Michigan Conservation Commission

Summary

The held newspaper reprints identify a State of Michigan Conservation Commission as the body issuing Beaver Island game restrictions in 1938, 1941, and 1952. Acting under the authority of Act 230, P.A. 1925, the commission closed the season on deer in 1938, on sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chicken in 1941, and on cottontail rabbits in 1952, each order published over the signatures of the commission’s chairman, secretary, and the Department of Conservation’s director.¹

This is a source-qualified agency record connecting the three legal instruments and their named officers. It is not a complete institutional history of the commission or the Michigan Department of Conservation.

History

The earliest held order, dated September 9, 1938, and published in the Charlevoix County Herald, closed the deer season for five years beginning November 15, 1938, in “the township of St. James, Town 39 N., Range 10 W., Big Beaver Island, Charlevoix County.” It was signed and sealed by P. J. Hoffmaster alone, identified as Director, Department of Conservation, with no chairman or secretary named on the printed order.

The second order, dated July 14, 1941, closed the season on sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chicken on Beaver Island for two years from October 1, 1941. It carries three signatures: Joseph P. Rahilly as chairman, Wayland Osgood as secretary, and Hoffmaster again, this time as a countersigning director rather than sole signatory — evidence that the commission’s own officers, not the Department of Conservation director alone, issued the later order.

The third held order, dated July 10, 1952 and printed in the Charlevoix County Herald of September 5, 1952, closed the taking of cottontail rabbits “on Beaver Island, Charlevoix County” for one year from October 1, 1952. It was signed by Harold W. Glassen as chairman and F. P. Struhsaker as secretary, and countersigned by Gerald E. Eddy as Director of Conservation — showing complete turnover in all three named offices from the 1941 order. The same September 1952 issue also carried two other commission orders published the same day under the identical chairman, secretary, and director signatures: a Lower Peninsula raccoon-trapping order restricting Zones 2 and 3, and a Lower Peninsula sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chicken order limited to open hunting in six named counties (Antrim, Crawford, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Otsego, and Roscommon). Beaver Island’s own cottontail closure was therefore one of several game orders the commission issued that day, and its Beaver-Island-specific scope stands apart from the broader regional and statewide orders signed by the same officers.

Evidence and limits

The source wording supports the commission’s regulatory role, its statutory authority under Act 230, P.A. 1925, and the identities of the officers who signed each order. It does not by itself establish the commission’s legal founding, the boundaries of its authority beyond these orders, its successor agency, or complete membership beyond the individuals named on the three printed orders. The records of the Department of Conservation and the commission are kept distinct from the individual signatories.

Added 1 August 2026. Recent changes