USA > Michigan > Ontonagon County > A history of Silver City, Ontonagon County, Michigan > Part 3
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A - Cumming's Location- Sec .. 12 T.50N. R.44W. - Quartzite, Carrying Silver Sec. 1 T.50N. R.43W. - Gray Quartzite " -
B - Nonesuch Mine -
C - Cleveland Mine - Sec. 25 T.51N. R.42W. - Rich in Silver
D - Superior Mine -
Sec. 25 .
- Reddish Gray Quartzito Carrying Silver
E - Scranton Mine - Sec. 13 T.51N. R.42W. -
F - Hubbel Shaft - Sec. 13 ₩
-
Quartzite, No Silver Visible
.
Rocks From Iron River West Along Coast to Carp River Locality and Character of Strata
Mouth of Iron River
Cuyahoga Landing
1/3 mile NW 1} mile NW
Carp Lake Mine Landing
- Pebble beach Sandstone .
Foster & Whitney (Sec. 16) Lone Rock
LaFayette Landing Beaser'# Trail (Sec. 26)
Presque Isle Point (Sec. 27) Midway (Sec. 34 T51N R44W) Mouth of Carp River
- Great Spar Vien Base of Slate and Quartzite Bd
- Sandstone
- Conglomerate
- Sandstone
SILVER CITY
-
-------
G - Lone Rock Location- Sec. 26 T.51N. R44W. -
- Slate - Sandstone - Conglomerate
(XXXXX
Iron River, Michigan
A - Cumming's Location- Sec .. 12 T.SON. R.44W. - Quartzite, Carrying Silver
B - Nonesuch Mine =
Sec. 1 T.50N. R.43W. - Gray Quartzite "
C - Cleveland Mine Sec. 25 T.51N. R.42W. -
D - Superior Mine -
Sec. 25 M
- Reddish Gray Quartzite Carrying Silver M
E - Scranton Mine
Sec. 13 T.51N. R.42W. -
F - Hubbel Shaft Sec. 13 H - Quartzite, No Silver Visible H
G - Lone Rock Location- Sec. 26 T.51N. R44W. -
M M C
Rocks From Iron River West Along Coast to Carp River Locality and Character of Strata
Mouth of Iron River
- Slate
Cuyahoga Landing
- Sandstone
1/3 mile NW "
- Conglomerate
12 mile NW
- Pebble beach
Carp Lake Mine Landing
- Sandstone
Foster & Whitney (Sec. 16)
$
Lone Rock
M
LaFayette Landing
Beaser's Trail (Sec. 26)
Presque Isle Point (Sec. 27) Midway (Sec. 34 T51N R44W) Mouth of Carp River
- Great Spar Vien Base of Slate and Quartzite Band
- Sandstone
- Conglomerate
- Sandstone
Rich in Silver
tle of Ontonagon, Jonas McLean of Greenland and Peter Bowen of Pe- wabic. A petition was presented to the board for the division of the Township of Pewabic and for the erection of a new township to be known as Carp Lake. Application was made by Captain D. Beaser and oth- ers for this, with maps prepared showing the territory described in the application. Lands covered in appli- cation were 7 townships, Town 50 North, Ranges 42, 43 and 44; Town 51 North, Ranges 41, 42, 43 and 44, These lands were to be detached from the political Township of Pewa- bic and called Carp Lake. The first annual meeting was to be held at the office of the Carp Lake Mining Com- pany in the Porcupine Mountains on April 4, 1864. Frank Salisbury, John and Louis Lashapell were named electors to preside at the meeting and conduct the election. The vote on this petition was four to one; Mr. Bowen of course protesting. But Carp Lake it was from that date on, and it still remains one of the largest political townships in Michigan.
During the silver boom from 1873 to 1876 school was held in a frame building located just east of the present Machamer store. Part of the building had been used as a ware- house at one time. After the silver mines shut down, nearly all the fam- ilies moved away so there was no need for a school at Silver City until 1903. The old Goslin house was used as a school for one year and the following year a combination school- township office building was con- structed on the property now occu- pied by Silver Court. School was conducted here for six years; Miss Motherway and Miss Cronin serving as teachers during this time with a peak class of six pupils. The build- ing was later sold to Captain Wilcox and finally burned down in the Silver City fire.
