USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 42
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The plant of the Edison Sault Electric Company is located to the north of the ship canal, directly in the river bed. This plant, now pro- ducing approximately 5,000 horse power, is capable of development up to the full efficiency of the American side of the rapids. The Edison Sault Electric Company furnishes the power for public and private lighting and turns the wheels of two big industries. the No: thwestern Leather Company, whose tannery has been noted, and the Soo Woolen Mills.
The huge hydro-electric plant of the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company stands on the brink of St. Mary's river about half a mile be- low the rapids. The western extremity of the canal is over two miles away, south and almost directly opposite the entrance of the St. Mary's Falls American canal. Its building is thus described : "In 1893, there came to the two Soos a man of whom little was known. He had the appearance of a man filled with confidence and was inclined to say little. Little attention was paid to him, although it was known that he had
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POSTOFFICE AND FEDERAL BUILDING, THE SOO
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been looking over a diteh in the Michigan Soo in which had been buried the hopes, money and ambition of engineers, finaneiers and the people of the two cities for nearly half a century. This was the water power canal, and the man was Franeis H. Clergue. It was not long before those who held the mortgages and right of way of the canal were ap- proached by Mr. Clergue with an offer to buy the rights and begin once more the development of this great water power, which had for centu- ries been running to waste over the rapids of the river. They were eager enough to sell, for they had lost all the money they eared to in the ditch, and they had no idea but what the newcomer was to do the same. Some laughed at him, while few ever dreamed of his success. But Clergue bought the diteh and went to work. Money from some unknown source kept pouring in, and as the work seemed more and more unsur- mountable, so much more determined seemed that master mind which
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ONLY WOOLEN MILLS IN UPPER PENINSULA
was planning it. Day after day the work was prosecuted, and year af- ter year, until at last the people, even the most skeptical, began to see that they had now a man backed with plenty of money and filled with an energy which never knew the meaning of the word "failure." At last they saw the canal completed, and on October 25. 1902. the water was let in and the power turned on in the great power house at the lower end of the eanal. Then it was that the whistle eords were tied down on ev- ery whistle in the Soo, and the people of the two cities gave way to re- joieing, for they saw a new era of prosperity opened for them.
The details of this great engineering feat, filled with figures as they are, are rather incomprehensible to the average mind, but a few of these figures put into the language of every day are interesting. This great water power canal generates 60,000 horse power, it is two and one-half miles long, 200 feet wide, and the water flows through it at an average depth of 23 feet. The power house in which the water power is trans- formed into electrical power is 1,368 feet long, or 48 feet over a quarter of a mile. It is built of red sandstone and its foundation is composed of
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over 12,000 fifty foot piles capped with eement concrete. The total cost of canal and power house was about $6,000,000.
On the Canadian side of the river, this same genius has left monu- ments of his energy and faith in the resources of the surrounding coun- try. There are the big pulp mills. the steel plant, the ferro-nickel plant, ear shops, iron works, veneer mill, power plant, electro-chemical works, charcoal plant and saw mills. All these industries are built on a mag- nificent scale, and in spite of the financial difficulties which have as- sailed the great company which owns them, all are bound to be success- ful in themselves in the course of time.
The Soo is a substantial, elean and modern city of between twelve and thirteen thousand people, and enjoys fine railroad facilities through the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic (completed in 1887), the Minne- apolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, and the Canadian Pacific. Half a dozen or more steamship and transit companies also place it in elose and wide connection with all the ports of the great lakes. Its solid prosperity is based on its greatness as a lake port, on its superb water power and existing industries, and the richness of the adjacent com- try. Its export trade consists largely of lumber. hay, fish, flour, pulp, leather, and calcium carbide.
The city has a complete sewerage system; a $200,000 water plant; one high and six ward schools; one daily and two weekly papers; a well organized police department, with a sanitary officer; a good fire department; three banks; a Carnegie library of 7,000 volumes; and fourteen churches representing all denominations, as well as several parochial schools, including the large Catholic Academy in charge of the Ladies of Loretto. In other words, the Soo is a brisk, modern American city.
