Formal training in forestry at East Lansing began mainly through the efforts of William Beal. In 1875, he established an arboretum on campus, and two years later started a forest nursery. His title was changed to professor of botany and forestry in 1880. And three years later he began teaching a single course (lectures only) annually during the summer term. Beginning in 1895, a 3-hour course in forestry was required of all sophomores majoring in agriculture. A separate curriculum in the field of forestry was formally established in 1902 by the State Board of Agriculture. According to Professor Emeritus Lee James, this probably makes MSU's existing undergraduate forestry program the oldest in the country (at least by a couple months, he points out).

Subsequently, E.E. Bogue, who had received his training at Ohio State and Harvard, was appointed a professor of forestry. The curriculum was included in the 1903 catalog of Michigan Agricultural College. Initially, student enrollment was very small. Two students graduated in 1904 and one each in 1905 and 1906; by 1910 a total of 26 foresters had graduated. Professor Bogue complained about the heavy teaching load for two men: "There are 27 hours per week of class work," excluding routine office matters, plus "extra lectures to short-course students and farmers institutes."

Until 1925, the mandatory summer camp for forestry students had been moved about from temporary site to temporary site, dependent upon the generosity of various lumber companies and sympathetic individuals. Fortunately, this changed with the acquisition of the Dunbar property that year. In 1910, Harris Dunbar of Buffalo, New York, who had business interests in Sault Ste. Marie, deeded most of his farm, near the confluence of the Charlotte and St. Marys River, 14 miles south of the Soo, to Chippewa County, with the stipulation that it be used to establish an agricultural school. Several buildings were included in his gift.

The county constructed a 3-story 23-room brick building, using some locally available materials, plus a large residence. The co-ed school opened in 1911, offering training in agriculture and domestic economy. This course work was for 2 years, with 36 weeks required per year. The school operated from 1911 to 1921, and graduated 50 students over that span. The county was forced to shut down the facility because of low enrollment plus high costs (students were charged just $2.50 per week for room and board, with free tuition for Michigan residents).

Michigan State College acquired the Dunbar property from Chippewa County in 1925 as a gift. A forest tree nursery was established the same year, and the first forestry summer camp was held there at that time. A new home for the resident superintendent was built in 1928. Between 1934 and 1935, a CCC camp was located at the Dunbar Station. A 13-mile dirt road from the Soo was completed in 1939 and an REA powerline reached the site in 1940. Maurice Day joined the Dunbar Station staff in 1938, serving as its superintendent until he retired in 1974.

In 1946, a course for forestry technicians was added to the curriculum, with the summer and fall terms being held at Dunbar. Thanks largely to the so-called G.I. Bill, enrollment in forestry skyrocketed after WWII. Summer camp experience, required of all students after they had completed their sophomore year, reached a record high attendance of 163 pupils in 1949.

I vividly recall spending a "delightful" summer at Dunbar swatting killer mosquitoes and sneaky black flies while slogging through flooded white cedar swamps and black spruce bogs. A little bit of everything was taught us, including proper technique using chainsaws, bulldozers, etc. During after-hours, we played very competitive softball. At the end of the session, a tug-of-war saw the losers taking a refreshing dip in the Charlotte River - if they were still hanging onto the rope!

Summer camp was made especially tolerable owing to the superb culinary skill of our cook (on "loan" from an East Lansing fraternity), who could satiate scores of students and faculty with tasty meals brought to each table piping hot, three tunes a day, seven days a week, with apparent little effort. He would have made a valued cook at any logging camp, where good food was prized by hard-working lumberjacks. We awarded him a gold watch at the end of summer in appreciation. (I for one was sorry to learn that our great chef, John Russell, had died recently. Ironically, his clothes caught fire as he was preparing dinner at home. He was 90 years old!)

From 1953 to 1962, the Department of Civil Engineering sent students to Dunbar in summer to learn the elements of land surveying. By 1953, facilities at the station included a new mess hall capable of seating 150, a modern bath house, physicians' quarters and hospital, 12 student cabins (each housing 8 persons), 6 instructor's cabins, and a 12-room lodge for visitors.

Because of dire state-wide fiscal straits, MSU was obliged to close down Dunbar Station in 1966. The camp buildings were sold or razed (sadly including the original structure). Since 1974 this 5,652-acre area has been used for ongoing forest research, now administered by Michigan State's Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center near Escanaba.

A recent newsletter from the Department Chairperson noted that there is a move afoot to try to re-establish a summer camp program for forestry undergraduates, which currently number over 100, because such experience is deemed invaluable to their professional development. Like many other universities who have dropped summer camp from their curriculum, "the main difficulty is the cost to the students, not only for the course but also lost time [income] for work…during the summer." I remember a lecture by then Department Head, Paul Herbert, in which he told us freshmen that summer camp was the place where one soon found out whether a career in forestry was really for you, or whether some other line of work might be better suited for your innate talents!