In 1903, a team of workers under the direction of newly appointed State Forest Warden Filibert Roth pondered the stump-ridden, sand on the north shore of Higgins Lake. Once a thriving native forest, the nearly barren landscape had suffered from aggressive lumbering and a series of fires in the late 19th century. To address the problem, the Michigan legislature established the Michigan Forestry Commission to replant trees and create the state’s first tree nursery and forest reserve.

Within a year, Roth and his workers had planted 43 pounds of seed on the site, representing 12 different pine species. More than 600,000 seedlings were thriving in 1904 and, by 1906, Roth’s team had successfully cultivated 27 different species of trees. By 1926, the nursery was shipping 22 million seedlings across the state and nation. 

In 1933, the Higgins Lake Civilian Conservation Corps Camp began working at the tree nursery. Born during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Civilian Conservation Corps (or CCC) employed young men in many public works projects. In Michigan, thousands of recruits planted trees and fought forest fires across the northern Lower and Upper Peninsula. By the end of the program, Michigan workers had planted 484 million trees, more than twice the amount of any other state.

Today, the land on which the original Higgins Lake Nursery and Civilian Conservation Corps Camp stood is heavily forested and includes North Higgins Lake State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum.