For Nancy Tulgestka, it all started around 1987. She was in college. Some guys get their girlfriends jewelry, Nancy’s boyfriend got her a woodchipper. He wanted to start a life together running his family’s small logging business in Rogers City, Michigan. Business was good in the northwoods. After a few years, they opened a sawmill too.
But things changed a lot in 30 years. Small, family-owned sawmills and logging businesses have given way to bigger ones. The Tulgestkas tried to keep their mill open. They refinanced their home and borrowed against some land they own. It didn’t work.
Now the sawmill is up for auction.
At 9 o’clock sharp one sunny fall morning, an auctioneer turns on his microphone. In front of him is a list of tools, machines, trucks: the things that made up the Tulgestkas’ decades-old business. Everyone’s here to buy something or to watch the pieces of a past life get bought. What matters now is surviving.
This episode is part of The Listeners, a project of the Transom Story Lab that invites public radio reporters, independent producers, and podcasters to make short, hyperlocal, documentary-style portraits that bring us closer to our neighbors.
The Listeners is a return to public radio's early values: stories that embrace the whole person and honor ordinary lives with depth and artistry. Stories about all the unimportant things that happen between the important things. Stories that remind us we are more alike than we are different.
If you want to hear more stories like this, follow along at transom.org, or in the Transom newsletter. They'll be compiling great stories from around the country.
CREDITS:
Producer: Ellie Katz
Host and Editor: Dan Wanschura
Additional Editing: Peter Payette, Claire Keenan-Kurgan, Austin Rowlader
Additional Production: Austin Rowlader
Music: Blue Dot Sessions
TRANSCRIPT:
DAN WANSCHURA, HOST: This is Points North, a podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. I’m Dan Wanschura. For Nancy Tulgestka, it all started around 1987. She was in college. Some guys get their girlfriends jewelry, Nancy’s boyfriend got her a woodchipper. He wanted to start a life together running his family’s small logging business in Rogers City, Michigan.
NANCY TULGESTKA: I think at that time he borrowed a million dollars, I mean, signed everything in his life away. He said, “This is going to be good.” And I don't know, maybe I was just in love with him, whatever. But I said, “Yes.” I said, you know, “We'll try it.”
WANSCHURA: And business was good in the northwoods. A few years in they even started up a sawmill where they cut logs into usable lumber. Nancy and her boyfriend Chris worked hard, got married, raised a family. But things have changed a lot in 30 years. The Tulgestkas tried to keep up. They refinanced their home, they borrowed against some land they had. Nancy says it was death by a thousand cuts. In 2024, they had to close the mill. Let a bunch of people go. And now the sawmill is up for auction. They’re trying to sell what they can to pay back the mountain of debt they’ve built up.
(ambient chatter)
WANSCHURA: People in Carhartts and work boots are filtering into this big industrial garage now. It’s full of heavy machinery and trucks, set back from a county highway lined with pine trees. Some of the people coming in are strangers. Some are neighbors. Some are family. A man in a bright red jacket takes his place in front of all of them. And at 9 o’clock sharp, he turns on his microphone.
AUCTIONEER: Well, ladies and gentlemen, as most of you know, Tulgestka & Sons has decided to discontinue their sawmill operation.
WANSCHURA: Everyone’s here to buy something or to watch the pieces of a past life get bought. It’s auction day. For Nancy, what matters now is surviving. Ellie Katz takes it from here.
AUCTIONEER: This is an occasional sale. Therefore, there is no sales tax here today. Please register right in the back of the room. We’re ready to go.
ELLIE KATZ, BYLINE: How do you feel? Are you nervous? Are you excited?
TULGESTKA: You know it's– I'm ready for it to be over. It's been a long journey trying to make things work here and the industry is so bad right now. So I'm ready for it to be over. Hopefully we have a good auction. Hopefully there's people bidding.
AUCTIONEER: …but that is not collected here today.
TULGESTKA: Well, I'm going to run to my office. You can follow me if you want.
KATZ: I will.
