LAKE SUPERIOR COUNTRY page-10

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 man had to go at a venture; when he arrived at the entry there was often no boat, or one had just departed. He was in for several days’ waiting. His only shelter was a log house, his food of the roughest kind, his bed a pair of blankets spread on a floor, in the midst of filth and vermin. The mosquitoes and black flies tormented him day and night. His only amusement was playing cards and drinking bad whisky with his unfortunate fellow travelers. Meantime, Houghton and its new rival, Hancock, were growing apace. On one day a tract would be cleared of trees and on the next day a house would be begun thereon. Adjustment of town plats came later. These villages were essentially mining camps. Saloons and places of amusement were most common. The good citizen had to be content with a log cabin, or shingle palace, the material for which came wet from the green log. Society was in a rude, primitive state. The population was composed of Cornishmen, Irish, and Germans. A few of the leading men, merchants and mine managers, were of American origin.