Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

A 1942 photo at one of the DNR's "camera points." This one is in Wolverine, Mich.

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By Emily Bingham | ebingham@mlive.com

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LANSING, MI - Kerry Fitzpatrick didn’t know exactly what he was inheriting when, one day more than a decade ago, a coworker of his at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources stopped by his office and handed over a binder full of old photographs in plastic sleeves.

The coworker was retiring, and the photos needed to be passed along to someone else’s care.

When Fitzpatrick finally had time to dig into the contents of the binder, what he found was quietly remarkable: A collection of serial photographs shot roughly 10 to 20 years apart, spanning decades, in precise locations in Michigan’s state forests. There was no explanation as to who began the project nor their reason why, but included with the photos were detailed notes, almost like treasure maps, on how to find each location.

Fitzpatrick, a wildlife habitat specialist, immediately recognized the significance of such a rare collection, and the importance of carrying it on.

“When I saw what it was, I realized this was something that needed to be continued,” Fitzpatrick says. “It’s obvious that the person who started this had repeating it in mind.”

The Camera Point Project, as it’s now called, was started by someone in the DNR sometime in the first quarter of the 20th century, in the wake of the rampant deforestation of Michigan’s lumber boom. The black-and-white pictures show, over time, the way forests slowly change and regenerate -- even after unthinkable damage.

The collection includes photographs at 49 sites across 12 counties in northwest lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. The earliest photos date back to 1926. When Fitzpatrick inherited the collection, the most recent series had been shot in 1990.

In 2012, dutifully carrying the baton, Fitzpatrick went about photographing the next set. It wasn’t easy, though: The sites were remote, the forests had changed, and the written directions to each location were painfully analog, often including old-school surveying “chains” as a unit of measuring distance.

“One time I spent a whole evening trying to find a site, and I had to go back the next day,” he says. “I spent two hours walking around in circles just trying to find the spot."

Fitzpatrick persevered though, adding another series of photos to the collection -- plus GPS coordinates to make things easier for the next round, which is scheduled for 2022, marking a century since the project began.

The collection now lives in perpetuity in the Archives of Michigan, where all the photos and notes have been digitized (a significant step up from a binder). And in planning for what might be a second century of photographs, there's been discussion about expanding the camera points to include a broader representation of Michigan's state forests.

As a novelty, the Camera Point Project is like a fascinating flip book, showing forests swallowing fields and fire trails, roads emerging or receding, horizons changing over time. But from a deeper perspective, the collection offers a long-view look at the often imperceptible life of a forest -- and the relationship between ourselves and the outdoors.

"Our time frame is not the same as nature's time frame," Fitzpatrick says. "You walk into a forest and it looks like it's been there forever, and like it will be there forever, but when you see it over the course of 100 years it becomes very dynamic. It even shows what the human impact is, for better and for worse."

Read on for a selection of sequential photos from the Camera Point Project. The full collection can be seen online at the Archives of Michigan's Michiganology website.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Luce County: 1926

The original camera point for this Luce County location was located at the top of a fire tower overlooking Holland Lake. The first photo in this series was taken in 1927; after the fire tower was removed, the camera point was relocated in 1971 to a small plateau halfway between the old tower site and the lake.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1965.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The camera point in 1971, when the location was moved.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 2012.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Wilmot Township: 1942

Taken on what appears to be a spring day in 1942, this image from a Cheboygan County camera point includes the photographer's car sitting in the middle of a fire lane. In keeping with the original photograph -- and perhaps as a nod to the invisible folks behind the lens -- each subsequent photographer included their cars in their shots, too. (See the following four photos; if you look closely, you can see the cars' styles change along with the surroundings.)

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1952.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1962.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1990.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 2012.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Chandler Township: 1942

At a location in the Gaylord State Forest Area, a man sits on a stump along an old railroad grade near the intersection of Springvale Road and CCC Road. This was the earliest photo taken at this spot, in 1942. (Note the location of the stump in subsequent photos from this spot.)

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1962.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1990.

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The same location in 2012.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Chandler Township: 1925

A 1925 photo taken at a different spot in the Gaylord State Forest Area.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 1942 (with cows).

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 1971.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 2012.

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Clare: 1926

Taken near the junction of Old US 27 and Browns Road, this camera point includes a historic barn, providing an interesting constant. The initial photograph was shot in 1926.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1940.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location, photographed some time between 1960 and 1969.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 2012.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Boyne Falls fire lane: 1927

One of the camera points in Charlevoix County, featuring a view of an old fire lane near the junction of Slashing Road and Chandler Road. Photo taken in 1927.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same Boyne Falls fire lane, photographed in 1967.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same Boyne Falls fire lane, photographed in 1990.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Photographed in 2012, this is the most recent image of the Boyne Falls fire lane camera point.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Cheboygan County: 1927

A photograph of a barren field and a hill in Cheboygan County, near the junction of Marl Creek Road and West Sturgeon River Road. Photo taken in 1927.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same Cheboygan County location, photographed in 1942.

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The same Cheboygan County location, photographed in 1952. Note that the hill in the background is still visible.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same Cheboygan County location, photographed in 1962.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Photographed in 2012, this is the most recent photograph of this particular camera point.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Boyne Falls: 1926

Taken in 1926 on the west side of Howard Road, near the the junction of Howard Road and Chandler Road in Boyne Falls.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 1942.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 1967.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Same location in 2012.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

Boyne Falls: 1926

In some instances, multiple camera points were selected from similar locations, with the photographs shot facing different directions. This is another image from the same location in Boyne Falls, taken in 1926, but shot to the southeast.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1942.

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Photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

The same location in 1979.

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The same location in 2012.

For more photos and details, visit the Archives of Michigan's Michiganology website.

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Courtesy of Michigan Technological University Archives

Related: This historic Michigan photographer's work is a window into early 1900's U.P. life

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RELATED: Historic photos reveal realities of post lumber-boom life in the Upper Peninsula