Did You Know About Michigan’s ‘Little Michigan’?

Michigan is one of the few distinct shapes on Earth that is recognizable from space. We're called the Mitten State for a reason; Michigan looks like a Mitten. Anyone who has tried telling someone where they're from has done "the hand thing."

The benefit of being in a highly recognizable state is that you can make miniature versions of it for bumper stickers, cutting boards, or dig holes in the ground to make a "Little Michigan" visible from above. 

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Wait what? Let's head to Lewiston to investigate "Little Michigan" and its surprising backstory.

Camp Lunden's 'Little Michigan'

Before World War 2 sent many of the country's men overseas, many men were out of work, and the economy was stagnant. So, newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) embarked on a series of public works projects to help resurrect the nation. One of these projects was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an initiative by FDR to "conserve our precious national resources".

READ MORE: Inside the Ruins of Detroit’s Belle Isle Zoo Before Demolition

That included sending 200 men from Detroit and Hamtramck to set up camp deep in the Hiawatha National Forest in 1933. After all the tents were pitched, this camp was dubbed Camp Raco, and it quickly grew to nearly 8000 men spread across 41 other camps.

One of these camps was Camp Lunden in Lewiston, which opened in 1933. These men spent their time fighting fires, planting trees, building roads, restoring streams and trout ponds, and clearing the airfield for the Atlanta airport. But when they weren't doing that, they would play sports games together, box, give musical performances, and work on their own passion project.

The Creation of Little Michigan

They decided to channel their extra energy into digging holes in the ground, digging out the shape of the state surrounded by the Great Lakes. The pits did, at one point, hold water thanks to an artesian well and even had fish in them. The camp closed in 1936, and aside from the green Michigan historical marker, this "Little Michigan" is all that remains of Camp Lunden.

Camps like Camp Lunden had an impact on the state's environment in ways that are difficult to articulate, but the remains of Little Michigan help preserve the work of these hard-working men.