Faced with ravished land cut and burned over during Michigan’s logging era, the state legislature set up the first state forest in 1903 in Roscommon and Crawford Counties. The lawmakers then established the Higgins Lake Tree Nursery that was staffed in the 1930s by the CCC. The nursery was closed in the early 1960s but has since been restored as a historic site. In 1985, CCC alumni spearheaded the construction of the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, a reproduction of a CCC barrack.

Located in North Higgins Lake State Park, most visitors arrive in the summer and combine a hike or mountain bike ride with a visit to the museum and the tree nursery.

But some trails are just better in the winter. Beaver Creek Trail, the park's 6.5-mile loop that begins at the  CCC Museum and extends north to its namesake stream, is one of them.

After the first heavy snowfall, crushed gravel paths become a groomed cross-country ski trail that is wide enough for snowshoers to use it without marring the carefully laid tracks. In February, the patches of recent clearcuts appear like white meadows covered with prints from whitetail deer and coyotes to porcupines and snowshoers who can’t resist romping through the deep, unbroken snow with their rugbeaters.

Pick your season.

The trail system At North Higgins Lake State Park totals almost 9 miles, with the premiere forming Beaver Creek while cross-over spurs create the 1.5-mile Upland Nature Loop and the 3.8-mile Bosom Pines Loop. The first two loops are groomed and tracked, Beaver Creek is more of a backcountry ski.

Forestry Heritage & History on the Iron Belle
North Higgins Lake State Park has also been added into the Iron Belle Trail’s 828-mile bike route from Belle Isle to Ironwood. Called the Cradle of Forestry Heritage Trail, the DNR completed the first phase of this 20-mile segment in 2017 when a 2-mile paved path was built along North Higgins Lake Drive to the CCC Museum Trailhead,

This summer a crushed, gravel path from CCC Museum was incorporated along the west side of the Beaver Creek Loop. Plans call for continuing it north to the paved Grayling Area Community Pathway and an existing spur to the Forest Visitor Center at Hartwick Pines State Park.  When finished the Heritage Trail will link the two museums and feature a series of enhanced interpretive signs depicting the state’s forestry history.