At the Nonesuch mine school was in session on and off from 1880 to 1913, depending on whether there was any activity at the mine. The classes varied from a high of thirty children in 1883 to a low of two pupils, the Bigge boys, George and Gus in 1893. For a few years after 1900 there was no school conducted
at the Nonesuch, or for that matter anywhere in the township, but with the renewed exploratory work by the Calumet and Hecla company, school was resumed from 1908 through to 1913 at the Nonesuch. Soon after all mining activity ceased and all the families moved from this location, the two Watt sisters were the last class with Kate Bertrand as their teacher. School was held for a couple of years at White Pine Exten- sion about this same period.
After the Finnish families and other farmers settled on the land near Green, the need for a school arose there. In 1906 the first school was built with about thirty children in attendance. By 1922 this farm- ing community had grown so a two room school was erected a mile south of the first school. This school was used continuously for thirty one years, Julia Harris teaching there for thirty out of the thirty one. The population of White Pine had reach- ed such a low ebb by 1942 that all school children were hauled by bus to the Green school from that date until 1953.
With the new mine development by the Copper Range Company, White Pine again became the center of po- pulation of the township. The Green school was discontinued after that date, all children in the township being transported to White Pine. Two large, modern school buildings were constructed there with a present en- rollment of over 300 pupils.
First actual census figures we have for Carp Lake Township were in 1890 when there were 18 persons listed. By 1900 th's had risen to 69 persons, and by 1910 to 139 persons. In 1846 Spaulding listed 52 persons at Silver City and there was not over a dozen at the Union workings making about 69 persons in that year. The figures after 1890 are not too accurate for permanent residents because often times the transient lumberjacks were counted in the cen- sus and registered so they could vote. Old timers, yet living, say that there were not over twenty permanent resi- dents of Carp Lake Township in 1900 and of these 15 lived at Silver City. Of the permanent residents, Philip
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Less lived there longer than any other person.
In the entire period from 1896 to 1919 the Carp Lake Township clerk's "register of electors" show the fol- lowing: (women could not vote) :
White Pine 150 men
Green 80 men I
Silver City
49 men
Nonesuch
49 men
1 1 Union 21 men 1 1
Halliwell 9 men 1 1
Carp Lake Mine 1 I
3 men
Hawleys Mill 6 men
White Pine Extension 37 men
Lumber camps including Mackenzie, Bush, Humphrey, Forsyth,
Spies and McMillan
98 men
All others-mostly White Pine residence not recorded . . 275 men
Total 780 men
(780 persons registered in 23 years)
You will note that the bulk of the people during this period lived at White Pine Mine which was operating the last 10 years of this period. You will also note that Silver City is hold- ing its own with 52 persons register- ed. It is a little surprising that the Nonesuch would record 49 men as there was very little mining activity there then; but here again there may have been some logging near there during this period and the workers lived in this location. Also Calumet and Hecla did quite a lot of diamond drilling there from 1906 to 1909.
After the division of Pewabic Township in 1864 the population re- mained very small until the White Pine Mine was developed starting about 1910. A caucus for Carp Lake Township was held in the office at Iron River (Silver City) in April of 1905 and nominated the following ticket:
Supervisor, H. D. Mckenzie Clerk, R. J. Watt
Treasurer, Norman Pennock Commissioner, Gordon McLain Overseer, Gordon McLain
Justices, A. Ludescher, Norman Pennock
Constables, Joe Sellers, George Bailey, Charles Burgess and William Landing
There weren't enough candidates for all the offices so two men held down four jobs. There was only a total of 29 ballots cast in the township. In 1906 there were 38 ballots cast in the township election with the only contest being for treas- urer with a tie vote of 19 apiece for the candidates. In 1907 there were 48 votes cast and the same number in 1908. Becasue of the small num- ber of voters and the same men hold- ing several offices, the state tax com- mission investigated the affairs of Carp Lake Township, checking man- agement and grafting in handling the affairs of the township offices. Talk was of introducing a bill in the state legislature asking for the abol- ishment of Carp Lake Township and combining it with Ontonagon. How- ever, Carp Lake survived the in- vestigation and remained separate. If there was grafting is could not have been on a large scale as the to- tal assessed valuation of the entire township was still low in 1905.
