1,000-acre Maghielse Tract
REGION – It was Labor Day weekend of 1977 and Karen and Tom Fiebig were having a cookout with friends at their family camp on the AuSable River.
As the men stood around the grill watching chicken cook, Tom’ eyes fell on the darkening sky.
‘It formed over Sand Hill Lake a mile north of us,’ Tom recalled of the storm. ‘I’m watching the rain go straight sideways. All of a sudden, a big oak tree landed on my car. It was like a tornado outside – the noise, the black, the water.’
In two terrifying minutes the storm was over and the group, huddled in the cabin for shelter, stepped out the door to survey the damage.
‘When I came back outside the chicken was still cooking so we got to eat it,’ Tom joked.
For the rest of the property, the storm was no laughing matter. Of the Maghielse family’ 1,020 wooded acres, almost half of its trees were leveled, including dozens of giant white pines whose roots were torn from the earth by the brief but punishing wind shear.
‘You couldn’t walk on the ground,’ Karen said of the windswept areas where toppled trees resembled jungle gyms. ‘If you wanted to get through you were 15 feet off the ground walking on the trunks of trees.’
Even if all three cars parked at the cabin hadn’t been smashed by fallen trees – which they were – the road out was impassable. Karen’ father called for help on their citizens-band radio and the National Guard responded with a firefighting bulldozer to get them out.
‘You could hear the trees snapping under its tracks,’ she said of the giant military vehicle coming to their rescue. ‘It looked like a house on tank treads.’
In the 70-some years the Maghielse family owned the property there would be more tragedy, including at least one more destructive wind storm and a blaze that would claim the original cabin, but it’ the good memories that will be the hardest to give up as the family hands the property over to the state this year.
Karen’ grandfather, Peter C. Maghielse, bought the land from the Strong family in 1947, the year she was born. The Strongs owned three large, consecutive tracts on the upper AuSable River near Grayling.
‘He looked all over the state for a large piece of property for hunting,’ she said of her grandfather. ‘When the Strongs decided to sell they gave my grandfather the choice of what section he liked, and he chose the center one because it was more affordable and protected by private property on both sides.’
From then on, the property was a popular retreat for Maghielse’ children, grandchildren and great-grandkids who hunted, fished and explored the land on four-wheelers. Karen said the head mounts of several big bucks taken off the property adorned the knotty-pine interior of the original cabin, and remembers her granddad hoisting her up to the mounts so she could pet them as a kid.
Forest-management plans on the property throughout the years have favored wildlife habitat, including cuts to regenerate aspen and, most recently, the planting of perennial rye and chicory food plots for deer and turkeys.
<span “=””>’A deer could actually be born there and live its entire life without having to leave, that’ how diverse the forage is,’ Karen said.
Tom applies for a bear tag annually and said, four years ago, he was able to identify 12 different black bears in photos on his trail cameras.
The land is also home to beaver, otter, porcupines, bobcats, rabbits and grouse.
The western half of the property boasts tall, rolling hills. To the east remains a grove of old-growth white pines that both Karen and the Department of Natural Resources say rival those of nearby Hartwick Pines State Park.
>Along the river is about 40 acres of cedar trees so dense that it is inaccessible to deer which browse on tender, young cedars. The fortress of adult trees harbors naturally regenerating cedar, something that is incredibly rare in the AuSable River region.
Kerry Wieber, forest land administrator for the DNR’ Forest Resources Division, said the purchase of the Maghielse property was awarded a $3 million grant from the Natural Resources Trust Fund in 2016.
The 1,600-acre MacArthur property to the north was purchased by the state in the late 1980s; and the 737-acre Williams tract to the south was bought in the early 1990s. Wieber said the state made a bid to buy the Maghielse tract around that time but the family decided not to sell.
Now they’re ready, and the sale will finally reunite all three giant parcels under one owner – this time, the people of Michigan.
Once the sale goes through, the DNR will inventory and map the property before determining specific uses for the land, including the extent of motorized and non-motorized use. That process will likely include input from the public, according to DNR unit manager Susan Thiel, who said the MacArthur, Maghielse and Williams tracts could all be rolled into one management area.
As for the existing cabin, past acquisitions have usually involved the demolition of structures to reduce liability.
‘It’ bittersweet selling it, it really is, but it’ so nice that it’ going to stay together for everyone to appreciate,’ Karen said. ‘All the families (MacArthurs, Williams, Maghielsies) had the same idea for their lands. It was so nice to have it for hunting and fishing but, when we weren’t able to do it any longer, we wanted to let all people hunt and fish it. I guess we all believe in public land.’
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