USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 55
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Other than the points in Houghton county, already noted, may be mentioned Dollar Bay, a hamlet of a few hundred people on the Mineral and Copper Range railroads, four miles northeast of Honghton.
KEWEENAW COUNTY
Keweenaw county was set off from Houghton county by act of the legislature approved March 11, 1861, and was described as follows: "All that portion of Houghton county lying north of township 55 north, range 31 west, including Manitou islands of Lake Superior and Isle Royale. The seat of justice was established at Eagle River and the first election for county officers was held in the fall of 1861.
As stated, the county comprises the northern portion of what is gen- erally called Keweenaw point, a peninsula-the point proper being the northeastern extremity of this bold projection of laud iuto Lake Super- ior. It is needless to here repeat the early ventures of the Pittsburg & Boston Mining Company, and the opening of the old Cliff and Phoenix mines, at Eagle River in 1843, with the operations of the Eagle Harbor Mining Company in 1845, and the general advent of mining adventurers to Copper Harbor in 1846. The story of the rise and decline of these interesting communities has been repeatedly told. and it is the present purpose to briefly describe conditions in Keweenaw county as they are today. This, also, has been partially accomplished in the foregoing ne- count of its mines which are either productive or being developed.
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Eagle River, the county seat, is a little settlement of two or three hundred people lying on the north shore of the peninsula, in the south- west portion of the county, on Lake Superior at the mouth of the stream whose name it bears. It is in Houghton township, two miles northwest of Phoenix, the nearest railroad station (located on the Keweenaw Cen- tral line), with which it has daily stage communication. Its nearest banking facilities are at Calumet, sixteen miles to the south.
The most flourishing town in the county is now Mohawk, the location of the mine by that name, eight miles south of Eagle River on the Min- eral Range and Keweenaw Central railroads. (See Mohawk Mining Company). The town comprises probably two-thirds of the population of Allonez township, in which it is located : inelndes a well-organized bank. a number of thoroughly-stocked stores, several churches and a weekly newspaper ( Kewecenaw Miner). In the same township are the small towns at the location of Allonez and Ahmeek mines-the latter an incorporated village of nearly 800 people. Mandan, on the Central line, seventeen miles east of the county seat is somewhat of a mining location, being the site of the Medora mine. It is in Grunt township. Phoenix is about two miles south of Eagle River, while Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor on the far north shores of Lake Superior, away from the Ke- weenaw Central line, are but historie memories of the pioneer days of copper mining in the Upper Peninsula.
DESCRIPTIVE
Keweenaw county is a rare mixture of scenery and history. as the following items chiefly collated from an attractive booklet issued by the Keweenaw Central Railroad will prove. The points are mentioned sub- stantially as they are reached along the route of the road, running north- east from Calumet to Mandan, with spurs to Crestview and Lac La Belle.
Out from Calumet are first passed, within viewing distance, the great locations of the Calumet & Hecla, Tamarack, Centennial, Wolverine, Kearsarge, Allouez, Ahmeek and Mohawk-the last three being just over the Keweenaw county line.
Mohawk, as has been noted, is the metropolis of the county, being the home of the Mohawk mine, one of the most reliable dividend payers in the copper country.
The Gratiot River has long been famed for its brook trout fishing and during recent years, in addition to the numerous mature fish in its waters, over a million young trout have been planted in this stream and its tributaries. Here is located the Ojibway mine, which is destined to be one of the great copper producers,
From Ojibway to Phoenix the track is bordered on one side by the "Cliffs," one of the greatest natural wonders of the northwest. Tower- ing almost beyond the line of vision, the vari-colored rock peers forth here and there from its covering of verdant green.
The rugged grandeur of the scenery, as the Keweenaw Central train passes under the precipitous walls of the giant Greenstone Cliffs, is very
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impressive; on the opposite side of the track are undulating hills, cov- ered with verdant green. Here is found the romantic, deserted village of Cliff-churches, school buildings, town halls and the little log cabins which once housed a happy and industrious community, now given over for the most part to haunting wraithis of long ago.
Here we find the home of the man whom copper made a money king. The first mine in the great copper belt is located here, and all along the track are signs of vanished greatness, mingling with the newer ereations and more modern habitations of the later generations which are now be- ginning to teem with life as new mining efforts are undertaken under Calumet and Hecla interests, the present owners of the New Cliff.