In 1905 a few families did come and settle in the township on Sec. 12 T. 51 N. R. 41 w. near what is now the town of Green. These were Fin- nish families who wished to farm. They started erecting houses and clearing land. They asked that a road be built extending back from the lake for 34 of a mile to give them an outlet to the lake. There was a wagon road from Ontonagon to there that supplies could be hauled on.
Early travel to the Ontonagon area was largely by boat. There were innumerable small craft on the lake but few large boats. The Astor was the first American vessel launch- ed on Lake Superior, being built by the American Fur Company at Sault Ste. Marie in 1835 and sailing until 1844 when it was wrecked at Cop- per Harbor. Even by 1846 the entire fleet on Lake Superior only numbered eleven vessels in all; they were the steamboat Julia Palmer of 280 tons, the propeller Independence of 280 tons, schooners Napoleon, Algonquin, Swallow, Merchant, Uncle Tom, Fur Trader, Chippewa, Siskawit and White Fish. The Napoleon was the largest of the schooners being 180 ton, the others were smaller some down to only forty ton. Coasting
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I
1
1
I f
Boilers on scows in Iron River Harbor in 1914. The gas boat is the "Silver City", owned by Mckenzie. Boilers were hauled to White Pine.
Main Street of White Pine in 1914
distances from Sault Ste. Marie to Ontonagon was listed as 379 with a notation of a six foot depth of water over the sand bar at the river's mouth. Iron river was listed as 391 miles with just the words, boat har- bor.
Travel to this area was largely by boat until about 1900, but attempts were made at roads as early as 1846. In that year the Indians cut out a road from Union Bay on Lake Super- ior south to the Union Mine a dist- ance of 11/2 miles. This was the first road in Ontonagon County and one of the first in Upper Michigan. In 1864, the Union, LaFayette and Cuyahoga mines contracted a winter road (only passable while the ground was frozen) from Ontonagon west to the Cuyahoga mine, a distance of 20 miles. The work required cutting out a right-of-way and building sev- eral bridges. It was completed in one month with a small crew, so was little better than a trail. However, horses hauled supplies over it from Ontonagon to the mine. Most of the rivers had no bridge, the horses and sleighs crossing on the ice. This road became known as the Iron River Road and its location was approxi- mately the same as present state highway M-64 and M-107. The min- ing activity ceased soon after this, so not much work was done on this road until the loggers began moving west of Ontonagon. In July of 1877 the local newspaper stated that Carp Lake Township was working on the road which they called a disgrace, saying too much of their highway fund was being spent on the None- such Road and neglecting the Iron River Road. In 1896 Michael Do- lan took a contract to build a bridge across the Potato River on the Iron River Road, his bid being $175.00. This was a crude timber bridge but usable for teams of horses to cross and was located approximately four miles west of Ontonagon. By 1897 road overseer Duncan Ross was working witht a crew at the bridge at the Little Cranberry River, which is six miles west of Ontonagon. Dur- ing that year the county and town- ship officials were being asked to improve this road by the Halliwell, Nonesuch, and Carp Lake Mines be- yond Silver City. Supervisor Joseph
Bigge of the Nonesuch Mine said that a better road was needed. He used a boat to make the trip between Union Bay and Ontonagon to attend the board of supervisors meeting on April 24, 1897.