DETOUR AND DRUMMOND ISLAND
Detour, or Point de Tour, is a little village at the mouth of St. Mary's river, opposite Drummond island, being located on the ex- treme southeastern point of Chippewa county, or the mainland of the Upper Peninsula. It was a locality well known to the first French mis- sionaries and was the battle ground between the Hurons and Iroquois of early times. A lighthouse was erected here in 1847 which is still maintained.
Drummond Island is also historie, as it was long the British head- quarters for Indian affairs and, as such, often figures in the general history of this work. There are still remains of the old British post. The island was named in honor of Sir Peter Drummond, British com- mander at Isle St. Joseph in 1800. It now constitutes one of the four- teen townships of Chippewa county.
AGRICULTURAL AND LIVESTOCK FEATURES
Chippewa, one of the largest counties in the state, is rapidly demon- strating its adaptability as a farming, dairying and livestock country.
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MICHIGAN-LAKE SUPERIOR POWER COMPANY'S GREAT PLANT (Length 1,360 feet; 40,000 horsepower)
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Although the cereals have been successfully cultivated, even inelnding corn, her agricultural strength lies in her production of hay and grass, peas and other vegetables, roots, fruits and berries. It is bound to be a fine dairy country, and a substantial start has already been made in that field, while all conditions of climate and forage point to an espec- ially rapid development of sheep and cattle raising.
To go more into details, Chippewa county is known as the greatest hay producer in Michigan, its farmers even shipping some 15,000 tons annually. The quality of the hay is thus described by an old Inmber- man who lives outside the county, and would therefore not be inter- ested "in blowing her horn:" "For 40 years I have lumbered exten- sively in both the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan and have probably owned 1,500 to 2,000 horses in that time. When in the lower peninsula I have always had to grain my horses to bring them through from time of breaking camp to the time they could live in pasture. In the Upper Peninsula I have always fed Chippewa county hay and I never had to grain my horses there to bring them through that period. They came through on Chippewa county hay alone and frequently gained in flesh during the period. Chippewa hay is certainly worth from $1.50 to $2.50 per ton more than the hay grown in the lower peninsula." The Upper Peninsula is not subject to the withering drouths of the lower peninsula; nor to the scorching rays of the sun which burn the life and nutriment out of the grass and hay. But instead, the cool nights and heavy dews refresh, invigorate and preserve the grass and the great richness and strength of the soil is not wasted but conserved. Not only do the farmers of Chippewa county raise better hay and grass than the farmers of lower Michigan, but they raise nearly twice as much of it per acre.
Beets. mangels, turnips, carrots and other roots grow enormously in Chippewa county, and the percentage of sugar yield in the first named exceeds that of beets grown further south. The potato grown in this section, as in most other counties of the Upper Peninsula, is large, smooth and solid. As a producer of these specialties Chippewa county has greatly advanced since 1893, when first place for all-around superiority in roots and vegetables was taken at the Columbian Exposition, Chi- engo, by the farmers of a locality within twenty miles of the Soo.
As a pea-producing locality Chippewa county is deservedly famons. Hundreds of acres are sown to peas each year and the prodnet is shipped in car lots and by boats, to the great seed houses, and by them sold to their customers for the next year's seeding at the very highest market price. Worms and insects do not damage the peas, they are plump, and the yield is enormous and certain. The "bronze medal" was awarded 'by the St. Louis World's Exposition to peas grown in Chippewa county. As growth-prodneers in animals peas greatly exceed corn and the meat of the western lands fattened on Colorado peas is said to be finer fia- vored than the corn-fed lambs of the corn belt. Fifty different varieties were grown in Chippewa county in 1910 and the value of the peas raised
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A SAMPLE OF CHIPPEWA COUNTY "GOOD ROADS"
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this year totals a full quarter of a million dollars. It is almost certain that canning factories will be established before long.