Actual mining at the Phoenix was begun October 22, 1844, and from it was taken the largest piece of native silver ever found. It is now in possession of the mint at Philadelphia and weighs 823 pounds.
Crestview, which is reached by a short branch from the main line, at Phoenix, is a creditably improved recreation resort owned by the Ke- weenaw Central. It is fifteen miles from Calumet and a short distance southeast of Eagle River, the county seat. The resort is on the rest of a ridge overlooking Lake Superior, and numbers among its artificial at- tractions a handsome casino and dance hall and facilities both for ath- letie and juvenile recreations. The good road to Eagle River is bor- dered with charming scenes,
As the train passes ont of Phoenix and away from the rugged hills, which tower above the tracks, a short glimpse of Lake Superior is of- fered. When it reaches the next station, Central, at an elevation of 600 feet above the lake a pretty village is disclosed, having as its most striking artificial feature a handsome school house on the hill.
The Central location, beyond the Phoenix, on the main line, was opened in 1854 and for nearly forty years was a steady dividend payer. The mine closed down in 1898, after producing copper to the value of nearly $10,000,000. The company's extensive lands are now controlled by Calumet & Ilecla interests.
From this point are reached Gratiot lake, Copper Falls and Arnold. The first named is the only lake of importance in the Keweenaw penin- sula where bass abound. Deer are also plentiful around it; so that the locality is becoming a most popular resort for anglers, hunters and pleasure seekers of whatever inclination.
Succeeding Central, on the main railroad line, is Delaware, standing in the center of an attractive plateau, affording an excellent view of the natural panorama dotted with the green hills, sparkling streams and glistening lakes. The Montreal river, famous for its speckled trout fish- ing. here parallels the Keweenaw Central track for miles. The Dela- ware mine is now known as the Manitou, and is controlled by the Calu- met & Hecla Mining Company. A regular stage is operated between Delaware and Eagle Harbor.
At the latter old copper town is the historie school house. In 1860, at the age of twenty-one, Justus H. Rathbone came to Lake Superior,
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where he engaged in teaching school at Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. Here in the little school house he wrote the ritual of the Knights of Pythias, which order has since expanded throughout the length and breadth of the land. The old school is being thoroughly repaired by the Grand Lodge and will be maintained as a standing memorial of the birthplace of the order.
From Lac La Belle Junction, the Keweenaw Central has pushed its main line to Mandan and a southern branch to Lae La Belle. The branch takes them to the shores of Lake Superior and into a delightful resort country, embracing the invigorating charms of Lae La Belle, Deer lake and Bete Grise bay.
Mandan is located in the heart of a virgin maple grove, so situated as to enjoy the freedom of Lake Superior's bracing breezes. It is one of the most thriving locations in Keweenaw county and affords many natural attractions for the seeker after health and pleasure. This is the location, as stated, of the Medora mine, one of the properties of the Keweenaw Copper Company.
A few miles northeast of Lake Medora and the mine location, on the shores of Lake Superior, is the once famous Copper Harbor. At this point, on the banks of Lake Fanny Hooe are the decaying and falling ruins of old Fort Wilkins-relies of the days when the Indians threat- ened to overrun the northwest and massacre its inhabitants. The post was established in 1844 and garrisoned by two companies of United States infantry under Captain Cleary. The lake itself is surrounded by picturesque hills and affords fine bathing and excellent fishing. There is a unique hotel at Copper Harbor-Hotel Nordland-and the place is thoroughly enjoyed by resorters who are looking for recreation withont a stifling crowd.