The first logging in Carp Lake Township was in 1890 along the shore of Lake Superior near Lone Rock about 15 miles west of Silver City. Most of the supplies were haul- ed by boat but within a few years other loggers entered the area and the tote road (Iron River Road) was improved somewhat. On August 29, 1901, highway commissioner Hugo Bigge was advertising for bids for cutting a roadway from the west Ontonagon Township line two miles toward Iron River. Supplies were still coming in
by water, the steamer Mabel Bradshaw in Decem- ber 1900 landed a large quantity of camp supplies at Lone Rock for Mckenzie's camp. In July of 1901 the Emerald of Buffalo stopped at the John McVean mill near Union Bay to take on a cargo of cedar shingles, ties and telephone poles for Cleveland. In August of 1900 the steamer Bon Voyage landed 26 lumberjacks and about 50 tons of supplies for D. J. Norton at Union Bay. There were about 35 men at Norton's camp and about the same number at Mckenzie's. In November of 1899 the local tug "Tramp" went to Lone Rock with a cargo of winter supplies for Norton's camp.
Work on the "Iron River Road" continued however, in November of 1901 a bridge was constructed across the Little Iron River just west of Silver City. The old log bridge across the Big Iron River had al- ready been built upstream nearly 1/4 mile from the river's mouth. During the next ten year period some work was done each year by the township highway commissioner and overseer. In fact the job became somewhat of a political plum because quite a few jobs could be passed out and it was a matter of record that no one over- worked on the job. During this per- iod Carp Lake Township was at one of its low ebbs in population so the road building was the big project at the time for its permanent citizens. By 1910 there was a passable road
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COPIED FROM FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER
OF MINERAL STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 1878
CROSS SECTION
A-B
SANDSTONE
SILVER
OFARING
RED
SANDSTONE
THE IRON RIVER SILVER DISTRICT
N
LAKE
SUPERIOR
SILVER CITY
INO.
distances from Sault Ste. Marie to Ontonagon was listed as 379 with a notation of a six foot depth of water over the sand bar at the river's mouth. Iron river was listed as 391 miles with just the words, boat har- bor.
Travel to this area was largely by boat until about 1900, but attempts were made at roads as early as 1846. In that year the Indians cut out a road from Union Bay on Lake Super- ior south to the Union Mine a dist- ance of 11/2 miles. This was the first road in Ontonagon County and one of the first in Upper Michigan. In
and
1864, the Union, LaFayette Cuyahoga mines contracted a winter road (only passable while the ground was frozen) from Ontonagon west to the Cuyahoga mine, a distance of 20 miles. The work required cutting out a right-of-way and building sev- eral bridges. It was completed in one month with a small crew, so was little better than a trail. However, horses hauled supplies over it from Ontonagon to the mine. Most of the rivers had no bridge, the horses and sleighs crossing on the ice. This road became known as the Iron River Road and its location was approxi- mately the same as present state highway M-64 and M-107. The min- ing activity ceased soon after this, so not much work was done on this road until the loggers began moving west of Ontonagon. In July of 1877 the local newspaper stated that Carp Lake Township was working on the road which they called a disgrace, saying too much of their highway fund was being spent on the None- such Road and neglecting the Iron River Road. In 1896 Michael Do- lan took a contract to build a bridge across the Potato River on the Iron River Road, his bid being $175.00. This was a crude timber bridge but usable for teams of horses to cross and was located approximately four miles west of Ontonagon. By 1897 road overseer Duncan Ross was working witht a crew at the bridge at the Little Cranberry River, which is six miles west of Ontonagon. Dur- ing that year the county and town- ship officials were being asked to improve this road by the Halliwell, Nonesuch, and Carp Lake Mines be- yond Silver City. Supervisor Joseph
Bigge of the Nonesuch Mine said that a better road was needed. He used a boat to make the trip between Union Bay and Ontonagon to attend the board of supervisors meeting on April 24, 1897.
