History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Early History Of The UP
This singular lake, narrow, deep, winding, and branching, occupied troughs cut through the solid rooky range, perhaps, by glaciers, thus opening to the mines, as effectually as an artificial channel could, on a grand scale, a waterway of incalculable advantage. But the outlet to this lake was Portage river, a small, crooked stream, five miles [...]
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Hence came the Portage River Improvement. Passengers were subject to like detentions. There were no means of communicating with the entry only by small boat or tug. On land a dense wilderness of trees and swamps intervened. The date of the arrival or departure of steamers from the lower lakes was uncertain. So the Houghton [...]
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The saloons were open night and day, including Sunday. There was much drinking, much blasphemy, much fighting. The Cornishman hated the Irishman. They were inveterate enemies; their feuds were endless. At times the opposing factions would muster in force, attacking with clubs and stones. There were many broken heads, crippled legs, with occasional manslaughter. The [...]
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Short-sighted fear! The demand for copper soon became imperative; the ordnance department wanted all and more than could be produced. The production was thereby greatly stimulated ; the mines were pushed to their utmost capacity, and general prosperity came rolling in. Mine dividends came as a new and encouraging feature, and before the war was [...]
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Several hundred men, under written contract to work for the companies, at good wages, for a specified time, i. e., until they should have paid the expense of bringing them to the country, were brought over and distributed, pro rata, over the mines. But quite a number,, more than a majority, of these contract men, [...]
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Almost every condition of his mining field was new and untried. The magnificent mining machinery and copper smelting works now operating in our northern mines, is, much of it, the creation of native genius, under the spur of necessity. In the mines, as elsewhere, the American citizen possessed the happy faculty of adapting himself to [...]
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With six feet of snow and the thermometer 30 below zero, or worse still, 40 above and the snow saturated with its melting self, one can imagine, not describe, the beauties of such a bath. This isolation, so far as supplies were involved, had to be provided against with great care and circumspection, in the [...]
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Health and comfort were the first considerations. Card parties and dancing parties were always in order. Concerts and lectures were also in vogue. There being few if any public halls, entertainments were held at private houses. Friendships were sincere and charity abounded. These pioneers were generous and their great benevolence reached out cheerfully to the [...]
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