MI 150522

Lone Pine Ridge When the first stockmen began riding through the range they found a big pine tree standing all alone on top of a big long ridge between Camp Creek on the east and Pine Creek on the west. There were no other trees within several hundred yards of the big pine and it was probably the lone survivor of other trees of its kind. The old pine had probably gone through many forest fires and it was stripped of it's branches for half it's length. Naturally the early riders began to call the tree Lone Pine and the ridge upon which it stood was called Lone Pine Ridge. Lone Pine Ridge begins at the Big Rock and runs north and west to the top of the mountain west of Timber Mountain. It is a 47 Lone Pine Ridge - 2 few miles long with bluffs, timber and brush. It is broken up with little divides, branch ridges, and ravines. The side facing Pine Creek is fairly open but steep. The area in the early days was a fine winter and spring range for cattle and horses because there was always a good supply of bunch grass growing on the hill sides. Roaming bands of horses depleted the bunch grass but most of them have been rounded up so maybe the good old bunch grass will get a second chance. Lone Pine Ridge was in the early days the hone of many cougars and after the market hunters killed nearly all the deer the cougars began to kill colts. It became nearly impossible for the colts to survive from the cougars because there were not any stallions to protect the horses. The stock men organized and hunted the cougars and quite a number of them were killed. Lone Pine Ridge was, up until a few years ago, one of the best deer areas around but in the late years the sportsmen with their dogs and modern rifles have decreased the deer there. Many years ago the wind caused the big Lone Pine to fall to the ground and it is slowly turning to dust. I have heard it said that all things will come to an end and I have heard at funerals that man is made of dust and will return to dust and probably the same holds true for trees also. Lone Pine is gone as a living thing but its name lives on and on. Maybe this, too, shall pass and the name Lone Pine be forgotten but if it does happen it will be long after the old tree has turned to dust. When I think of Lone Pine I am reminded of a song that I used to hear long ago, "On The Trail of The Lonesome Pine."
(the Lone Pine Ridge Trail is still on topo maps of the area)