USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 43
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INDIAN LAKE AND KITCH-ITI-KI-PI
Lovers of the beautiful in nature and the romance of Indian love never fail to visit Indian Lake, a charming summer resort, and the Big Spring (Kitch-iti-ki-pi), about four miles north of Manistique. The lake, about two miles by four. is fed by the spring, and is fringed by a virgin forest. On the west bank are the crumbling ruins of the old
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Indian mission built by Marquette, and in the rear an ancient Indian burial ground. The Big Spring is in the heart of a forest ; is ahout sixty feet deep and from three to five hundred feet across; and its waters are so clear that the petrified logs at the bottom seem only a few feet away.
Kiteh-iti-ki-pi. with its natural beauties and Indian romances, has been so daintily described by Mary E. Holman, of Rochester, Michigan, in the attractive souvenir of Manistique, issued a few years ago, by the "Harold." that extracts from the paper follow :
In the midst of the great forest of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan-like a diamond in an emerald setting-sparkles the "Big Spring, " Kitch-iti-ki-pi, the great wonder of that country, and many people have crossed the orean to see no greater sights. As we drew near we are greeted with a very perceptible smell of sulphur; not as strong however, as the mineral wells at Mit. Clemens or Ypsilanti. The forest is very grand on the side where we approach. Tall pines that make your neck ache to look to their tops, with the ground underneath covered with pine needles. The Spring is about 60 feet deep and some 400 feet across, marshy at the edges. with ferns and small trees growing close. As we look at the water from the landing it has an emerald hue; it has a slight taste of sulphur and is icy cold. It is said no living thing ean exist in it; if you throw a frog into the spring it will straighten out. stiffen and die in an instant. To get any idea of the beauty of the spring we must row out to the middle and get our faces near the water. Now dear readers, just imagine you are out here with me on its mirror like surface. We experienced a very peculiar sensation. The water is so transparent that it seems as though we are suspended in mid-air by some invisible means, with an immense white bowl under us, decorated in a most unique manner, at once quaint and beautiful. Bordered all round with petrified trees, lying in the most picturesque confusion, interlaced here and there with water plants, varied by patches of moss and lichen, ull having the appearance-where the rays of light strike them-of new silver, shading and shim. mering in the gently moving water, with the brown, grey and green of the dead trees and live plants, making a picture that an artist would try in vain to copy. As it descends the sides of the bowl it breaks into groups, or patches, contrasting with the pearly, white sand. If your imagination be strong enough you will see old ruins, landscapes, or even contending armies. There I see a ruined city overun with moss and creepers; there a high tower, and there n light house on a rock; and there, again, a pastoral scene; there a landscape, with mountains and valleys, with fields and a little brook. The bottom of the bowl is white sand, with several springs boiling np, like tiny fountains, which makes the picture complete. We look over one side of the boat and there is a fountain, we look over the other side of the boat and there is another; but on further investigation we discover it is the same one. The illusion is caused by the great depth, and the peculiar transpareney of the waters,
How did it all come! Did the bottom fall ont of the ground all at once, and let those trees and bushes cave in and hang all around the edge? Or was it just a little spring at first, with a quicksand foundation, which some underground force washed away gradually and let the trees down one after another, just as they do along a bank that is washed by a strong current!
Now come and sit down nuder this great pine tree and rest, while I tell you a beautiful legend of the spring, and how it came by its name.
Long before the foot of the paleface pressed the soil of northern Michigan a brave young chief, named Kitch-iti.ki-pi, had his lodge on the east shore of Indian Lake, on a tract of high land covered with a magnificent growth of fine becch and maple trees. The spot was picturesque and romantic; the shore in some places rose no a height of several feet, while in others it sloped gradually to the water's edge. One lovely moonlight evening, under a natural bower, on a flat stone, sat the handl. some brave and a beautiful Indian girl, Wah-wah-tay-see-who loved each other and were betrothed-murmuring sweet things to the music of the water, as it softly kissed the pebbly shore.
