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History & Culture

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History & Culture notes

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Escanaba: ore docks, a lighthouse, and the U.P.'s own fairEscanaba grew around iron-ore shipping; Sand Point Lighthouse and the U.P. State Fair keep two parts of that history visible today.
Fayette, the town the iron company left behindAt the tip of the Garden Peninsula sits Fayette -- a complete 1860s iron-smelting company town, emptied in 1891 and preserved ever since, now one of the best-kept historic townsites in the country.
Fayette: the ghost town Delta County kept perfectDelta County's Garden Peninsula holds Fayette Historic State Park — a complete 1880s iron-smelting town preserved on a white-cliffed harbor.
Freeland's Walleye Festival: forty years of fish, parades, and small-town springEvery April, Freeland and Tittabawassee Township throw a four-day Walleye Festival on the river — parade, carnival, fishing tournament and all.
Genesee County keeps a whole 1880s town (with a steam railroad)Crossroads Village and the Huckleberry Railroad preserve thirty-plus historic Genesee County buildings and a real steam train — the county's time machine.
Gratiot County's other crop: windGratiot County's 133-turbine wind project was Michigan's largest when it opened in 2012, and the county now hosts six wind farms that support farms and local services.
Greenmead: the 1820s farm Livonia keptLivonia preserved its pioneer roots at Greenmead — a 95-acre 1820s homestead and historical village hosting markets, festivals, and Michigan's oldest barns.
Hancock and the Copper Country's Finnish rootsWhen the copper mines needed workers, thousands of Finns crossed the ocean to the Keweenaw. Their mark is everywhere in Hancock -- in saunas, in pasties, in street signs, and in the Finnish American Heritage Center.
Harbor Country: where Carl Sandburg wrote Lincoln among the goatsChikaming Township's lakeside villages — Lakeside, Harbert, Union Pier — have drawn Chicago artists for a century; Carl Sandburg wrote his Pulitzer-winning Lincoln here.
Hermansville and the maple flooring stamped IXLIn 1888, Hermansville's lumber company opened a mill for kiln-dried rock-maple flooring and sent boards stamped IXL to builders across the growing West.
Hillsdale: the college and the headwater hillsHillsdale County pairs an 1844 college with glacial high ground where five river systems begin.
How Alger County got its nameAlger County was carved from Schoolcraft County in 1885 and named for Russell A. Alger -- a lumber baron, Civil War cavalry general, and the sitting governor of Michigan at the time.
How Baraga County got its name: the Snowshoe PriestBaraga County is named for Bishop Frederic Baraga, the 'Snowshoe Priest' who walked hundreds of winter miles to reach scattered villages, learned Ojibwe, and wrote its first dictionary. A towering shrine to him overlooks Keweenaw Bay near L'Anse.
How Chippewa County got its nameThe Library of Michigan says the county was named for the Ojibwe, or Chippewa, people, whose tribal governments and treaty rights remain part of life here.
How Delta County got its nameDelta County is named for the Greek letter -- because the county's original 1843 borders formed a neat triangle. Then it gave away so much territory that the triangle disappeared.
How Dickinson County got its nameOrganized on May 21, 1891, Dickinson is Michigan's youngest county. Its name honors Donald M. Dickinson, a Detroit attorney who had served as U.S. Postmaster General.
How Essexville launched Michigan's modern beet-sugar industryMichigan's first successful beet-sugar campaign opened in Essexville in 1898. The plant later closed, but its Pioneer company became part of Michigan Sugar's lineage.
How Gladstone got its name (and Kipling too)Gladstone was first called Minnewasca. In 1887, William D. Washburn pushed to rename it for a British prime minister after British capital helped finance the railroad.
How Gogebic County got its nameGogebic County takes its name from Lake Gogebic -- an Ojibwe name, Agogebic, whose exact meaning has been debated for over a century. This was Lake Superior Chippewa country long before it was a county.
How Iron County got its nameIron County's name is the most honest in Michigan: it's named for the iron ore that built it. It's also one of only two Upper Peninsula counties that don't touch a Great Lake.
