Barnes-Hecker Centennial: Memorial Park and Events
Fifty-one men died in the Barnes-Hecker mine on Nov. 3, 1926, and 41 are still there. A memorial park at the site is dedicated...
How the U.P. became the U.P.
History & Culture
People, places, traditions, industries, and turning points that shaped Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Marquette County
21 stories from this part of the U.P.
Big Bay Point Lighthouse: B&B stays, tours and history
The 1896 Big Bay Point Lighthouse north of Marquette is now a five-room bed and breakfast with a climbable tower and a somber keeper's...
Barnes-Hecker Mine Disaster: The 1926 Cave-In in 31 Seconds
Fifty-one men died when the Barnes-Hecker mine flooded on Nov. 3, 1926. Forty-one are still down there. The memorial park is dedicated Oct. 17.
Moose Tracks: The Marquette Mini Golf Course Name
The first Moose Tracks ever sold was scooped at Jilbert Dairy in Marquette, July 1988. It's named after a mini golf course down the...
The Huron Mountain Club Road, and Who Can Use It
County Road KK is public all the way to the Huron Mountain Club gate, and a 2013 Court of Appeals ruling is why. Plus...
Granite Island Lighthouse: Sold for $86,003
Granite Island Light, ten miles off Marquette, was built of stone quarried on the Huron Islands in 1868, cost three keepers their lives, and...
The Longyear Mansion: Marquette's House That Left Town
John and Mary Longyear's 64-room sandstone mansion stood on the Marquette bluff from 1892 until 1903, when they dismantled it and rebuilt it in...
Huron Island Lighthouse: The Wreck That Built It
The Huron Islands sit three miles off the Marquette County shore. After the steamer Arctic ran onto them in 1860, Congress paid $17,000 for...
Gwinn: The U.P. Town an Iron Company Designed on Purpose
In 1906 Cleveland-Cliffs president William Gwinn Mather hired Boston landscape architect Warren H. Manning to lay out a company town in Marquette County. He...
Marquette Ore Dock: The Lower Harbor Landmark
Marquette engineers invented the pocket ore dock. The 1931 Lower Harbor dock loaded 10,103 tons in 92 minutes on its first run, shut down...
Cliffs Shaft Mine: Ishpeming's Egyptian Obelisks
The Cliffs Shaft Mine headframes in Ishpeming are Egyptian Revival obelisks designed by a Chicago architect in 1919, and crews built them around the...
Negaunee's Caving Grounds: The Town That Moved
Iron was found under Negaunee in 1844, and for a century the town mined itself hollow, until fences reading Danger: Caving Grounds ringed its...
Ropes Gold Mine: The U.P.’s Forgotten Gold Rush
Everyone remembers U.P. copper and iron. Almost nobody remembers the druggist who struck gold near Ishpeming in 1880 and built Michigan’s only profitable gold...
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