** Wah-wah-tay-see, what do the waters say?" and he listened to the very sat- isfactory reply: "I love thec, I love thee, Kitch-iti-ki-pi." He pressed her to his heart, saying: "Oh, my dear love, see the moon is like the noonday, my birch bark canoe is rocking on the water, floating like the red swan; come let us row across the Inke to the 'Great Spring' and gather mah.na-wusk." Soon they were gliding over
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SCENE OX INDIAN LAKE
TWO VIEWS OF THE BIG SPRING KITCH-ITI-KI-PI, THE BIG SPRING, SIXTY FEET DEEP AND CLEAR AS CRYSTAL
[By Courtesy of Nettie Steffensen-Thorborg]
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the placid waters, singing a quaint lovesong to the rhythmle motion of the paddles. They passed up a little creek and floated out upon the "Great Spring."' The peculiar sensation of hanging in mid-air filled them with awe, and Way-wah.tay-see murmured: "Gitebi-manito is here." They disembarked at the little landing, which is yet in use and hand in hand they walked under those stately pine trees, over a carpet of piac needles, until they began to weary; then they gathered the spearmint and sat down under this pine tree, overhung with grapevines.
After a while the brave spoke: "Nine-moo-sha, this is the moon of the straw- berry, and in the moon of the falling leaves you will come to live with me in my lodge, when we will part no more, only as I go to the chase. But now, Osseo is far to the setting sun, and we must go back, our people will wonder what has become of us. Come!"" He stepped lightly into his canoe and held ont his hand to her. But the roguish, dusky maid-very much like her white sisters-was seized with a spirit of coquetry and perverseness and ran out upon a small pine tree that overhung the edge of the spring, with the roots partly clinging to the bank, and insisted on getting in the canoe from there. In vain he pleaded with her; he reminded her of the icy cold water and the depth of the spring; but she was obdurate and made it a test of his love for ber. So with his swarthy cheeks blanched to a sallow tint and his mouth set firmly, he silently brought his canoe under the tree, stood up and carefully bal- ancing reached up his arms to receive her. She stooped to him when the tree gave way at the roots. She fell over, fortunately into the canoe, but a branch of the tree caught her lover and bore him down beneath the cold cruel waters.
The waves formed by the falling tree sent the cance out upon the spring with Wah-wah-tay-see lying flat in the bottom, dazed but unbarmed. Collecting her scat- tered senses, she rose up and looked over the moonlit water, but no lover could she sce; and all was silent save the night wind sighing through the forest. With a sobbing terrified voice she called: "Kiteb-iti-ki-pi! Soan-gi-te-ha! where art thou?" but echo alone replied. Again she speaks: "Vuk-ta-hee! Sho-wain-mene-shin, my lover is lost in the seg-wun." So with eries of lamentation and face wet with tears. she called: "Kiteh-iti.ki-pi! Onaway!" until the morning star, Wabun Anudg. had vanished from sight. When her father and brothers, troubled at her prolonged absence, came in search of her, finding her alone with a look of deep anguish on her face, they inquired, "Where is Kitch-iti-ki-pi!" She broke out afresh and pointing down in the water she cried, "Nush-ka-nosa Nee-ba-now-baigs have stolen my Soan-gi-te.ha! " They looked into the water and there fastened down by the branch of pine, was the form of Kitch-iti.ki-pi, gazing up at them with wide open eyes and a troubled look on his face; but his spirit had gone in search of the happy hunting ground, which he would not be permitted to enter because he was a bankrupt, for he had neither bis weapons nor his cooking utensils buried with him. Superstition pre- vented them from recovering what the water spirits had stolen from them, so they took Wah-wah-tay-see back with them, and they mourned the death of the young chief for a certain length of time according to their custom, and then apparently forgot. But Wah-wah-tay-see could not forget that it was through her own per- versity that her lover was lost to her, and she grew thinner and paler day by day. All day she would sit in the bower by the lake shore and listen to the mud-way aush-ka, and on moonlit nights she would silently steal across the lake to the great spring, where she would float and chant a sad song-ever the same, night after night:
Kitch-iti-ki-pi, My own true love, Come back to me, Thy mourning dove. My heart will break, I cannot stuy, Asleep, awake, From thee away.
Mud-way-aush.ka, They make me sad, Nine-moo.sha, I'll ne'er be glad Till by thy side My soul shall stand, Across the tide In spirit land.
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Then she would listen, and soon there would rise seemingly out of the water, a . low appealing reply :
Wah-wah-tay-see, My fire fly light,
Bring back to me, My armour bright, My bended bow And quiver too, Sagmittee bowl And arrows true.