(sound of footsteps, door opening and closing)
(ambient office sounds)
TULGESTKA: Morning, Deb.
KATZ: Nancy walks into a small office next door. It’s pretty quiet in here. She and her husband Chris still run their logging business, but those employees are out in the woods most of the time, cutting aspen. And now they bring the logs somewhere else, to other mills. After they closed their sawmill, Nancy hoped someone would buy it. But she knew one thing: she didn’t want this — an auction. She tells me about a time last summer when they went to check out another sawmill auction just see what things were going for.
TULGESTKA: And I watched his stuff go. And I'm talking, it went pennies on the dollar. I mean, I felt so horrible for him because it wasn't bringing in any money, and guy worked all his life. I was thinking, “Oh, my God, this poor guy.” And I was watching things go for $20,000 that were worth $200. It was bad. We kind of said, “Well, we don't want to really do that.”
KATZ: So when did you go from “We're never going to do an auction” to “We got to do an auction?”
TULGESTKA: When the money starts running dry, we got to do an auction. Because we started getting bills piling up. We would have been better off closing down earlier than what we did, but we were trying to hold off. You know, we thought things would get better, and so we just kept trying, you know what I mean, borrowing money, trying to keep it open, and just wasn't gonna work.
KATZ: Nancy has curly blonde hair. She’s got a big laugh. She keeps taking her glasses on and off to read the auction papers in her hand.
KATZ: Do you have a list of stuff you're selling today?
TULGESTKA: Here's a list. I mean, these are all sawmill things. Like, a barrel fan, strapping cart, I mean, because basically, we're kind of getting rid of everything out there. But timberland machinery, log merchandise. One of our big mills was a 2008 Big Jake Scragg Mill. Honestly, I don't even want to look at it. It's a list of a lot of hard work. Things that, you know, we worked hard to buy and pay for, and now they're gonna go, probably for pennies on the dollar.
KATZ: Do you think after this is over, today, you'll feel relief?
TULGESTKA: I will. Well, when I see the bottom number, I’ll hopefully feel some relief. That's, I mean, that's gonna make a difference. I mean, I could be even more stressed out afterwards, depending on what this brings, so.
(sounds of auctioneer fade in)
AUCTIONEER AMBIENT: Sold for $2,100! Your way, Randy. 163. 41 is your Mellott 12-foot slab drop with electric drive. Give me five grand on it, on the slab drop. Give me five-thousand to go…
SHAWNEE HORN: We’re loggers and I know this sawmill equipment costs a lot more than what it’s going for. My heart goes out to him today because it’s not bringing even a fraction of what he’s got invested here.
KATZ: Shawnee Horn and her husband are sitting in the auction garage, occasionally holding up their number to bid.
HORN: If you pick up these auction papers— they come to my mailbox three times a week. The market’s really, has fallen.
AUCTIONEER: $16,000. $16,000 to go. Alright. 71. 15-horse, 18-inch sawdust blower right there. Give me $500. Two-and-a-half. Three.
KATZ: Shawnee buys a sawdust blower for $300 dollars. Her husband estimates it’s worth about $2,500.
AUCTIONEER: $300. $400. $300. Give me three-and-a-half. Sold at $300.
HORN: And I feel bad that I got a deal ‘cause somebody lost their butt. That’s life. But at least it sold. If this was my business I’d be crying right now.
(sounds of auction fade out)
NANCY: Every time we turn around something’s closing. I'm kind of, you know, I'm tired. I'm tired out. I'm tired. And, you know, I've always taken pride in paying our bills. Well, with the way this industry was going, you know, we got behind.
KATZ: Small logging businesses and sawmills like the Tulgestkas were all over the Great Lakes: part of the region's identity. But like family farms, these mom and pop operations have had a hard time surviving. The market goes up and down. Younger generations don’t want to take over. Bigger, newer operations outcompete little ones.
