Historic beaver dams marked in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Once incredibly numerous, they figured heavily inindigenous worldviewsin the Americas.
Lewis Henry Morgan was a railroad magnate and politician with a passion for anthropology and natural sciences.
Historic beaver dams marked in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (Photo: “The American Beaver and his Works,” by Lewis Henry Morgan, 1868)
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula turned out to be fascinating to him as he planned his railroad through the state.
Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, he observed the beaver, (apparently) his new favorite creature.
This observation yielded an impressive 396-page book impressively entitledThe American Beaver and His Works.
A beaver dam in Sweden. (Photo: Lars Falkdalen Lindahl viaWikimedia Commons,CC BY-SA 4.0)
Within each folio was tucked a map of the Ishpeming, Michigan, area.
Sixty-four beaver dams dot the landscape, interrupting streams and creating ponds.
It was published in 1868.
Beaver dam in Bear Creek, Alpine Meadows, California. (Photo: Schmiebel viaWikimedia Commons,CC BY-SA 3.0)
So what have the busy beavers been up to in Michigan in the past century and a half?
As it turns out, largely maintaining these historic dams.
Using modern aerial footage, Johnston was able to verify whether there are remains of the historic dams.
A partially drained beaver pond in the Adirondack Mountains, New York. (Photo: Second Sender viaWikimedia Commons,CC BY 4.0)
She discovered a vast amount remain, although some have clearly been abandoned.
This suggests generations of beavers have continued to create ponds in the same strategic places.
[T]he remarkable consistency in .
pond placement over the last 150 years is evidence of the beaver’s resilience, Johnstonsaid.
way of quantifying it.
A hundred and fifty years ago, a map recorded beaver dams in Michigan.
Many are still there today, demonstrating the incredible building power of these little mammals.
A beaver dam in Sweden.
Beaver dam in Bear Creek, Alpine Meadows, California.
