurements we make at various times are quite arbitrary. 3There is a rapidly expanding inventory of photo books of the "then and now" variety in which historical pictures are paired with contemporary pictures of the same scenes. The venue is typically a large city. Examples of this genre include: Citation Citation Citation Citation Citation Citation Citation CitationCohen (Citation1992), Goin (1992), Jackson and Fielder (1999), Mauger (2002), Millett (1996), Norman (1994), Muybridge and Klett (1990), Smith (1990) and Vanderwarker (1982). Almost all of these books treat their subject matter within a historical, rather than a sociological, framework. Some of them make a serious attempt at drawing meaning from the pairings while others take a more superficial approach. Generally, little attention is given to the origins, bias or selectivity of the pictures they contain and they typically do not concentrate heavily on the analytic implications of the changes recorded in the images. These limitations, among others, render them of very limited value to visual researchers. 4I would like to express my appreciation to the Michigan State University Press for permission to draw material for this article from my chapter (Rieger Citation1997) in a book edited by Nan E. Johnson and Ching-li Wang entitled Changing Rural Social Systems: Adaptation and Survival (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 1997). 5This brief account of Ontonagon County history relies on Citation CitationJamison (Citation1965), Johanson (1985) and Schwarzweller and Lean (1993). Additional information on Michigan's early history can be found in Bald (Citation1961). 6According to Schwarzweller and Lean (Citation1993), nearly two-thirds of all of residents of Ontonagon County who were in the work-force in the early 1970s were employed at the mine. Allan Slye, the county extension agent at the time, wryly remarked to me, "Rieger, we don't just have a 'company town' over there at White Pine – we've got a whole 'company county!'" 7The mine eventually closed permanently in 1995, but that fateful development occurred some 10 years later than the time frame of the transformation in the woods industry that is the main focus of this paper. The county's population in 1970, during the mining boom, had risen to 10 548 and was probably a little higher by 1975, just before the drop in copper prices. Thereafter the population declined steadily. By 2000 it had shrunk to 7818 (a 26% loss). 8An excellent general history of the logging industry in northern Michigan, Deep Woods Frontier, by Theodore Karamanski, was published in 1989, 4 years after my work was under way. Karamanski devotes the last part of his book to what he calls "the pulpwood era." 9One of my informants, a logger with 25 years of experience in the woods, inadvertently confirmed this as I was returning borrowed photographs. By his reckoning, about 60% of his business had been pulp logs, but his ample picture collection was almost exclusively of his saw log operations. When I asked why he didn't have any photographs of his pulping activities, he said, "I only wanted pictures of the good logs!" (Roger Juopperi 2003, personal interview). 10I first came across the notion of a craftsman's "deep knowledge" in Doug Harper's description of Willie in Working Knowledge (Harper Citation1987). I am indebted to Doug for that apt characterization, which I recognized also applied to my expert informants in the present study. 11The ensuing description of the industry is largely excerpted, condensed and elaborated from Rieger (Citation1997). This account of the growth and transformation of the pulpwood industry in the western Upper Peninsula is based on: (a) multiple interviews (many utilizing photo-elicitation) between 1985 and 2003 with key informants (Dallas Brusso: farmer, independent logger, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2002; Carl Domitrovich: logger, sawyer, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2002; Ron Howard: former general manager of the paper mill, Ontonagon, Michigon, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2002; Bruce H. Johanson: local historian, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2002; Roger Juopperi: retired logger, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1992, 2003; Eli Miljevich: forest materials jobber, Gogebic County, Michigan, 1989, 1990, telephone interviews; K. J. Moilanen: retired county agricultural extension agent, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1995; Donald Parker: retired paper mill worker and amateur historian, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990; Norman Pestka: forest materials jobber, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1989, 1990, 2002; Allan Slye: County Natural Resources Agent, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990; Ernest Toivonen: independent logger, Ontonagon County, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1998; and Robert Turpeinen, manager, Turpeinen Brothers, Inc., Alston, Michigan, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992) as well as others in the Ontonagon County area; (b) a number of episodes of direct observation in field settings; and (c) various published sources: Citation Citation Citation Citation CitationBald (Citation1961), Hoover (1986), Jamison (1965), Johanson (1985), Karamanski (1989) and Knight (1985). 12A knowledge of the weight of the material moved may give a better sense of the work involved. By rule-of-thumb, the wood weighs approximately 5000 pounds per cord: thus a two-person crew working under these conditions is cutting, skidding and handling about 25 000 pounds (12½ tons) of wood per day. This would be an average figure. 13One of my informants, Dallas Brusso, claimed that he and his wife, working together, could do double the average of the pre-power saw years: "If you've got popple [poplar] or a pretty good stand of hardwoods, with trees, say, between 6 or 7 inches to a foot-and-a-half in diameter, you can normally get about 10 cords an acre, maybe 15. A good two-person team – a sawyer with a power saw and a skidder with a tractor – could pull out about an acre a day; 10 cords! That's six solid hours of work – no breaks!" (Brusso 1986, personal interview). 14The flail has since been phased out in favour of a delimbing/debarking unit attached to the mobile chipper. 15The ensuing brief commentary on change in the woods work process is mostly excerpted and condensed from a much more expansive and inclusive review of the changes accruing from mechanization and their ramifications in Rieger (Citation1997). 16The photographs included in the present paper are, of course, a small selection of what is now a fairly substantial inventory of images I have assembled on the pulp-logging industry. There is a noticeable degree of redundancy among the photographs covering certain aspects and phases and a relative lack of pictures covering other aspects. 17Five of my informants have already passed away since the time of the interviews in the late 1980s and 1990s. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJon RiegerFootnote Jon Rieger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Louisville and is one of the founders of the visual sociology movement. His work has concentrated on the study of social change using visual measurement.