A history by William W. Smith, 1972 - wildernesshistory.rtf

Pettingill and Grabers (1957): The original forests of the Park area were subjected to extensive lumbering and severe fires, with the result that no virgin stands of trees remain. The last commercial lumbering occurred about 1840 and the last big fire about 1890.  In 1921, most of the area which now constitutes the Park was purchased by the state of Michigan as a game refuge and placed under the administration of the Game Division of the Department of Conservation. Five years later the administration was taken over by the Park Division and a resident superintendent was soon placed in charge.
      Among the first structures to be erected in the Park area were a home for the superintendent, and maintenance buildings. During the early 1930's the Civilian Conservation Corps established its camp, which included nearly a dozen buildings, and constructed roads and trails together with public camping, picknicking, and parking facilities and four overnight cabins in remote parts of the park. The C.C.C. also built the dam across Big Stone Creek, creating Big Stone Pond.  In later years the camp buildings vacated by the CCC, but still known as the old CCC Camp, were used successively as a summer camp by the Department of Geography of the U. of Michigan (1940-1951) and as a year-round camp for state prisoners (1951-1956).  The public camping grounds set up by the CCC (now called the Old Camp Grounds) were abandoned recently when newer and more commodious camping grounds (called simply Camp Grounds) were made available on Big Stone Bay.creating Big Stone Pond.