The Tale of Ol’ Split Toe
Date Published: 03-31-2026
Narrator: Dan Ellens
Run Time: 10 hours 6 minutes
while fire, disease, logging, human displacement, and war repeatedly destroy
forests of centuries-old trees. Split Toe, a deer chosen at birth for a unique
education, travels through time to understand the interconnected workings of a
Michigan forest. He meets humans along the way: Ice Age hunters who trap and
kill a mastodon; Mukwoh, a young Ojibwe hunter who stalks Split Toe through
swamp and forest; loggers clearcutting Michigan’s white pines; Edra, a
woman advocating for the trees; Angus and Grace, pioneers who become a first
generation of family farmers; scientists from the future studying the impact
of nuclear radiation.
Split Toe witnesses two hundred years of conflict building between modern
humans — who fight to control the natural world — and Mother Nature, who
repeatedly reaches for balance. He wonders whether human ways will ultimately
overpower Mother Nature, until he meets a boy who changes everything.
Dan Ellens is an outdoor enthusiast who is passionate about connecting people with nature.
He spends nearly half of each year off-grid in an isolated, hand-built, electricity-free treehouse nestled within Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary with woodstove heat, handpump water, and oil lamp lighting.
Dan was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in southeast Michigan. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Calvin University and an MBA from Michigan State University. Dan is retired from a full career in industry and international business.
During 1996, 1997, and 1998, his family lived as expatriates in Bangalore, India, the inspiration for “A Time for India”, Dan’s second book, now in its second edition.
When Dan’s children were small – 10 years old – he took them each on an outward-bound, father-child adventure. The journal of those four trips became Dan’s first book, “Turning Ten: Great Adventures in the Great Lakes”, now in its second edition.
Dan is an accomplished woodworker and carpenter. His lifelong love for
old-school carpentry inspired “Building the Bunkee: A Photo Anthology of Custom Log Cabin Construction and One Man’s Retirement Dream”.
Dan is a hobby artist who is passionate about rescuing, restoring, and finding new homes for fine art. In the wilds, he sees cooking and baking without modern conveniences as their own adventure and creative expression. “Treehouse Letters: The Unabridged Michigan Forest Life Journal” includes entries about his art and
his back-woods cooking … and many other things that one might think about while in a tree.
“Forest Legend: The Tale of Ol’ Split Toe”, Dan’s upcoming novel – his debut fiction piece written while sitting in his treehouse nest – brings
experience from decades of life in the forest together with a rich understanding of mid-Michigan’s pioneer history and changing landscape. In this sweeping adventure, Dan explores the resilience of nature through the eyes of a majestic, time-traveling deer.
