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• Go to our Lumbering in Michigan online exhibits

For identification, Michigan lumber companies marked one end of each log with a "log mark" (similar to the cattle brands used in the West). The design of a log mark might include the initials of the lumber company's owner or symbols from the logging industry or from nature.

The designs were cast into the metal end of a marking hammer by a blacksmith. The symbols needed to be simple, clean designs so the person who struck the log with the marking hammer could cut the design easily into each log.

According to an 1842 Michigan law, the marks had to be registered in the county of the logs' destination (usually the location of the sawmill). These are some Michigan log marks with the name of the person who registered each and the year and county of registration:

Silas C. Overpack manufactured and sold big wheels for logging. Do you recognize the symbol he used for his logging business? The Roberts and Kelsey log mark represents a muley saw. What might the other log marks mean?

Print this page and design your own log marks in the log ends shown below. Draw symbols that fit in the category printed under each log end. Choose letters and symbols that mean something special to you. You can also print the log marks drawing page by itself [PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

If you were a blacksmith, how would you form the end of the marking hammer to make your log marks? Why would the image need to be reversed (as in a mirror) on the hammer? Perhaps you have done the same thing when you cut a design for a stamp in the end of a potato then printed it by dipping the cut end into ink or paint. You could make a stamp for your log mark from a potato. Or you can trace your design onto a sheet of craft cork or foam, then cut it out and glue it to a wooden block.

Contact the Michigan Historical Museum.

Updated 09/10/2010