With empty hand I may not go
To hunter's land
To chose the doe,
Or follow in The black bear's track,
Showain-mene-shin And bring them back.
As the Wa-bun-an-nung gleamed brightly over head, the bereft and despairing maiden would row back to her father's lodge. When the time that was to have been the bridal-the moon of the falling leaves -- arrived, she was wnsted to a shadow, and one night when the moon was at its full, she sceured her lover's bow and ar- rows, with the sagmittee bowl and eagle's feathers, wampum belt, hatchet and quiver, and stealthily crept from the camp. Placing them in the canoe she rowed over to the spring. Pausing at the spot where her lover went down, she stood up in the canoe with his weapons clasped in her arms, and sang in a plaintive voice with a note of exultation in it:
Kitch·iti-ki-pi, Thy fire fly light, Brings back to thee Thy armour bright, Thy bended bow And quiver too, Sagmittee bowl And arrows true.
The black bear's track, Showain-mene-shin I bring them back. My dearest love, My heart is sad, Thy mourning dove Will ne'er be glad
Till by thy side My soul shall stand,
Across the tide
In spirit land.
Kitch-iti-ki-pi, I come to thee.
With his weapons in her arms she plunged into the water and sank to join her lover. When her friends missed her, they easily guessed what had happened and the tribe named the spring Kitch-iti-ki-pi.
Meaning of Indian wohls-Mah-ha-mtisk ispearmint1. Wah-wah-lay-sce (fredy1. Nine-moo-sha (sweet- boart), Ostro thon of the evening star), Soan-gi-te-ha igreat hearted+. Vuk-ta ha (God of water), showaln- mene-shin (plty mel. sie-wun (spring), onaway (awake). nush- za-noss (look, look father), nee-ba-now . balgs (water spirita), mud-way-sush.ka iwund of wares on the shore).
PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL AND LIVE STOCK
Schooleraft county represents one of those sections in the Upper Peninsula, primarily a lumber county, which, since the perceptible de- nuding of its timber lands, has been taking wise steps toward trans- forming itself into an agricultural country of rich and varied production. Like the average soil of northern Michigan, that of Schoolcraft county may be classified as sandy soil, sandy loam, prairie loam, clayey loam, loamy clay, heavy red clay, and swamp soil. Generally speaking, the soil is better adapted to the raising of vegetables than of grains, and ex- perts claim that their proper treatment should include a system of rota- tion, in which crops like clover and peas should play a prominent part to maintain the life-giving nitrogen of the soil. With sheep and enough of other stock to utilize the forage necessarily produced during the ro- tation of crops, as well as to fertilize the soil, potatoes and root-crops (especially turnips) flourish surprisingly. In Schoolcraft, as in most
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of the other connties which have entered the agrienltaral class, potatoes have proved fully as profitable and staple as any other erop. The county has fully maintained the name of the upper Michigan potato for sound- ness and "mealiness." Instances are even cited where the land has been paid for by a single crop. Pras also flourish, yielding not only forage bnt grain. Made into meal, the product is fed to advantage to dairy cows, while sheep and hogs are turned into the fields. Pumpkins also are easily raised and make splendid food for live stock.
Timothy hay has been an advantage to the settler, in that it has been universally used for cropping among the stumps. When a piece of land has been "chopped off." and the branches and logs removed, while the stmups are too nich in the way for the cultivation of crops requiring annual plowing of the soil und frequent enltivation, the grass seeds scattered upon the land and brushed in or covered with a light drag make rapid growth, so that even the first year a fair crop of hay may be obtained and thereafter a plentiful one.
Clover is another plant which flourishes in this section of the state. but little difficulty being experienced in obtaining a good "catch" and seenring an excellent growth. This is hoth fortunate and desirable, as there is no better hay for dairy cows or for sheep than that which is made from red clover. White elover is another grass that finds a healthy growth in those parts and also affords excellent pastnie for dairy cows und sheep. Kentucky blue-gruss, or what in this state is known as June grass, is also common everywhere. A practical farmer will realize that a country in which timothy, Kentucky blue grass and ted and white clover flourish is a natural pasture region ; and such is Schooleraft county and much of the Upper Peninsula.
