Tahquamenon Logging Museum and Nature Study Area

Excellent local history displays on area settlements and sawmills are in the onetime farmhouse at this grassroots museum. On the grounds are a restored log house circa 1880-1900, a restored and repainted 1907 Port Huron steam engine (quite rare) used to run a sawmill, and a building with displays of logging tools and equipment, making it easy to imagine logging in the woods. A visit here suggests how quickly the forests could be cut over—forests that early lumbermen thought would last 500 years.
Logging veterans loved looking back on the camaraderie of lumber camps. Model lumber camps are staples of northwoods
museums. Ralph McCarry's miniature scene of a lumber camp here was the wood-carving project that got him started making dioramas. Encouraged by his boss, Sprague Taylor, he ended up creating the Totem Village roadside attraction on U.S. 2 just west of the Mackinac Bridge.

Newberry is the Upper Peninsula's center for the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famous Depression make-work project that did so much for forests and parks in the U.P. and across the U.S. A bronze statue commemorating a CCC worker stands in front of an unaltered CCC barracks with memorabilia and photos from CCC camps around Newberry.

An interesting NATURE TRAIL leads back from the road over boardwalk through a woods and swamp to a scenic Tahquamenon River overlook.
Festive summer events on the 4th Saturday of each summer month feature a lumberjack breakfast cooked on a cast-iron stove. June's open mic draws enthusiastic amateurs from far and wide. July and August feature old-time music in the pavilion from noon on into evening. Featured bands play after dinner by a bonfire. There are vendors, logging demonstrations, and a cook shack with burgers, brats, etc. The October breakfast is part of the Newberry Octoberfest. For details, consult the Newberry Chamber, (906) 293-5562.

On M-123 at Tahquamenon River, 1 1/2 miles north of Newberry. (906) 293-3700. Open 10-5 daily from Memorial thru Labor Day, possibly later. $5/adults, $2/kids 6-12, 5 and under free. Wheelchair accessible: museum buildings and river trail.
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