Author: Karen

June 2010

Reprinted from recoilmag.com, July 2005 issue

Pinconning, Mich. — A historic collegiate achievement was realized Friday when a medium-sized cardboard box containing a half-dozen rocks received a Bachelors Degree of Science in Business and Marketing from University of Phoenix Online, a popular online college. “Congratulations! You’ve graduated!” the box of rocks was informed by e-mail following the completion of the course’s final exam. “Welcome to the exciting world of Business/Marketing! Click here to register for a Masters Degree from University of Phoenix Online, the nation’s leading University for working professionals.”

According to sources, the box of rocks had been able to obtain its degree online in only three years and without having to seek a leave of absence from its current job at a Pinconning residence, where for five years it has been solely responsible for stopping a porch’s screen door from opening all of the way.

The event marked a milestone for the inanimate object, which had previously received no formal education via public schooling or private vocational training. University of Phoenix public relations director Kyle Rise refused to disclose the cumulative grade point average earned by the box of rocks, but confirmed that it had indeed earned passing marks in all of the courses required to receive a diploma from the atypical school.

“That a box of rocks was able to earn its degree through the University of Phoenix’s online program is proof positive that anyone or anything – regardless of social class, cognitive ability or financial resources – can, through hard work and persistence, earn a college degree,” said Rise. Rise speculated that news of the box of rocks’ achievement could spark increased enrollment among demographics previously absent from the University’s student body, such as bags of hammers, telephone poles and other similar objects.

 April/May 2010

Continued from March 2010, Part 2

Commercial fishing had by now reached its peak. In 1904, a record catch of 12,000 pounds of fish was brought in by the “William E.” of the Buckeye Fish Company. The supply of fish seemed inexhaustible.

The blueberry industry was important as a source of revenue for many people of Grand Marais. Families by the dozens camped on the pine plains near the town where the blueberries grew abundantly. Good prices were paid for the fruit; the main purchasing agent was the local railroad.

Between the years of 1894 and 1910 Grand Marais prospered as much as could be expected of a thriving lumber town. The population of the city reached three thousand. Homes and business places were painted and enlarged, sidewalks on the main streets which had been made of lumber were torn up and replaced with walks of cement, and trees were planted along the streets by civic-minded organizations and individuals … in a few short years this was all changed!

All was tranquil when, on May 20, 1910, out of the blue the death knell of Grand Marais was sounded. It came in the form of a posted notice to the effect that the Alger-Smith Company was about to definitely suspend all logging, sawmill, and railway operations. The reason given that the cut of pine had been completed, so the company was transferring its operations to northern Minnesota. Efforts were made to compel operation of the railway in order to preserve the town and remaining industries – all to no avail. The notice of suspension was given six months in advance. During that time the thriving community became nearly a ghost town. The cook, Curtis, and Miller Company was also forced to close because there was no way to transport timber from their mill to outside markets as railroad transportation would soon be not available. Many people moved to Duluth, Detroit, and the West Coast.

The fishing industry by this time became so unprofitable that this industry, or what was left of it, could not save the town.

Nearly all business houses closed doors, although the large Schneider and Hill stores stayed to serve the remaining population. The Grand Marais Herald, which had been published since 1894, closed its printing plant and moved its machinery to Munising on the last train out of town. The value of property hit a low mark – some large homes selling for as little as $500, other smaller houses were sold for as little as $50. Many people left with just what could be packed in a suitcase, left their homes and business places, and never returned. Grand Marais was nearly a ghost town for a few years following 1910, but slowly, very slowly, people returned to find some means of livelihood.

Soon after the railroad was removed in 1910, a road was built on the former railroad grade, from Seney to Haverstock’s Corner, and the following year was extended to the town. However, the township found itself unable to maintain and keep open the road during the winter months, so a collection was taken up and William Leighton, who was supervisor at the time, was sent to Lansing to ask the State to place the newly built road under its care. The State Commission consented, and in 1916 the road became Michigan Highway 77. The road was then improved, widened, and surfaced with gravel. [Note: research by museum staff at the state archive indicated that M77 was actually authorized in 1919, nine years after the railroad closed.]

It was then that motoring tourists discovered Grand Marais. The two-story “Pickle Barrel” house, an exact replica of a pickle barrel on a house-sized scale, was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Donahey of Chicago by Reid, Murcock, and Company in 1926. This was one of the first major attractions as it was widely publicized by the latter. Mr. Donahey, creator of the famous “Teenie Weenies,” was presented with this unique barrel house exactly as he had drawn the house for the Teenie Weenies in an illustration for that company at an earlier date.