TULGESTKA: I was talking to the guy at John Deere and I told him, I said, you know, “We made our payments every month since I've been here. I show we paid you guys over $7 million, you know, for John Deere.” I said, “Now we need some help. We just need some time. We need to, you know, renegotiate some things.” And they're working on it now, so. But I just wanna sell this, move and get to the next chapter so that I can actually, like, instead of being stressed all the time, just enjoy my life a little bit.
KATZ: Nancy looks out the window of the office. People are walking around, checking out the family’s motorhome, which is also up for auction today.
TULGESTKA: I gotta go check on that.
KATZ: Should we go back over there?
TULGESTKA: Yeah. So I gotta see where we’re at. I don’t know how good it’s going.
(sound of footsteps, door opening and closing)
(sound of auction)
KATZ: Nancy walks up to Mike Hummel. Mike’s worked for the family company for 26 years. Nancy remembers that number because she had her first son right when Mike started out with them.
KATZ: Mike, how do you think it’s going?
MIKE HUMMEL: Not very well. Everything's selling, but it's just dirt cheap.
AUCTIONEER: 22-and-a-half, there you go. 22-and-a-half.
HUMMEL: They're asking the top prices, asking the bottom prices, what the bids are, either here or online. Don't raise your hand.
KATZ: Don’t worry, I will not.
HUMMEL: We actually bought some of our sawmill stuff from previous auctions. Tore it apart, hauled it here, put it together. So I've been on both sides now. You know it's bad when the Amish are buying electric motors, if that tells you anything. Seriously. I'm sure he bought a package deal, he’ll probably sell the motor off, but still, I mean, that's a good deal if an Amish guy's buying electric motors.
AUCTIONEER: Hit the button! 92-and-a-half? Yes! And now five, and now 95…
(sound of auction fades out)
KATZ: What did you do when you woke up this morning?
TULGESTKA: Oh, you mean when I didn't go to bed from last night? I got up, I let the dogs out, took a shower. And you know, I mean, of course, I fell asleep for a little while. And then I woke up at, like, 4:30. My husband was already up drinking his coffee, and we talked for a while. And then the next thing, you know, it's 6:30. I said, “Better jump in the shower and get over here.”
KATZ: What’d you and your husband talk about?
TULGESTKA: This. Working hard and losing this.
KATZ: I want it to be for people what it feels like to be you today.
TULGESTKA: You don’t wanna know what it feels like today. And my husband's not even here, because he's not feeling good. And it's hard. We worked pretty hard for this and to watch it go. That's why I just want it to be over with and done.
KATZ: Chris, Nancy’s husband, isn’t here today — he’s too stressed out by it all. He had to go to the hospital a couple days earlier. Nancy takes a breath and leans against the wall. She looks down at the turquoise sweatshirt she’s wearing. It’s new. Her friend got it for her a couple days ago.
KATZ: Your sweatshirt says, “Nope. Not today.”
TULGESTKA: Not today. And there’s a lot of meanings, like, nope, nobody’s gonna put the screws to me today. When I go back out there, I’m gonna be, you know what, don’t screw with me today. I just gotta make sure that— you don't ever want to let them see you sweat. I just gotta hold up and be strong. That’s all I can do.
(sound of footsteps, door opening and closing)
(sound of auction)
TULGESTKA: Hi, Chuck.
CHUCK BRUDER: How you doing?
TULGESTKA: Doing alright.
BRUDER: Good as expected?
TULGESTKA: Remember, we gotta have big shoulders.
KATZ: How do you guys know each other?
TULGESTKA: Oh, God.
BRUDER: Oh, golly.
TULGESTKA: Long, long time, long time. This is friends with my husband. His name is Chuck Bruder. And you were friends with my father-in-law, Erhardt.
KATZ: Chuck, are you in the market for anything?
BRUDER: I already got it.
KATZ: Oh, what'd you get?
BRUDER: Chris is going to get mad when he finds out what I paid for ‘em.
TULGESTKA: Don't even tell him. What'd you buy?
BRUDER: Them bucket elevators. Them legs.
TULGESTKA: Well, if you can use them, good. There you go. Right?
BRUDER: I was the only one that bid on them.
TULGESTKA: There you go.