Oats grow well and pay well. The erop may be sown as late as Jane and still yield a good supply of bay and even grain. The prospects of barley are fair, and rye has bright prospects. The grain can be used either for bread or fred, while the straw makes most execHent bedding. Even corn, whose limit of snecessful enltivation was once supposed to be south of Lake Michigan, has been profitably raised in Schooleraft county, and there are those who believe that it will eventually become a paying erop in the warmer soil of more northern sections. Of course. the heavy clay soils prohibit all attempts to raise corn in this latitude.
With all these forage advantages for the raising of cattle, the country has an encouraging dairy outlook. The climate is also favorable for the raising of hardy and healthy milch cows and fat wool-producing sheep. The effect of n brisk climate on the fleree is to insure both density and fineness of fiber. Sheep in this latitude are also less sabjeet to con- tagious and parasitic diseases than those raised in warmer regions. It has often been assumed that the additional expense incurred in winter feeding sheep in this section more than balances the advantage of snit- ability of climate and crops. Now, one aere of pasture will carry three sheep over a summer season under average conditions; if allowed to produce hay a similar acre would probably retain two and a half tons of
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hay, which is sufficient for at least ten sheep during the winter season. On the basis of acreage more sheep may be carried through winter con- ditions than can be through summer conditions, so that winter is not necessarily unprofitable in sheep feeding.
In Schooleraft county there is much land that is adapted for sheep culture. These are classed as follows: 1. Waste tracts low in fertility ; 2. Grazing lands that are rough and rocky, but possess a fairly rich soil; 3. Those lands which in time will be adapted to general farming. The waste lands are light sandy soils found in districts where the pine has been removed and but a meager growth of vegetation has taken its place. In most instances there is some such herbage as bunch grass which could not be depended upon to supply permanent pasture. From the ex- perience of older countries it seems safe to assume that such lands may be brought into fertile conditions by having sheep herded on them. These lands may be purchased for about seventy-five cents per acre in large tracts and it would seem that the cheapness of them afforded suffi- cient inducement for a trial of sheep farming on them. In most parts lakes are numerous and the water privilege is good.
The conditions are likewise favorable for the production of swine- both food and elimate. Peas, as has been noted, are one of the good crops of Schoolcraft county, and it is well known that they make the choicest quality of pork. A comparison as to the comparative value of feed to hogs, published by the Ontario experiment station a few years ago, indicated that hogs weighing nearly 200 pounds each made 100 pounds gain when fed 380 pounds of peas. In another trial 120 pounds of peas and 287 pounds of corn meal together made 100 pounds of gain to the hogs, while 590 pounds of corn meal when fed alone were required to produce 100 pounds of pork.
As to horticulture-experiments in raising the larger fruits have been less successful than in producing the smaller varieties, such as the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, currant and gooseberry.
Schoolcraft county has the soil, the climate and the crops calculated to develop a fine agricultural, dairy and live-stock country, with the limitations already noted. She has also unusually complete facilities, both by land and water, for getting her products to profitable markets, and she is destined to grow in wealth through the cultivation of her soil, as she has mainly developed in the past through the natural yield of her forests and waters.
INCREASE OF POPULATION
Since any census figures have been taken, Schoolcraft county has been eredited with the following population : 1850, 16; 1860, 78; 1874, 1,290; 1880, 1,575; 1884, 3,846; 1890, 5,818; 1894, 7.127; 1900, 7,889; 1904, 8,628; 1910, 8,681. A comparative statement by townships, ac- cording to the national census figures of the last three decades, is as below :
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361
TOWNSHIPS AND CITY
1910
1900
1890
Cusino township
293
Doyle township
524
750
Germfask township
504
319
148
Hiawatha township
568
284
149
Inwood township
374
673
Manistique City
4,722
4,126
4,940
Ward 1
777
Ward 2
1,103
Ward 3
1,554
Ward 4
1.288
Manistique township
499
302
454
Mueller township
318
Seney township
126
254
774
Thompson township
753
664
931
DELTA COUNTY
Delta county is situated in the southeast-central part of the Upper Peninsula on the shores of Lake Michigan and Green bay. The southern portion of the county is washed by the waters of the latter, and the north- ern portion of the interior by Big and Little Bays de Noquet-arms of Green bay-which extend sharply inland to form Peninsula Point, which divides the two bodies of water mentioned. Ford river waters the south- western portions of the county, flowing in a southerly direction and en- tering Green bay about eight miles south of Escanaba. The Escanaba, or Flat Rock river, rises in the southeastern part of Marquette county, crosses the southwestern part of Delta county, and flows into Little Bay de Noquet, at the town of Flat Rock, seven miles north of the county seat. Rapid and White Fish rivers empty into the head of the Little Bay, while Sturgeon river and other streams come in from the north to mingle their waters with Big Bay de Noquet. Thus the shore lines of the county are deeply indented and veined by the two bays and numerous streams flow- ing into them, and as some of the early settlers also fancied they saw in such configurations a resemblance to the mouths of the Nile, the county received the name of Delta. Like the historic river of the Old World, the inland streams also bear toward the coast rieh deposits of soil, which is especially evident on the eastern shores of Big Bay de Noquet. The streams are the sources of valuable water-powers, the most largely de- veloped being those of Flat Rock river.
