North Higgins Lake Sites

North Higgins Lake State Park near Roscommon MI is built on what was once the world's largest seedling nursery, established by the Michigan State Forester in 1903.   December 5, 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp at Higgins Lake, briefly on the Hanson Military Reservation and then on US-27 midway between Roscommon and Grayling. The camp operated from 1933-42, and a big part of the CCC activities was forest-related, planting trees and fighting forest fires across the northern part of the state.  The Higgins Lake tree nursery and CCC camp were central to this effort. By 1942, when the CCC ended,...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in northern Michigan, planting trees, fighting fires and building recreation facilities in state parks.  There was a CCC camp at Higgins Lake.   The CCC built the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center next to North Higgins Lake State Park in 1939-42.  The conference center, which covers 32 acres on North Higgins Lake, had an earlier life as the Higgins Lake Conservation Training School, established in 1941.  The school was converted to a conference center in the 1990s. Several of the original buildings constructed by the CCC survive on the center's campus, but further verification...