As a dairying locality this county proved its supremacy when at the late State Fair at Detroit, the cheese made by the Superior Cheese Com- pany, of Brimley, Chippewa county, won the state high score of 981/4 perfeet points. It was the company's first effort at cheese making and demonstrates to a certainty that all natural conditions here are most favorable, such as abundant grass, pure air and water, and cool and restful nights. Two creameries are operated in the county and the en- tire prodnet of one of them was sold in 1910 at one cent a pound above the market price for any ontside creamery produet.
The apples grown in Chippewa county and elsewhere in the Upper Peninsula are of higher grade and finer flavor than those grown further sonth. The cool nights. heavy dews and long hours of twilight make the apples firm, brittle, juicy and fine flavored. Probably the best show of apples ever made at the Michigan State Fair was from the Upper Peninsula, and among the best of those shown were grown in Chippewa county. The same statement applies to the great apple exhibit at the Land Show, held in Chicago during the spring of 1911. Chippewa county hortienlturists do not need to spray their trees and fruit to get the perfect product. Strawberries, cranberries and wild blueberries yield in great abundance and the quality is the best produced anywhere.
As to the livestock industries, it is thought the raising of sheep will eventually lead, as the climate is admirably adapted to the growing of thick and fine wool, and to the warding off of character istic diseases, such as stomach worms and the like. The country is also far enough north to ensure steady weather in winter and cold enough to escape the thaws and drizzling rains so frequent and common in more south- erly latitudes. Rains in winter wet the fleeces to the skin, part the wool along the back bone, and the freeze which is sure to come, chills the sheep (and especially the spinal cord) laying the foundation for disease to follow such winter soakings. Such soakings and bare ground are almost unknown here in winter. A blanket of snow covers the ground from view during the winter months, which means contentment, good health and thrift among the northern flocks. It has been often asserted that Chippewa county sheep come through the winter in bet- ter flesh and healthier condition without grain than floeks do when grained in more southerly elimes of "open winters." In summer no day becomes so hot but that the night is cool, restful, invigorating and healthful for both man and beast. The water of Lake Superior is chem- ically pure, which cannot be said of any other water in Michigan. It means health and thrift to all animal life. With abundant crops of peas, there is also no reason why Chippewa county should not become widely known as a producer of spring lambs for the market.
About six or seven years ago more than fifty pure bred, registered Shorthorns were gathered from various states and Canada (and a few imported from Scotland) and distributed among Chippewa county
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farmers. Now the young progeny of the pure type is doing service all over the county in the place of scrubs. More than eighty Chippewa farmers own registered Shorthorns. Numerous pure bred Holstein and Jersey cattle are being brought in for dairy purposes. The improve- ment in "horned cattle" has been very great and is still going on.
Within the last six years herds of pure bred prize winning swine have been brought into the county, consisting of Poland Chinas, Berk- shires, Duroc-Jerseys, Chester Whites, Large Yorkshires and Mule Footed or Ozarks, and the admirers of each breed are vieing with the other breeders for supremacy in the pork industry. Splendid grass and peas make rapid growth, great size and early maturity certain.
The work horses of the average Chippewa county farmer are the . great powerful, utility animals that can do the work and bring the price when sold. The farmers are raising plenty more from pure bred Belgian, Percheron, Shire and Clyde stallions; some of them being first prize winners at Toronto exhibitions. No county in Michigan may justly lay claiin to better work horses than Chippewa.
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CHAPTER XIX SCHOOLCRAFT AND DELTA COUNTIES
SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY-MANISTIQUE AND MONISTIQUE-INDIAN LAKE AND KITCH-ITI-KI-PI-PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL AND LIVE STOCK-INCREASE OF POPULATION-DELTA COUNTY-FOUNDING OF ESCANABA-GREAT ORE DOCKS GREAT SHORT LINE-POWER, LIGHT AND WATER- SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-ESCANABA INDUSTRIES-GLADSTONE-WELLS -OTHER TOWNS IN THE COUNTY-AGRICULTURE AND GOOD ROADS INCREASE IN POPULATION.