KEWEENAW COUNTY MINES
Although copper mining had its origin in the old Cliffs of Kewee- naw county, this section of the Upper Peninsula has only one dividend payer-the Mohawk mine, whose location is at Gay, about four miles northeast of Calumet. Its lands comprise 800 acres, forming an irreg- nlar tract, with the Ahmeek and Seneca mines on the north and a por- tion of the Ahmeek tract on the west. The Mohawk, formerly known as the Fulton, was supposed to lie too far east to carry the onterop of the Kearsarge bed, until the onterop was accidentally discovered in 1896 while a wood-road was being ent through that section. The Kearsarge lode, on which the mine is opened, onterops for about a mile on the Mo- hawk tract, and. it is estimated, that the deepest shaft can be sunk for nearly a mile and a half before reaching the boundary. Five shafts are now in netive operation. The mine has a complete telephone system. surface und underground, and its buildings include a machine shop, smithy, carpenter shop and warehouse, a well-equipped hospital, and unmerous minor buildings and dwellings for employees. A consider- able village, with business houses, a bank, newspaper, etc., has grown
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mp around the mine. Near the mouth of the Tobacco river, on Traverse bay, Lake Superior, is the Mohawk stamping mill, opposite the Wolver- ine plant at Kearsarge, Houghton county. The mineral is taken from the bin-house, in self-dumping steel cars, to the Michigan smelter at Houghton, where it is reduced to fine copper. As stated, water for both the Mohawk and Wolverine mines is furnished from a joint pump house which stands near the Tobacco river. The wharves, with coal hoists and storage sheds, are a short distance from the stamping mill. The town site at the Mohawk and Wolverine mines is named in de- served honor of Joseph E. Gay, long identified with substantial cop- per mining. and is well laid out and built.
The Mohawk Mining Company was organized in 1898 with a capi- talization of $2.500,000. It has been paying dividends since 1906, the total received by stockholders until 1910 having been $1,950,000; divi- deuds for 1909, $300,000. About 1,000 men are employed and for the year ending December 31. 1909. 11,248,474 pounds of refined copper were produced.
As stated, the location of the Ahmeek Mining Company is west and sonth of the Mohawk traet, near the Houghton county line and north- east of Calumet. It consists of 920 acres set off, in 1880, by the Seneca Mining Company to work the Kearsarge, or Houghton conglomerate, and its mine office is at Allonez. Its first shafts were sunk by Captain John Daniell, founder of the great Tamarack mine. Production was not at all regnlar until the Kearsarge lode was located in the spring of 1903, and is considered by experts a very promising property. Its en- tire output has amounted to over 10,000,000 pounds.
As noted, the original Seneen location of 3,240 acres was reduced to 1,880 actes by setting off the Ahmeek tract in 1880. The original Seneca Mining Company was organized in 1866, and the present prop- erty is still n development proposition.
The old AHlouez mine is of still earlier origin, having been opened in 1859. Active mining commenced in 1869 and suspended in 1877, when the property was leased by Watson & Walls, by whom it was worked intermittently until 1892. The old mine has been idle for some years, except for experimental work, and the stamp mill on Hills Creek is only valuable as a relie of by-gone mining days. Control of the old Allouez Mining Company, organized in 1859, was obtained by the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, in 1907. Embraced in the present Allouez location are about 3,400 acres, including the main tract of 640 aeres in which the new mine is opened, its plant being reached by a spur of the Mineral Range Railroad. Its production of refined copper in 1909 amounted to 4,031,532 pounds.
The Keweenaw Copper Company, organized in 1906, with the capital of $10,000,000. controls the Keweenaw Central Railroad Company, Phoenix Consolidated Copper Company and the Washington Copper Mining Company. Its holdings comprise about 20,000 acres of mineral lands which carry considerable timber. The tracts are in three main
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groups which are the keys to the great Keweenaw mineral belt for a stretch of fourteen miles, and include the tracts formerly owned by the Aetna, Copper Harbor, Empire, Girard, Hanover, Keweenaw, Mandan, Medora, Pennsylvania & Boston, Resolute and Vulcan companies. The Keweenaw Copper Company also controls extensive water-frontages on available harbors and undeveloped water powers of great prospective value.
The company's lands include nearly two miles of water frontage on either side of the Montreal river, including Fish Cove, one mile east of the river's month, which, with other holdings, give the company the entire water-front of Lake Medora (formerly Mosquito lake). This corporation also owns the Lae La Belle, or Medora ship canal, connect- ing the former little body of water with Lake Superior.
The Keweenaw Copper Company secured control of the old Lac La Belle & Calumet Railroad, which was reorganized as the Keweenaw Central Railroad Company; the latter's entire issue of stock. $350,000, is owned by the copper company, which rebuilt the old Lae La Belle line of eight miles and extended it southwest to Cahnnet. The line has now abont thirty-three miles of spurs and branches, cost $800,000, and terminates just south of Centennial, a suburb of Calumet, where it connects with the Copper Range Railroad.
