LANSING, Mich. — In the mighty Mitten, unique stories are always steps away. Perhaps never more true than in the rare books vault of the Library of Michigan.
“If you want to know about Michigan in a published form, you can find it here at the Library of Michigan," said Adam Oster, community engagement librarian. "Anything and everything that is published about Michigan”
“We tend to think of ourselves as like the Library of Congress, but at the state level.”
In the vault, cooled below levels of comfort for any human, Adam pulls out a 1797 Native American treaty, a topographical map of the area from the early 1800s and the first issue of the Michigan Suffragist magazine. These are just some of the things that make him excited about this room.
“I am forever grateful that I have a job like this," he smiled.
Adam's level of enthusiasm is not provided by the job. He doesn’t mind. He brings his from home.
“How could you not want to spend 24 hours a day in this space?" he laughed. “I wish I could sleep here, but I can’t."
But maybe the most unique story of them all is not kept on the shelf. Instead, in a glass case of its own.
“When you come here, there is a distinctive thing that is unique," Adam laughed. “What's great about this building is that there's always something here to greet you.”
In the center of the library, visible from every floor-length inward-facing window, sits a 90-foot-tall white pine tree.
"One of the symbols of our state," said Adam. "Carl the tree.”
This tree is at the root of this library’s five stories.
“A family bought the seedling, brought it to their home in Novi. It was growing there at the family home for about 50 years. And then when the building here at the Michigan Library and Historical Center was being constructed, they donated the tree to be part as the center point within the courtyard," he said. "The building was designed that they purposely incorporated a tree as part of the structure.”
“If you're looking to go to the Library of Michigan, or the State Museum or the State Archives, just look for the building with the big giant white pine tree in the middle of it."
You’ll see the state tree, a white pine, all over Michigan. None with a stage quite like this.
“The story of us as Michiganders, and that's all exemplified within the symbol of a giant white pine tree," said Adam.
Carl, destined to a life as a simple pine, grew into a family tree.
“One needle is representing that great grandmother that came across from another country to come to Michigan, or somebody who had come from elsewhere to work in the automobile factories of Detroit," he said. “That Michigan tree, that Michigan family.”
Once just a seedling, now a legend as mighty as the Mitten itself.
“Our good friend and co-worker, Carl the tree," smiled Adam.
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