This Eastern white pine at Point Lookout has only one remaining live branch. Several weeks ago, I rode with a couple of friends up to Point Lookout on Mackinac Island, and I realized that the old Eastern white pine that has stood for years on the cliff overlooking Sugar Loaf has only one live branch; the rest of the tree had died. This old conifer that had proudly stood for years against winds, rains, and snows, finally succumbed to the elements, insects, and old age. For the last few years, it had been dying slowly, first one branch, and then another. Woodpeckers, pileated and others, had been hammering away on this proud old tree, to get out the insects that were feeding on it. I doubt that it will survive the winter, and I will be sad when it passes.

I had often thought of it in relationship to the old creation story that an Ottawa friend of mine had told me (a shortened version, to be sure, as the full version, I was informed, takes three days to tell). The story goes something like this: In the ancient times, the Sky God and Sky Woman lived in the heavens, and living there also was a beautiful pine tree. The Sky Woman somehow became convinced that an evil spirit lived in the tree, and entreated the Sky God to remove it. He eventually gave in, and pulled the tree from the heavens. The Sky Woman ran to the hole where the tree had been, and looking down into it, she saw a face. She was right, she thought, there was a spirit living in the tree, but as she leaned closer to look, she realized that it was the face of a beautiful woman. She leaned closer and she fell into the hole, and as she tried to hold onto the heavens, she grabbed some of the seeds from the great pine. You see, she didn't realize that when the Sky God pulled out the pine, he made a hole in the heavens, and what is below the heavens? The water, of course, so she was looking at her own reflection in the water when she looked into the hole. Now the swans saw her fall, and they swam quickly to the spot and scooped her up onto their backs, for they didn't want her to drown and make the Sky God angry. They realized that they couldn't carry her on their backs forever, and so after talking to the other animals, they decided what to do. You see, it was said that there was earth under the water, and if they could get some, they could have some land on which to put Sky Woman. They called for their best divers and asked them to go below the water and find some land. The duck volunteered first, and he dove and dove, but couldn't reach the bottom. The otter tried it, as he was a powerful diver, but he failed, too. All of the other animals, birds, and reptiles tried it, until only the lowly muskrat remained (it was a female muskrat at that), and she dove and dove, deeper and deeper, until she felt her breath leaving her, but still she reached out. All of the animals on the surface of the water waited and waited, and still no muskrat. Finally her lifeless body floated to the surface, and in her paw was land. They were greatly saddened by muskrat's passing, but they put Sky Woman on the back of a great turtle and gave her the soil, and as the turtle swam, she dropped some of it and some of the pine seeds. And this is how the first land came to be. Sky Woman was now able to stand on dry land, and the pine trees began to grow. The Sky God was so grateful that Sky Woman had been saved, that he blew life back into the poor dead muskrat. So this is how dry land came to be, and the story goes that the first land that was made was Mackinac.

So, whenever I would look at that old white pine at Point Lookout, I would think of this creation story, as the area around Point Lookout and Fort Holmes was the first part of Mackinac that was above water, so this old pine might have been one of the first to be planted by Sky Woman.

Eastern white pines are fairly easy to identify. Like all pines, they have their needles in clusters, but unlike other pines in eastern North America, the needles are in a cluster of five (same number of letters in the word "white," just a little mnemonic device). Occasionally the needles will be in a cluster of three or four. The needles are slender, straight, three to five inches long, and persist on the tree for a couple of years. They're a pale blue-green in color and have a soft appearance. The tree, on average, stands 60 to 80 feet tall, with a diameter of two to four feet, and has a very straight bowl. At the top of the tree, the branches form a wide pyramidal crown. Because of the height of the trees, often sticking up above the rest of the canopy, the branches at the top generally bend away from the direction of the prevailing winds, producing a characteristic and picturesque shape, which often makes them easy to identify from a distance. If you go up to Fort Holmes and look down, you can see them towering over the forest below.

The bark on twigs are often covered with rusty hair and later become smooth, light brown/ greenish. The trunks of mature trees are dark gray, almost black, with thick, shallowly fissured bark, which as it ages forms broad scaly ridges. The cones of this pine, which mature in the autumn of their second year and fall in the following winter, are four to 10 inches long. They hang downward, are short stalked, and narrowly cylindrical, often curved. The scales are rather loose, slightly thickening at the apex, and overall seem less woody than many of the other pine cones.

Eastern white pines (Pinus strobus) have been of great importance to Michigan. It was made the official state tree of Michigan because it was the backbone of the lumber industry, particularly in the last quarter of the 19th century. At that time, Michigan led the nation in lumber production, and this state had the finest stands of these pines in the world, with trees attaining the height of 150 to 200 feet tall, with diameters of five to seven feet, much larger than most white pines. The lumber from Eastern hite pines is very lightweight, 27 pounds/ cubic foot, fairly soft, and easily worked. Very close and straight grained, and although it splits readily, it nails well. This pine has been used for doors, window sashes, interior finished and other carpentry, patterns, cabinet work, matches, and boxes. It is considered the most generally useful of all American woods.

Besides its use as a building material, the Eastern white pine has also been used for medicinal purposes. The crushed or boiled needles of the tree, applied to the forehead,

were used by the Ojibwa to relieve headaches. The needles are also high in vitamin C, and were made into tea to cure scurvy. The smoke from the needles, put in a small hole with hot stones placed upon them, was inhaled to cure backaches and headaches. The Menominee steeped the inner bark of the young trees and drank the tea to relieve chest pain. A poultice, made from the pounded bark, was used for burns, scalds, wounds, and sores. Sometimes the boiled trunk of young trees would be added to the inner bark of cherry trees (Prunus serotina and P. americana) and made into a mash. The mash was then dried and later resoaked to make a poultice for wounds. Bark tea was thought useful in urinary and kidney troubles. The male cones (strobuli) were used in liniments for rheumatism. The gummy sap, made into a decoction, was used for sore throats, colds, and consumption. The gum also has been used to relieve rheumatic and muscular aches. I guess you could say that, overall, the Eastern white pine is a pretty useful tree.

Yesterday, I went up again to see my old friend, the white pine, at Point Lookout. It's not straight and tall like most white pines, it's windblown and scruffy, but it's tenaciously hanging on to the cliff edge of the ancient Island and tenaciously hanging onto life. I thought of all the years that this tree had seen, and was reminded of a quote from John Fox Jr. from his book, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," published in 1908: "He had seen it [the pine] giving place with somber dignity to the passing burst of spring - had seen it green among dying autumn leaves, green in the gray of winter trees, and still green in a shroud of snow - a changeless promise that the earth must wake to life again. The lonesome pine, the mountaineers called it, and the lonesome pine it always looked to be." I often think of this pine at Point Lookout as Mackinac's "Lonesome Pine."

Trish Martin is a year-around resident of Mackinac Island, has earned a master's degree in botany from Central Michigan University, and owns Bogan Lane Inn.