With its numerous streams and inland lakes, Delta county offers unusual facilities for water transportation and, in connection with the Chicago & Northwestern and the Escanaba & Lake Superior railroads, its conveniences are unrivaled for the expedient handling of its timber and ore. Escanaba and Gladstone, its chief centers of industry, com- merce and trade, are on the west shore of Little Bay, and represent large and important enterprises in lumbering, iron manufactories and the transportation of ore and coal.
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SCENE ON THE ESCANABA RIVER
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Under the organic act of 1843 Delta county was defined within the following limits: Beginning on Lake Michigan south of the line be- tween ranges 12 and 13 west, thenee southerly along the margin of the lake to Green bay; thence along the north and west shores of Green bay to the Menominee river; thence northwesterly along the boundary line between Michigan and Wisconsin to the line between ranges 37 and 38 west ; thence along the north boundary of town 41 to the line between ranges 12 and 13 west ; thence sonth to the point of beginning on Lake Michigan. The county was attached to Michilmackinac for judicial purposes. Masouville, at the head of Little Bay de Noquet, was a settlement before Esennaba could be called one and was the or- iginal county seat. In March, 1861, the county of Delta was consti- tnted as townships 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 north, range 24 west; towns 35. 39. 40. 41. 42 und 43 north, range 23 west; towns 38, 39, 40, 41. 42 and 43 north, range 22 west; towns 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 und 43 north, range 21 west : townships 37. 38. 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 north, range 20 west ; towns 37. 38. 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 north, range 19 west, inelnd- ing all of Summer island; and towns 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 north, range IS west. By this act the county remained attached to Mackinac for judicial, taxable and other purposes, and David Langley, Jr., Peter Murphy and Thomas J. Streeter were appointed commissioners to lo- rate the county seat. They selected Escanaba.
FOUNDING OF ESCANABA
Despite the civil creation of the county in 1843, it did not commence to develop ont of a backwoods country until 1863.4. when the Chicago & North Western Railway Company began to push its line through the wilderness between the new county seat and Negaunce and completed ore dock No. 1 at Escanaba. Operations on the road were commeneed in July. 1863, and toward the close of the summer R. A. Connelly, mas- ter mechanie and builder of the ore dock came to Escanaba and built a hotel and boarding house, the first frame structure in the place. Perry & Wells, the railroad contractors, soon erected two other small buildings for the accommodation of the workmen, and followed by putting up a fair sized store. The first work completed on the railway was the road. bed from Flat Rock to the ore docks. Work upon dock No. 1 was pushed so rapidly by the contractors that within a short time after the arrival of the pile driver, it was so far completed that vessels consigned to the port of Escanaba with iron and building materials for the building of the railroad were able to discharge their cargoes. In 1864, while the line was being pushed toward Negaunee, the "Swan" and "Sarah Van Epps." the first stemmers plying between Escanaba and Green bay, com- menced making regular trips. The year 1865 opened with the railroad completed and during that season the first iron ore was shipped from dock No. 1. From that time on, Escanaba progressed stendily. The old " Appleton," the first locomotive that was put on the Escanaba-Ne- gaunee line was shipped by lake, and an engine house was provided hy
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converting a portion of the old boarding house into a "stall," a small tank inside the building supplying it with water which was fed by a force pump and a well.
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