Most of the old mining properties secured by the Keweenaw Copper Company were prospects only, although the Aetna had a small recorded production and the Resolute mine had been developed in a small way Late developmental work has been restricted to the Medora-Mandan- Resolute tract of 2.440 acres. The Medora mine, opened abont 1860, has several old shafts, its bed, traversing the lands for about four miles and outeropping several hundred feet north of the Montreal river lode. Buildings at this location inelnde small shops, an office and about twenty dwellings. Prospects at this point seem the most favorable.
The Ojibway mine, which is in its development state (having been opened in 1907) is located in a 1.600-aere tract between Seneca mine on the sonth and the historic Cliff mine on the north. The latter, as has been noted, is a property of the Tamarack Mining Company. It in- eludes the Cliff proper and the South Cliff, which were connected un- derground in June, 1908. The Cliff is the oldest mine in the Lake Su- perior region, having been opened in 1846. It was closed in 1870, re- opened in 1872 and abandoned in 1878, having paid dividends amount- ing to $2,518,620, from 1849 to 1879 inclusive. The mine was opened on a fissure vein, which was pretty thoroughly worked out before the property was abandoned and prodneed perhaps the most silver of any Michigan mine.
The entire copper industry in Keweenaw county gives employment to a little more than 2,000 men.
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TODD'S HARBOR. ISLE ROYALE
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POPULATION
According to the various enumerations made by county, state and national authorities the population of Keweenaw county has varied as follows: 1864, 5,180; 1870, 4,205: 1874, 5.415; 1880, 4,270; 1884, 4,667; 1890, 2,894; 1900, 3,217; 1910, 7,156, The figures given by the last three censuses of the national bureau are as follows:
TOWNSHIPS
1910
1900
1890
Allouez township ineluding Ahmeek vil-
lage
5,672
1,610
1,103
Eagle Harbor township
193
1,346
576
Houghton township
448
189
Grant township
258
157
100
Sherman township
585
104
868
OLD ISLE ROYALE COUNTY
It is said that it was Franklin's foresight which included Isle Roy- ale among the group of picturesque islands which falls on the American side of the international boundary line. It has been attached to Ke- weenaw county for many years, although it lies much nearer Minnesota than Michigan territory.
Isle Royale and the adjacent islands of Lake Superior were estab- lished as a township of Houghton county, March 16, 1847, under the name of Isle Royale township, and the first town meeting in that year was held at the house of Joseph Petit. In 1861 the territory was in- eluded in the newly-organized Keweenaw county, from which it was detached in 1875, only to be returned to its mother about a decade later. From the standpoint of a contributing element to the growth of the county, Isle Royale was never important. As given in the census returns of 1880, Minong, its only organized township, had a population of only fifty-five in that year.
Isle Royale is about fifty miles north of west from Keweenaw Point, its extreme eastern point being nearly opposite Eagle River. It is fifty- one miles in length and averages about five in width, heavily timbered with evergreen some distance from the shore. Inland and in the val- leys are also found large growths of white pine and cedar. Hills ris- ing from three to four hundred feet above the lake are found in many localities, and in some places on the west are bold cliffs of greenstone rising from the water's edge, while on the eastern shore there abounds coarse sandstone. On the point, at the entrance to Siskawit bay. sn- perior sandstone for paving purposes is deposited. From the times of the early French discoveries, Isle Royale was known to have all the geological indications of a copper country, and great expectations were formed as to its future; but when it was found in the first half of the nineteenth century that the same formations extended into the mainland forming a great mineral ridge one hundred and fifty miles
Vol. 1-33
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long, mining operations were centered in a country which was bound. in a short time, to provide full transportation facilities by water and land. It will therefore be many years, in all probability, before Isle Royale is developed as a mining country.
The island is remarkable for the completeness of its natural harbor- age. It is probable that there is no equal area in the Lake Superior re- gion which provides more numerous and better harbors. On the north shore is Amygdaloid Island harbor and Todd's harbor, and among the Fingers-as the slim northeastern extensions of the island are called- are several good harbors. On the south Rock harbor is extensive and seenre; Siskawit bay is a fair refuge, except in a direct northeast gale, and Washington harbor, on the west, with three distinct entrances, has seventy-five feet of water for more than five miles.