Tourists found Woodland Park an ideal spot in which to camp. This beautiful tract of land had been presented to the town by the Gamble Estate to be used as a public park only, and could not be sold or used for any other purpose. The land was, as it is at the present time, covered with beautiful hardwoods and pine.

Perhaps the biggest attraction was the Grand Sable Dunes, highest in Michigan. The early French explorers were so attracted by these dunes that they placed them on their maps as “le Grand Saubles” (the Great Sands) as early as 1688. The settling of Longfellow’s famous poem “Hiawatha,” was supposedly on these dunes.

Grand Sable Lake proved very popular with the summer visitors. The lake was called, in the notes of an early surveyor, “the Diamond of the desert.” In recent years, a number of attractive summer cottages and tourist cabins have been built on the shores of the lake, which has afforded good fishing of perch, pike, and bass. [NOTE: Soon after the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was created by federal legislation in 1966, the houses and cabins on Sable Lake were removed.}

Not only did the tourist industry help to revive the village, but the commercial fishing was becoming profitable once again, and a number of tugs began to fish out of the harbor. By the 1930s fishing was again at its peak. Smith Brothers, Sellmen Fisheries, and the Endress and Masse Fish Company conducted fishing operations at this time. This latter company was the only business firm, other than Ostrander’s Drug Store, from the original concerns in Grand Marais. Other smaller tugs began fishing out of the harbor during this decade as well.

The cutting of timer was resumed, giving employment to a number of people. In 1927 a large modern brick school was constructed at a cost of $125,000. The building is one of the finest and best equipped in Michigan for a village of this size.

As Grand Marais is the first harbor west of the Soo Locks, it was rather important during World War Two. Soldiers were stationed near the village at Camp Fox, and the number of Coast Guards was increased at the United States Coast Guard Station.

After the war, Grand Marais prospered as did many small towns. In the period between 1945 and 1951, nearly thirty new homes and cottages were built within the village. In addition to this, new business places opened doors. The 1950 census gave Grand Marais a population of over six hundred. The town can now boast of its largest population since 1910.

The sport trolling industry has proved to be an important factor in attracting visitors to the village, as hundreds of people go trolling here each year. The sport trolling craft numbered sixteen in 1950.

Our large modern United States-Canadian airport and weather station has proved beneficial to the village in that it provides a number of people with permanent jobs, and it also affords a means of air transportation. This means is taken advantage of by many sport trollers throughout the summer season.

Rebuilding of the east pier is surely an asset to the village. The east pier was rebuilt with concrete and steel, and the west pier was repaired with rock and timbers, and a cost of $181,000 and $38,000 respectively. The use of nearly one-half million dollars has been okayed under the Rivers and Harbors bill, for the rebuilding and extending of the west pier although the funds have not as yet been appropriated.

Grand Marais is proud of its new, modern water system which has been recently laid at a cost of $125,000.

The recent raise of township taxes has made possible many improvements in the village and township. With the use of this tax money (approximately $8,000 annually) much will and has been accomplished in the way of improving Woodland Park, the village street lighting system, walks, and streets.

The future of Grand Marais appears to be rather promising, and one thing is certain – the village will never again be numbered as one of Michigan’s ghost towns.

I wish to thank the following people for their contributions.

• Levi Meilleur
• Mrs. Ray Meldrum
• Arthur D. Wood (Munising)
• Ray Barney
• Henry Petitpren
• John Masse
• Miss Isabe McCell
• Charles Mattson
• Charles Newberg
• Frank Lee
• Mrs. Alfreda Mulligan
• Vernon Maurer
• Mrs. Joseph DesJardine
• Louis Dowell
• John Seymour
• Axel Newberg
• Mrs. John Peterson
• Axel Niemi
• Mr. Roy C. Hill

 March 2010

Continued from February 2010, Part 1

The city had many fine civic clubs and organizations. Among these were the Kenningston Club and the Grand Marais Club. A fine opera house was built and it was frequented by many famous actors of the day. The Grand Marais Cornet Band was a favorite not only in Grand Marais but in the surrounding counties as well. The band was presented by the city with a fine bandstand, which stood near the Community Methodist Church. There were numerous unions for the local employees such as the Longshoremen and the Modern Woodmen of America. A unique club house, the interior of which was completely paneled in birch, was erected between the present Green Shingles and Goupille Service Station. Many memorable social events took place in this club house. The building caught fire and was totally destroyed along with many other establishments in the fire of 1905.