Schoolcraft and Delta were two of the six counties into which the Upper Peninsula was divided by the general legislative act of March 9, 1843, and more than forty years afterward Alger was cut off from Schoolcraft county and Luce was erected from the territory of Chip- pewa county; by which all four attained their present area. They now form an important group of counties constituting the east-central portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY
As organized under the act of March 9, 1843, Schooleraft county had the following boundaries: Beginning on Lake Superior north of line between ranges 12 and 13 west; thence west along the margin of the lake to the line between ranges 23 and 24 west, thence east to the line between ranges 12 and 13 west, together with Grand Island in Lake Superior. The county was attached to Chippewa for judicial purposes and so continued until about 1880, when it was attached to Marquette county. Grand Island township, as established by act of March 16, 1847. embraced all the territory previously organized as Schoolcraft county, and the first town meeting was ordered to be held at the house of John W. Williams in June of that year.
The seat of justice of the original Schoolcraft county was estab- lished at Onota, a village on Grand Island, now included in Alger county ; the present bonnds of Schooleraft were not attained until the setting-off of the latter from Chippewa county, to which it had been attached. in 1885. Although Schoolcraft county was established in
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1843, it took on no semblance of political organization until 1871, and the first national census which considered it worthy of note was that of 1880, whose figures were: Hiawatha township, 192; Manistique, 693; Munising, 270; Onota, 420. Total, 1.575, including 134 Indians and half-breeds.
The first real impulse which the county received was the comple- tion of the Detroit. Mackinac & Marquette line. from Marquette to St. Ignace, in 1881. It was some years afterward before Manistique, the seat of justice since the county was reduced to her present area, came into railway connection with the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Sault Ste. Marie and became the terminus of the line known as the Manistique, Marquette & Northern. Since then she has become permanently prosperous, and has gathered within her corporate limits about half the people of the county, and far more than that proportion of its wealth and trade.
MANISTIQUE AND THE MONISTIQUE
Manistique was incorporated as a village by aet of the legisla- ture, in 1885, and incorporated as a city by the same authority in 1901. It is a well-built city of 4,722 (census of 1910). It derives its name from the Chippewa tongue, and a free translation is "River with the Big Bay." Manistique is situated on one of the northernmost points of Lake Michigan, and is favored with a finely-sheltered deep-water har- bor. Into this flows the rapid Monistique river, whose swift current not only supplies a most valuable water power, but keeps the "big bay" comparatively free of ice. With the assistance of several powerful car ferries, Manistique shares with St. Ignace the honor of being the only really open port on the upper lakes. There is virtually no interruption during the winter season with the service of the car ferries between Manistique and Eastern Michigan.
Let not the reader enter up to the carelessness of the writer or proof- reader the spelling "Manistique," as applies to the city, and "Monis- tique" river. The blame rests elsewhere, as witness this from the pen of a citizen author: "When the charter of the city was being written up it was the intention to name the corporation for the river upon which it was founded, and to whom much of its physien! development owes its origin. But the carelessness of a "typo' in substituting the letter 'a' for the letter 'o' caused the City of Manistique to be incorporated on the banks of the Monistique. Despite the error of the typo the city has grown and the river has been its sponsor and greatest aid.
"With a dam at picturesque Indian Lake, which constitutes the great reservoir in which the volume of water is stored, through its narrow banks and over the secondary dam at the northern limits of the city, over which this great watery force is rushed at increasing speed, this useful stream rushes, acenmulating velocity to the dam at Manistique, develop- ing as it travels a power that is unmeasurable. Within this dam are the turbine and bneket wheels that develop and generate the power that drive the wheels of every industry within our city-and as yet without
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a groan or murmur. The city's lighting system, the great lumber in- dustries, in fact every industry in our city is driven by the power of this harnessed river.
"The secret of the success of our city lies within its ability to fur- nish power cheaply. In fact the history of our city is so closely woven about our harbor facilities and our water power that the story of its industrial power and growth and the harbor and water power are synon- ymous."
