During the 1850s, illegal logging in the Great Lakes region was so bad that the US Navy was called in to help stop it. How did these "timber pirates" operate, and why were they so successful even after the US Navy was involved?

You've heard of the Wild West. This is a different Wild West.

In the 1850s, Wisconsin and Michigan ─ in particular Michigan's upper peninsula ─ were the Wild West of the United States. These new states (Michigan in 1837 and Wisconsin in 1848) had the classic problems of the American frontier: little governance and endemic corruption. One of the best introductory depictions of the timber piracy issue of the 1850s can be found in the third chapter of Guardian of the Great Lakes: The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan, which I've drawn upon for this answer.

In the early years of the United States, the federal government passed laws that gave the U.S. Navy the authority over timber on public land. Timber was a critical natural resource, necessary for military defense and the construction of ships. At first, this authority stretched only to species like live oak and red cedar. The white pine common in the Great Lakes area was at first immune to this restriction, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided in U.S. v. Briggs (1850) that federal ownership extended to white pine as well.

In 1831, Congress had made the illegal cutting of timber a felony. Given that the vast majority of Wisconsin and Michigan consisted of federal property at this time, the 1850 U.S. Supreme Court decision meant almost anyone could be charged as a felon. Until the Homestead Act of 1862, the United States' policy of settlement was haphazard at best.

There were immense benefits to cutting timber illegally. In the 1850s, there were no cross-Mississippi railroads. There were transportation options, however. The Chicago River canal and the Erie Canal before it allowed easy transportation from anywhere on the Great Lakes to tidewater. Bradley Rogers, author of Guardian of the Great Lakes, writes on pages 43-44:

"The cutting and sale of timber from federal land was an extremely profitable business and well worth the small risk of being caught. Penalties reached a maximum of a few hundred dollars in fines or legal fees. On the other hand, an average logging crew of 12 to 16 men in 1850 could make the extravagant sum of $4,000 for a winter's work."

There were few federal agents on the ground to stop this illegal trade. In winter, timber cutters would roam the woods of Wisconsin and Michigan, cutting trees. Once the spring thaw arrived and the rivers melted, the resulting logs would be floated downriver to mills for processing. The lumber would be loaded onto barges or steamers and taken across the lakes to market. Many times, the winter lumberjack was the summer stevedore or jack tar.

In 1851, the U.S. Department of the Interior took over the timberlands and tried to crack down where its predecessor, the Department of Treasury, had allowed the piracy to continue unabated. It had little luck, however. The area was geographically vast and its agents were few on the ground. In addition, the timber pirates had gotten rich from their industry, and they had the political and physical wherewithal to fight back.

They put political pressure on the federal government, which found its law-enforcement arm in the area strapped for cash. Federal law allowed agents to seize and auction illegal timber, but the timber poachers rigged the auctions, buying it back at low prices. When agents started auctioning the timber in distant locations beyond the reach of the rigged auctions, the poachers switched tactics. They burned seized timber or stole it back from the federal authorities. They murdered federal agents, bribed judges and even held a version of the Boston Tea Party in Chicago, with timber in place of tea.

What the federal agents needed was a seagoing presence as well as a land-based one. Unfortunately for them, there were only two federal boats available. One was a revenue cutter in poor shape, and the other was the USS Michigan, the U.S. Navy's first iron-hulled ship. In 1853, the Michigan departed Buffalo for Chicago to interdict the illegal trade.

While crossing Lake Huron, the Michigan was rammed by the largest ship on the lakes, the paddle steamer Buffalo. While the Michigan didn't sink, it was damaged badly enough that it had to be laid up for two months for repairs. It is assumed ─ though never proven ─ that the crew of the Buffalo was acting on orders from the timber pirates and purposely rammed the Michigan in an attempt to sink it.

While the Michigan didn't sink, it wasn't able to stop the illegal trade alone. Only the arrival of the American Civil War in 1860 slowed the illegal trade, and only the arrival of the railroads and reliable governance curtailed the poaching.