The first logging in Carp Lake Township was in 1890 along the shore of Lake Superior near Lone Rock about 15 miles west of Silver City. Most of the supplies were haul- ed by boat but within a few years other loggers entered the area and the tote road (Iron River Road) was improved somewhat. On August 29, 1901, highway commissioner Hugo Bigge was advertising for bids for cutting a roadway from the west Ontonagon Township line two miles toward Iron River. Supplies were
still coming in by water, the steamer Mabel Bradshaw in Decem- ber 1900 landed a large quantity of camp supplies at Lone Rock for Mckenzie's camp. In July of 1901 the Emerald of Buffalo stopped at the John McVean mill near Union Bay to take on a cargo of cedar shingles, ties and telephone poles for Cleveland. In August of 1900 the steamer Bon Voyage landed 26 lumberjacks and about 50 tons of supplies for D. J. Norton at Union Bay. There were about 35 men at Norton's camp and about the same number at McKenzie's. In November of 1899 the local tug "Tramp" went to Lone Rock with a cargo of winter supplies for Norton's camp.
Work on the "Iron River Road" continued however, in November of 1901 a bridge was constructed across the Little Iron River just west of Silver City. The old log bridge across the Big Iron River had al- ready been built upstream nearly 1/4 mile from the river's mouth. During the next ten year period some work was done each year by the township highway commissioner and overseer. In fact the job became somewhat of a political plum because quite a few jobs could be passed out and it was a matter of record that no one over- worked on the job. During this per- iod Carp Lake Township was at one of its low ebbs in population so the road building was the big project at the time for its permanent citizens. By 1910 there was a passable road
14
COPIED FROM FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF MINERAL STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 1878
CROSS
SECTION A-B
SANDSTONE
SILVER
BEARING
RED
SANDSTONE
THE IRON RIVER SILVER DISTRICT
LAKE
SILVER CITY
SUPERIOR
12
RED SANDSTONE
SANDSTONE
RED
SCRANTON
KANNTOT
FALLS
16
15
14
13
18
RIVER
SILVER REDUCING MILL
BONTONAGON ISUPERIOR
UNION
PRON
21
22
23
24
ED SANDSTONE
SLATE
RED
LAKE
couk's
28.
27
26
LITTLE
25
THE LẠNG
30
SLATE
SANDSTONE
SANDS)
RED
SCRANTON
FAMMIOTY
FALLS
13
,
SILVER REDUCING MILL
BONTONAGON ISUPERIOR
BRON
23
24
ANDSTONE
ـقد٠٠
SLATE
RED
LITTLE
26
25
ER
30
7 S
14
16
15
RIVER
UNION
IRON
21
22
28
27
COLLINS
RED SANDSTONE
IC
SANDS'
SLATE
from Ontonagon, through Silver City, to the Nonesuch. It was not much of a highway but by tieing yourself to the rig so as not to fall out you could get through; and you better not try it during spring breakup or after heavy rains.
One of the highlights of the Silver City history was the wreck of the Panama on Mineral point, one mile away from Iron River. During the latter part of November in 1906 this steam barge loaded with coal and al- most water logged ran ashore during a heavy storm. The boat was bound for Duluth with 3300 tons of coal aboard and also was towing a coal barge known as the Matanzas. The Panama sprung a leak so bad that the pumps could not take care of the inflowing water so the captain head- ed for shore about 27 miles distant. The tow line of the Matanzas was severed to make better time. About midnight the Panama ran aground off of Mineral Point with all the crew safely reaching shore. Local citizens of Silver City housed the crew, most of them staying at the Mckenzie home. The steam barge Panama was abandoned by the owner Captain James Davidson of Bay City. It was valued at $42,000.00 and not insur- ed.
There was the usual wolf stories in the area. George Bigge stated that several wolves followed his team and sleigh from Union Bay to the Halliwell mine location. The pack was up to 25 by the time he had reached the Halliwell so George ran the team in one of the old buildings there and stayed for the night be- fore continuing on to Nonesuch next day. The story is a good one but George was krown to imbibe quite freely at times and there is a question of some exaggeration. Thomas Sup- ple was resident of Silver City in 1905 and had been working out of the prospecting camp of Dr. Garlick near Union Bay. While visiting his trap line in March near the old Cuya- hoga dock at Union Bay he saw a wolf pass by, then a second and a third. He had a rifle with him so decided to walk out on the ice to be able to sse a longer distance. He dis- covered three wolves ahead of him on the ice and two more on shore.
