ONLINE: Jerry Apps

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Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society Press

The writing of prolific Wisconsin author Jerry Apps often focuses on rural history and country life.

media release: Join us for "Book Bites" - a new series of brief Facebook Live book talks from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press exploring all things Wisconsin! The series will stream on the WHS Press Facebook page on the first and third Wednesday of each month.

On Wednesday, November 4, Jerry Apps discusses When the White Pine was King: A History of Lumberjacks, Log Drives, and Sawdust Cities in Wisconsin

For more than half a century, logging and affiliated enterprises in Wisconsin’s Northwoods provided jobs for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites and wealth for many individuals. The industry cut through the lives of nearly every Wisconsin citizen, from an immigrant lumberjack or camp cook in the Chippewa Valley to a Suamico sawmill operator to a Milwaukee banker.

When the White Pine Was King tells the stories of the heyday of logging, of lumberjacks, river drives, and lumber towns. Apps explores the aftermath of the logging era, including efforts to farm the cutover (most of them doomed to fail), successful reforestation work, and the legacy of the lumber and wood products industries. The result is a book that transports readers to the lumber boom era and reveals how the lessons learned in the vast northern forestlands continue to shape the region today.  

Jerry Apps was born and raised on a central Wisconsin farm. He is a former county extension agent and professor emeritus for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Today he works as a rural historian, full-time writer, and creative writing instructor.