KATZ: Chuck heads outside.
BRUDER: I've known them, golly six, when Erhardt first started out. The early 70s. It's sad that it's something that’s— a heritage gone. Our farm was homesteaded in 1885. It's never going to leave. I got it set up so it's going to stay in the family. I hate to see something like this that’s been around for so many years, just all of a sudden go haywire. Somebody starts a business…
(sound of phone ringing)
BRUDER: …next generation can sometimes keep it. A third one is going to lose it. That’s usually the way it–
(sound of phone ringing)
BRUDER: My granddaughter.
(sound of phone ringing)
BRUDER: I gotta grab it.
KATZ: OK.
BRUDER: All right.
KATZ: Thanks, Chuck.
BRUDER: Yep.
KATZ: Nice to meet you.
(sound of footsteps, door opening and closing)
(sound of auction)
KATZ: Back inside, the auctioneer is calling out prices for the family motorhome.
AUCTIONEER: And now two-five. At $72,500. $70,000.
KATZ: There’s a bidding war between two buyers.
KATZ: You’re smiling a little bit.
TULGESTKA: What’s that?
KATZ: You seem like you’re smiling a little bit.
TULGESTKA: Yeah.
KATZ: Happy about that price?
TULGESTKA: Yeah, no, the more I get the better it’s gonna be.
AUCTIONEER: $72,500. Fair warning. Are you done at $70,000? Put it in the bank. Sold. $70,000.
KATZ: The motorhome was a big ticket. But still, it sells for thousands less than what Nancy was hoping to get, like most of the other stuff. Nancy’s running around taking calls, answering questions, trying to make sure nothing gets sold that’s not on her list. At a certain point, another auctioneer subs in. People filter out.The last few items flash on a screen up front. The auctioneer calls out the prices. And then it’s over. The whole thing takes less than four hours.
AUCTIONEER: 19. Buyer 19. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes everything in my catalogue. Thank you so very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Rest of your week. Don’t forget to check out the Associated website. Appreciate you all coming. Settle up back there with the ladies and enjoy the rest of your day.
TULGESTKA: Breathe. We got rid of some stuff that we needed to. Probably not the price we wanted but you know what? Just gotta move forward. Just gotta see what the bottom line is.
KATZ: Nancy walks over to a young guy. A cousin, Chad Tulgestke. He owns a trucking company nearby.
TULGESTKA: Hello there, sunshine.
TULGESTKA: Chad. Family.
CHAD TULGESTKE: Nice to meet you.
KATZ: My name’s Ellie.
TULGESTKE: Nice to meet you.
KATZ: You too. How did it feel to be here at the auction today?
TULGESTKE: End of an era. When I was in school, this was the third largest employer in the county. Like, this is a place where higher education don’t necessarily mean you’re going to make more money. You sail, you work in a mine, you work in the woods, you drive a truck. It’s– I don’t have the right word for it I guess.
KATZ: Did you buy anything?
TULGESTKE: Yeah, a handful of stuff, so.
KATZ: How’d that feel?
TULGESTKE: Again, I don’t know. We’re not real emotional people. I’m happy I got a deal but it’s bittersweet. Bittersweet. That’s the word I was looking for. Bittersweet. There was a time when they were buying up a lot people that were going out of business, you know. It’s kind of full circle. Strongest survive. We were all taught to win. There’s no surrender. You go til you can’t go no more.
KATZ: Nancy gets a call, runs out of the garage. She’s worried someone drove off with a truck they bought before getting the title signed over. Later she’ll sit down with the auctioneer, go over how much money she made: what her cut is, what theirs is. She’ll go to the bank. Go home. Maybe take a breath. Maybe sleep before tomorrow comes around. When she wakes up, she won’t have a sawmill anymore. For Nancy Tulgestka, it all started around 1987. She was in college. Some guys get their girlfriends jewelry, Nancy’s boyfriend got her a woodchipper. Today, three decades later, that woodchipper’s long gone. Along a county highway lined with pine trees, another family sawmill quietly peels itself off the map.