Education was by no means neglected in the midst of the boom. A frame high school and three elementary divisions were built, all four schools having a total enrollment of over nine hundred students.

New industries moved to the village at this prosperous time. A small cigar factory was begun by Thomas Regan. [NOTE: The cigar factory building is now the Gitche Gumee Museum.] His “closed Tuck” cigar was a favorite. The Walker Hardwood Veneer Plant, known as Birdseye Walker, was built where the village baseball diamond is now located. This plant was later turned into a stave factory. The large pine mill owned by the Alger-Smith Company was by no means idle. It was running twenty-four hours a day and turned out 150,000 feet of choice pine lumber during that time. The two band saws and the two circular saws of the mill were kept running constantly. The Cook, Curtis, and Miller Company built a large, modern hardwood mill which had a capacity of ten million feet of lumber annually. A shingle mill was also begun, and one of the earliest mills of the town, that of C. Coon, was sold to Charles Stone and continued operations.

The leading hotels of the town, such as the Wabash, Nettleton, Grand Marais, Carpenter House, and the Bay View, were doing a fine business. Grand Marais was then as now, a tourist and hunting center. As the passenger train made only one run into the village daily, many salesmen were required to stay overnight at the hotels. Hotel Nettleton was a favorite lodging place for these men because of the fine fish dinners served there by its proprietor, Bill Nettleton.

To comply with the needs of the people, the large three-story Bay View Hospital was moved at this time from Oscoda, Michigan, to Grand Marais and reassembled opposite the Community Methodist Church. Doctors Wier and Anderson were its proprietors and surgeons.

Grand Marais could boast, too, of an up-to-date water system. In the spring of 1896, water works had been laid at a cost of $25,000. Previous to that time, however, the town was dependent on Mr. Peter Beaulieu who had delivered water at a consumer cost of twenty-five cents a barrel. A few years later, the Alger-Smith Company enlarged its electric lighting plant, wired the town, and furnished current at a moderate cost.

By 1897 the town had begun to settle down. A description of Grand Marais in the Grand Marais Business Directory, published here by Doig and Wood in 1897, reads as follows:

Grand Marais is a flourishing young town of three thousand industrious inhabitants, nestled on the flats at the foot of a steep terrace surrounding Grand Marais Harbor, an inlet on the south shore of Lake Superior, one hundred miles west of Sault Sainte Marie and eighty miles east of Marquette, and connected by the Manistique Rail Road with the Duluth, South Shore, and Atlantic Rail Road at Seney, Michigan, the former company having its terminus, car shops, and load offices at this town. The great natural resources and advantages of the town were dormant until 1894, when the Marais Lumber Company purchased their property from the Grand Marais Mil Company, after which they enlarged, rebuilt, and refurnished with first class machinery, having one of the best saw mills in the upper Peninsula, with a cutting capacity of over 150,000 feet of timber per day, this company shipped forty million feet of choice lumber the past year. In addition to the car shops and large mill, Grand Marais had a shingle mill owned by George W. Cowell, a square timber mill, and Hale, Booth, and Company, and Endress Brothers deal extensively in fish, the three concerns employing upwards of two hundred men. The town has a large number of business houses, every business being represented by practical and experienced men who all work together for the interests of the people of their thriving young town. The land companies have been diligent in their efforts to advance the town, and sell property at reasonable rates and on easy terms, giving poor men a chance to make homes. The town has many nice business buildings, three churches, and the largest and best school building in the county, well furnished and the instructors are first class and up to date teachers. Besides being a lake town having a safe harbor, Grand Marais has first class railroad communications, having regular daily trains to Seney and return. Naturally Grand Marais is a resort town, giving first class fishing and hunting as well as some of the grandest scenery of the country within a few miles of town. In addition to the above natural advantages, this town is backed up by the largest tract of agricultural land in the Upper Peninsula, which is being sold to settlers at very reasonable rates and on easy terms.

The harbor was a busy one—as many as forty-eight large craft have been counted in the harbor at one time. Passenger and freight steamers were making weekly runs between Grand Marais, Duluth, Marquette, and other lake ports. The United States Coast Guard established a life saving station at the harbor in 1899, with Benjamin Trudell in command.

To be continued……