For some background, my grandpa started working in the Manistee area in 1949, when he was 28 years old. Before then he had been drifting around the region, doing odd jobs in logging until he was hired by the Forest Service in the northwest part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The work, as I understand, was slow and most days he and his crew were sent to different parts of the Forest to address various tree and land concerns. Grandpa was always an avid outdoorsman, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing just about as much as anyone in the region.