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Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 42-43

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Bloomfield Township (Mich.) -- History

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 -- Journeys -- North America.

GB01a023

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

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TOCQUEVILLE FINDS HIS WILDERNESS While Tocqueville and Beaumont came to Bloomfield eleven years after it was first settled, and encountered the thin line of the first homesteads, the wilderness for which they were searching had only recently been the condition of Bloomfield. If we take a little poetic license, rolling the calendar back to 1818, and using the description of an area somewhat north of us, we'll see Bloomfield exactly as it was when the first pioneer families came to its virgin forests and its oak openings. Tocqueville speaks: "As we proceeded, we gradually lost sight of the traces of man. Soon all proofs even of savage life disappeared, and before us was the scene that we had so long been seeking- a virgin forest. "Growing in the middle of the thin brushwood, through which objects are perceived at a considerable distance, was a single clump of full-grown trees, almost all pines or oaks. Confined to so narrow a space, and deprived of sunshine, each of these trees had run up rapidly, in search of air and light. As straight as the mast of a ship, the most rapid grower had overtopped every surrounding object; only when it had attained a higher region did it venture to spread out its branches, and clothe itself with leaves. Others followed quickly in this elevated sphere; and the whole group, interlacing their boughs, formed a sort of immense canopy. Underneath this damp, motionless vault; the scene is different."