How Luce County got its nameLuce County was carved from Chippewa and Mackinac counties in 1887 and named for Cyrus G. Luce, the farmer who was serving as Michigan's governor at the time.
How Menominee County got its nameThe river, the city, and the county all carry the name of the Menominee -- the Wild Rice People, whose own story begins at the mouth of this very river, and whose nation endures today.
How Norway, Michigan got its nameNorway grew up on the Menominee Iron Range in the 1870s -- and its name has two tellings, one about Norwegian settlers and one about a great stand of Norway pine.
How Ontonagon got its name -- and the copper boulder behind itOntonagon is an Ojibwe name, carried by the river before the county. And on that river once sat the Ontonagon Boulder -- a sacred 3,700-pound chunk of pure copper, known to the Ojibwe for centuries, now in the Smithsonian.
How Schoolcraft County got its nameSchoolcraft County is named for Henry Schoolcraft, the explorer and Indian agent whose famous writings on the Ojibwe rested largely on the knowledge of his Ojibwe wife, the writer Jane Johnston Schoolcraft.
How Stephenson got its nameStephenson started as a railroad water stop called Wacedah, then took the name of the Stephenson lumber family in 1876 -- and Wisconsin's town of Stephenson, across the river, honors a different brother.
Idlewild: the Black Eden of the MidwestLake County's Idlewild was the most famous African American resort in the country — where Louis Armstrong and Della Reese played and thousands summered in freedom.
Iron River, the city that became three cities in oneIron River is Iron County's largest city -- a former iron-mining hub that made Michigan history in 2000 by merging with neighboring Stambaugh and Mineral Hills into a single new city.
Ironwood, the Gogebic Range, and Big Snow CountryIronwood was born from some of the richest iron ore in Michigan and named for the miner whose ore-stained hands gave the town its name -- and when the mines closed, the deep snow gave it a second life.
Kingsford: the town Ford built, the charcoal on your grillKingsford had about forty residents in 1920. Then Henry Ford built a wood empire here -- and the briquettes his plant pressed from sawmill waste became the Kingsford charcoal on grills across America.
Lapeer: Michigan's oldest working courthouse, and horse country out the back doorLapeer County pairs the 1846 Greek Revival courthouse — Michigan's oldest still in use — with the rolling hunt-country hills around Metamora.
Manistique's lumber days, and the bridge that floatsManistique boomed on white pine -- a port town reachable only by water until 1888 -- and its lumber era left behind a lighthouse, a grand brick water tower, and a bridge that sits below the water beside it.
Marquette's ore docks, where the iron range meets the lakeMarquette grew up as the port that shipped the Upper Peninsula's iron to the world. Its great ore docks still define the waterfront -- one a beloved retired landmark, the other still loading freighters with iron pellets today.
Maybee: definitely a real townExeter Township's village of Maybee — named for settler Abram Maybee in 1873 — has a railroad past, a century-old limestone quarry, and the most quotable name in Monroe County.
Milk in glass bottles, delivered: Calder DairyThe Calder family dairy near Carleton has bottled milk in glass and run home delivery since 1946, and welcomes families out to the farm.
Munising's furnace, tannery, and paper millMunising takes its name from the Ojibwe word for 'at the island,' and was born twice -- once around an 1867 iron furnace, and again when the railroad arrived in 1895. Its paper mill has run for more than a century.
Muskrat dinners: Monroe County's proudest acquired tasteMonroe County's 'Muskrat French' families have eaten marsh muskrat since the 1780s — a Lenten tradition that's still served at lodge dinners today.
Negaunee and the birth of Michigan's iron industryNegaunee is where it all started -- iron ore found in the roots of a fallen tree in 1844, the first mine, the first forge. The Michigan Iron Industry Museum sits on the very spot where Michigan iron was first made.
Newberry's iron and timber beginningsNewberry sprang up in 1882 around a charcoal-iron furnace and a sawmill, named for a Detroit railroad man who likely never visited -- a logging boomtown whose story still lives in two local museums.