An idea of the importance of Manistique as an industrial center may be gained from a brief mention of the various plants which employ over 100 men each. First are the Chicago Lumbering Company of Michigan and the Weston Lumber Company, whose combined capital is $1,300 .- 000 and number of employees, 1,200. They operate two mills within the city limits, and the output of lumber is from 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 feet per year, principally white pine. This product is shipped mostly in their own boats which (Tonawanda Barge Line) ply continually be- tween Manistique and Tonawanda, New York. Other fleets from Chi- cago and elsewhere transport the lumber to other than eastern markets. The Chicago Lumbering Company of Michigan was organized in 1863 by Chicago men at a time when Manistique comprised only a few houses and the Indians still felt that they would always own the country. The present management assumed control in 1872, the present "old mill" was built in 1876, and in 1883 the Weston Lumber Company was or- ganized, followed soon by the erection of the West and Upper mills. This was the commencement of industrial Manistique.
The Chicago Lumbering Company claims to have cut since that time two and three-quarters billion feet of lumber and has one hundred million yet to cut-all tributary to its mill. In 1910 the company ent forty million feet.
Next in importance to these combined lumber and transportation in- terests are the plants of the Manistique Iron Company and the Burrell Chemical Company. The latter, capitalized at $500,000, is among the leading manufacturers of wood alcohol and acetate of lime in the coun- try and employs about 500 men. The Iron Company has a well-equipped plant, having a daily capacity of some 100 tons and gives steady em- ployment to perhaps 250 men.
The White Marble Lime Company, established in 1889 by George Nicholson, operates kilns both at Manistique and Marblehead; has also a large modern shingle mill and is an extensive dealer in all kinds of forest products in the vicinity and along the Soo line. Many buyers of cedar ties, telegraph and telephone poles, posts, pulp wood, tan bark, ete., make their headquarters at Manistique and operate through the White Marble Lime Company. In its varions operations the company employs about 250 men. The general offices, kilns and shingle mills are located at Manistique, and cedar yards are also maintained at Nahma Junction, Delta county. The company does a large jobbing business in cedar, practically buying all of that variety of timber eut for the mills around the city.
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In addition the Thompson Lumber Company has a payroll of some 400 men and the Northwestern Leather Company of perhaps 100.
Manistique is also an important fishing point; has modern stores and offices; good hotels; two flourishing newspapers; a substantial bank; three well built schools with 1,000 pupils, and every other evi- dence of a solid little eity built on flourishing industries and a progres- sive agricultural country around it.
It is the southern terminus of the Manistique, Marquette & Northern Railroad, which affords its connection with the copper country and the great northwest. Penetrating as it does the country tributary to Man- istique, it affords direct traffic communication with an important source of supply and with its car ferry connections at Ludington on the east shore furnishes all the benefits of a trunk line, it being a part of the Pere Marquette system. The company has developed from a small log- ging road of a decade ago into a system which is gathering in a large share of the business from the north and the northwest. The road is not a long one, but runs through a most picturesque country, to which sportsmen are attracted who are hunting for either fish or deer; and they find both in abundance. Bears are also found, and may be either avoided or attempted. In connection with this road one of the largest and best car ferries on the lake is run daily between Manistique and Ludington. Located at Manistiqne are the general offices of the com- pany, machine shops and yards, giving employment to more than 250 men.
The Ann Arbor R. R. maintains an excellent system and is a large factor in the local freight world. It operates a car ferry, with connec- tions at Frankfort, Michigan, on the east shore of the lake, and affords a superior outlet for the heavy shipments which pass through the port of Manistique. Its car ferry, Manistique No. 1, is the largest boat of the kind on the Great Lakes, carrying thirty-two standard freight cars on each trip, and thus exceeding in capacity the new ferry being built at St. Ignace.
Reverting to the commercial aspects of Manistique, it will be sur- prising to many to learn that nearly 80,000,000 feet of lumber are shipped annually from her splendid harbor in boats owned "at home"; that 4,000,000 railroad ties, 600,000,000 shingles and 300,000 tons of pig iron also pass out of her port, as well as many tons of trout and white fish.
During the summer season the principal passenger steamship lines make this port, bringing numerous tourists and sportsmen to a region of pure air, fine forests and beautiful lakes and streams.
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