One of the wolves was snapping his teeth at him, so when the wolf ap- proached within twenty feet of him Suppled fired, killing the animal, who was as big as a St. Bernard dog. The shot scared the other wolves away. Supple collected the $22.00 bounty for the animal. Now later it appear- ed that Henry Mclain, another local trapper, claimed that Supple had found the wolf dead on the ice from poison. This was a common practice then to set out poison meat for ani- mals. McLain claimed Supple sent a bullet through the dead wolf to make it look like he killed it. No one was certain who was telling the truth because no autopsy was held on the wolf.
The writer remembers Silver City from 1919 on, as he stayed there that summer and has either visited or lived near there each year since. At that time there were just three per- manent residents of Silver City. Jim Cusick, a trapper and story teller. I was 11 years old at the time and he told some pretty wild but inter- esting tales especially of the West. The record shows he went to Boise City, Idaho in 1897 to mine gold so maybe some were true. He did shoot up Robinson's saloon in Ontonagon one night in a drunken spree. An exact opposite of Jim was Charles Wells who kept a large garden each year and maintained a spotless cabin. The third resident was Charlie Miller. Everyone said Charlie was a miser and maybe he was. I remember him telling my mother that the match companies did not put as many matches in a box as they used to. One box would last him a year. The summer spent there was one of the most enjoyable of my life; I fished, swam, hiked and played as an 11 year old boy would.
Silver City's population didn't
increase much until about 1930. Several Ontonagon people and some from other towns had summer cottages, but did not live there all year. But by the late 30's people were starting to pay at- tention to a strange new breed called the tourist. Oh, there were a few visitors to the area before then and the outside hunter was here as early as 1900 but the total was relatively
15
few. They increased in the 40's and by 1945 a few persons of vision, not- ably Mr. P. J. Hoffmaster, then Dir- ector of the Michigan Conservation Department, thought something should be done about it. Here was an area of outstanding scenic beauty still left in its original condition that the public wanted to see. It was be- coming more and more unique as the last remaining section of Michigan that had been untouched by com- mercialism. Such an area was a valuable commodity to sell these so- called tourists. The United States Forest Service already had acquired a small acreage near Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine mountains and by 1945 the State had built a good highway to within a mile of this great scenic attraction. Thousands of people were already visiting the site each summer. With this great demand and the efforts of a group of dedicated citizens, the Michigan state legislature established the Por- cupine Mountains State Park just west of Silver City.
The original White Pine mine op- erated by the Calumet and Hecla company closed in 1918 but resumed operations during the fall of 1919. A few years later this company again stopped operating. Soon after they sold to the Copper Range Mining company and after extensive diamond drilling this company started the con- struction of a major mining venture on March 16, 1952. The first 700
pound copper ingot was poured at the smelter building on Jan. 13, 1955 and big scale production started. Again the foresight of a few men, including Captain Beaser and the early pros- pectors of Silver City, made this huge project possible. A multi-million dollar government loan and improved methods of milling the ore were the other necessary factors. Silver City still plays a part in this last mining development, the water plant for the present White Pine Copper company is located here and numerous mine workers live at Silver City. So less than six miles from the great excite- ment of 1872-1876 the White Pine Copper company now produces more copper in one year than all the mines in this area ever produced in their entire existence, totaling 5% of the output of the United States. The early silver mining men were not as far wrong as their critics predicted either, for thousands of dollars of silver is reclaimed each year in the present day operation.
With the development of White Pine and the Porcupine Mountains State Park at least 200,000 persons a year now pass through the gate- way to the area, Silver City. The early missionaries and explorers in 1672 recognized the mouth of Iron river as a natural gateway, later the fur traders, the miners, the lumber- men and finally the recreation seek- ers. It still remains the gateway to adventure.
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