ONTONAGON COUNTY
Ontonagon is one of the six countries into which the act of March 9, 1843, divided the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The region had been explored by Samuel W. Hill, in 184], before the Burt surveyors came into the country, and he was afterward a member of the Houghton sur- veying party, and in the following year James K. Paul arrived in search of the "copper Manitou;" but the first white settler, this same "Jim Paul," preempted and took possession of his elaim at the month of the Ontonagon river. on the 2nd of May following the creation of the county by the state legislature. In 1844 the United States government erected the Mineral Ageney building on the east side of the river, and in the summer of 1845 the first practical mining in the connty was commenced at the old Minnesota location, Then Daniel S. Cash, William W. Spauld- ing and Edmond Lockwood set themselves np as merchants and river freighters, and the settlement of Ontonagon at the mouth of the river may be said to have become a fact. It was the Minnesota mine which in May, 1849, drew the first craft up the river (propeller "Napoleon"), and on the 15th of June she took away a load of copper ore as the first shipment which ever passed through Outonagon harbor, or out of the Lake Superior country. In more ways than this, as will have been real- ized by the reader of the general chapter on mining, Ontonagon county was the mother of the industry, though she has long since been over- taken in production by her more fortunate and vigorons offspring.
As stated. Ontonagon connty was legalized as a body politie in 1843, and although several acts were passed for her actual organization they were found defective ; so that an election for county officers was not held until September, 1852. This resulted in the choice of Ira D. Bush for district judge; J. H. Edwards, judge of probate; W. W. Spaulding, eir- enit conrt commissioner; HI. HI. Close, clerk and register; T. B. Hanna, treasurer ; Peter Dean, sheriff, and Charles Merryweather, surveyor. The first board of supervisors consisted of Augustus Coburn, for Onton- agon township, and James Van Alstine, for Pewabic.
Under the organic act of 1846, Ontonagon village, at the month of
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the river by that name, had been declared the county seat, and there it has remained. The land upon which it stands was the tract preempted, in 1843, by James K. Paul, who recorded the village plat January 13, 1854. Its first postmaster was D. S. Cash, the merchant, who was ap- pointed in 1846.
In 1851 a commencement was made in the village system of educa- tion by James Scoville, who taught the first local school ; although it may be said more truly to have originated in December, 1853, with the or- ganization of the first school district. In 1856 the first school board was organized, and in the winter of 1857-8 the school population of the town depended on one public and two private institutions. The Catholics, Presbyterians and Episcopalians all founded churches in the early fif- ties, the Methodists and Swedish Lutherans establishing societies at a later date.
In 1856 the harbor of Ontonagon commeneed to be improved in a small and half-hearted way, but its facilities as a port of entry and ship- ment were not materially increased until the general government, through Major Roberts, assumed the work in 1867. The harbor is now a worthy natural and artificial outlet, as well as distributing point, for a country one hundred and fifty miles to the northeast and southeast, furnishing considerable products of the mines, forest soil and fisheries. Outonagon is the lake terminns of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, the Ontonagon Railroad, being in direct connection with this system.
Ontonagon's fire department was organized in 1858, when No. 1 com- pany was formed and its engine house built. The village has now a good department, and also owns and operates its own water and electric light plant. It is in the vicinity of lands thickly wooded with heinloek, pine, ash, basswood, birch, maple, elin and cedar, as well as in the midst of valuable deposits of clays and shales and agricultural tracts of pro- nounced fertility. The town is already the center of a progressive dis- triet of vegetable, grain and fruit farms, and for the sale of lands; has a good bank and two hotels; a well organized school and weekly news- paper (Ontonagon Herald) ; saw mills, stave, veneer and heading fac- tories : cedar, yards, and two fish companies. With its natural surround- ings and advantages, it is quite likely to be the site of tanneries, pulp and paper mills, wooden ware and chemical plants, and yards for the manufacture of both paving and fine briek. Ontonagon's only smelting works were started in 1862 and shut down in 1867. In the estimation of many, an even more important item in her local history was the visit of Prince Napoleon and suite of France to her shores. He came on the steamer "North Star," in Angust. 1861, and although his errand was but to gather some specimens of native copper for his mineral eolleetion -still royalty has trodden the soil of Ontonagon, and that is enough.
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