Novi: the town probably named by a Roman numeralNovi's name likely comes from 'No. VI' — toll gate, stagecoach stop, or township number six, depending who you ask — and today it's Michigan's 'Little Tokyo.'
Old Victoria, the copper village frozen in timeNear Rockland, a cluster of hand-hewn log cabins still stands where copper miners and their families lived a century ago -- one of the oldest log villages remaining on its original site in America, preserved by volunteers.
Owosso's castle and the Polar Express: Shiawassee's storybook sideShiawassee County's seat keeps a riverside writer's castle and the famous steam locomotive Pere Marquette 1225 — the engine behind the Polar Express.
Paper towns: how Otsego and Plainwell made America's pagesFor a century the mills of Otsego and Plainwell made paper for the nation; the towns have spent the years since turning that heritage into new riverfronts.
Pequaming, the lumber town Henry Ford boughtHenry Ford bought Pequaming and 40,000 acres in 1923 to supply hardwood for Ford vehicles, and traces of the old company town remain on Keweenaw Bay.
Pinconning cheese and the shops that carried it forwardDan Horn's 1915 Colby-style formula gave Pinconning its namesake cheese; two roadside stores with Horn-family roots carried the tradition forward.
Plainwell, the Island City — where city hall is an old paper millDowntown Plainwell sits on an actual island between the Kalamazoo River and an 1856 millrace, and its city hall occupies the beautifully reborn paper mill.
Pontiac: a chief's name, a car's name, a comeback's namePontiac is named for the great Odawa chief, lent its name to millions of GM cars, hosted WrestleMania III's record crowd — and is rebuilding its downtown swagger.
Sanford's comeback: the lakes are filling againSix years after the dams gave way and emptied them, the mid-Michigan lakes are returning — Sanford Lake began refilling in April 2026, with the rest on a published schedule.
Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo LocksThe Soo Locks carry vessels around the St. Marys River's 21-foot drop. The Corps says nearly all U.S. domestic iron ore passes through them.
Seul Choix Point LighthouseSouth of Gulliver, the Seul Choix Point station dates to 1892 and its present light to 1895. The site pairs a working light with a museum and a local ghost story.
Southfield: Northland Center and the golden skylineNorthland opened in 1954 as an influential early regional shopping center. It began as an open-air complex, closed in 2015, and its site is being rebuilt for mixed use.
St. Johns, the Mint Capital of the WorldClinton County leads Michigan in mint, and county seat St. Johns has celebrated its Mint Capital title with a festival every August since the 1980s.
Start with the kind of Muskegon waterfront day you wantMuskegon County's waterfront is easier to navigate once you separate its beach parks, museum ships, and operating cross-lake ferry.
Stevie Wonder, Serena Williams, and a Pulitzer poet: Saginaw's famous kidsSaginaw's birth roll is wildly out of proportion to its size: Stevie Wonder, Serena Williams, Draymond Green, and Pulitzer Prize poet Theodore Roethke.
Taylor: home of the 2021 Little League World Series championsTaylor North won the 2021 Little League World Series — Michigan's first title since 1959 — and the city's 200-acre Heritage Park is where that baseball culture lives.
The Air Zoo: Portage's hands-on flight museumPortage's Air Zoo — founded by WWII women pilots and now a Smithsonian affiliate — houses rare aircraft including an SR-71B Blackbird, with rides and exhibits kids adore.
The capital they built in the woods: Ingham's great gambleIn 1847 Michigan moved its capital to a township wilderness in Ingham County — a decision mocked statewide that built Lansing and made the county the seat of state power.
The city that named itself after its mallNankin Township voters incorporated as Westland in 1966, taking the shopping center's name after Livonia had tried to annex the mall area.
The Cliff Mine, where Copper Country beganAt the now-vanished town of Clifton, the Cliff Mine became the first truly successful copper mine in Michigan -- proving the Keweenaw's riches were real and setting off everything that followed.
The Cornish Pump, Iron Mountain's gentle giantThe Chapin Mine ran beneath wet ground, so Iron Mountain answered with what remains the largest standing steam-driven pumping engine built in the United States -- all 725 tons of it.

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