Kingston Plains

A Stump Prairie

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Escanaba River State Forest

Kingston Plains

Munising Area Falls

Chapel Falls

Lower Chapel Falls

Miners Beach Falls

MNA Memorial Falls

Munising Falls

Potato Patch Falls

Tannery Falls

More on Kingston Plains

To see some older photos, and read some good historical information on Kingston Plains, visit Dr. Randall J. Schaetzl's Kingston Plains page.

Jeff Gennick amidst the Stump Prairie

Description

Kingston Plains is a burned over area approximately halfway between Munising and Grand Marais. A large forest fire devastated the land, burning not only all the pine trees, but all the seeds in the soil that would normally result in new growth and regeneration. Consequently, the burn area, even today, consists mainly of open space and pine stumps, interspersed with a small amount of new growth. I'm not sure yet when the fire occurred, but I do know that it was prior to 1935.

You can see from the photo that some new growth is ocurring. It's not clear to me whether it is all natural, or if some of it was planted. I've read that some reforestation efforts have been undertaken in this area, but I haven't yet been able to dig up any reliable information on those efforts.

Directions

I'll get a map up here soon, but getting to Kingston Plains is pretty easy. Just follow these directions:

1. Take H-58 east out of Munising towards Grand Marais.
2. Drive for a 20-30 minutes. You'll pass signs for Miners Castle, the Chapel Beach Area, and the Beaver Lake Campground.
3. Immediately after passing the Beaver Lake area, the road will turn to dirt. Keep driving. Watch out, it gets rough in spots.
4. Eventually, you'll come to an area where the dirt road becomes noticably narrower, and is obviously less well maintained. A better looking road named Adams Truck Trail will veer off to your right. You are now at the area in which I took the photo you see at the top of this page.

The stumps are visable off of H-58 north of Adams Truck Trail. The stumps are also visible along the north side of Adams Truck Trail for a mile or two past H-58. Be sure to stop, get out of your car, and walk around a bit.

Slide Show

In late April or early May of 2001, my son Jeff and I took a trip out to Kingston Plains. The following links take you to slides we took on our trip. I hope you enjoy the show.

1. The end of the road
2. Some unfortunate litter
3. One of the old stumps
4. Stumps are everywhere
5. Much of the ground is bare
6. A bearing tree
7. The survey marker
8. Me by a stump