Áine’s Place

Portage River Entry Lighthouse, MI, originally uploaded by hatchski.

Manitou Island Lighthouse 1862, originally uploaded by whinedot.

Bete Gris Lighthouse 1895, originally uploaded by whinedot.

Copper Harbor Lighthouse, MI, originally uploaded by hatchski.

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, MI, originally uploaded by hatchski.

Ontonagon Lighthouse, MI, originally uploaded by hatchski.

Ontonagon Lighthouse, Ontonagon, MI
Lake Superior

A Brief History of Ontonagon

Legend says Ontonagon (Nantaonagon) is derived from the Chippewa Indian language meaning "Lost Bowl". A young Indian girl washing dishes at the mouth of the river, had a bowl swept away by the current.

Although there is speculation of men working the copper hills of Ontonagon County as long as 4000 years ago, the first Europeans recorded visiting the Ontonagon area was in the 1600's when the French trappers came into the area. In 1765, an English fur trader named Alexander Henry visited the region and found large masses of copper. The next year he again visited the Ontonagon area and the Indians showed him a solid mass of copper weighing an estimated 5 tons. In 1771 Henry in search of the mother lode, which the Copper Boulder came from, organized the first mining venture in Ontonagon County. When the venture failed Henry wrote in his journal "The copper-ores of Lake Superior can never be profitably sought for but for local consumption."

In 1843 James K. Paul removed the Copper Boulder from its resting place and brought it to the mouth of the Ontonagon River. In a dispute over ownership he was paid $1,365 for his efforts. He purchased a stock of whiskey and opened the Deadfall Saloon at the mouth of the river, thus founding the Village of Ontonagon. The Copper Boulder which weighed 3,702 pounds is now in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

The word was out about the abundance of copper in the hills 12 miles south of the river mouth. As mining ventures begin in the copper hills the Village of Ontonagon, as the only outlet for the copper to market, boomed. Ontonagon was named the county seat for Ontonagon County, formed in 1848, which encompassed much of what is now Gogebic County. In the 1850's, at the height of the copper boom, the Village of Ontonagon reached a population of 6,000. The Minnesota mine which operated near Rockland [1846-1865] paid out millions of dollars in dividends.
 
By the 1880's the copper boom had gone bust. Ontonagon County would again find prosperity in one of its natural resources, the vast stands of giant white pine. Over the next two decades millions of board feet of lumber were cut and shipped to markets in the big cities to the south. With the logging came the development of the south end of the county. Ewen became a large boom town rivaling Ontonagon for the county seat. One can still see some stands of White Pine and virgin hardwoods hiking or skiing in the Porcupine Mountain State Park.

Size: 1,316 Square Miles
Elevation: 600-1,800 Feet
Physiography: Lake-border Plains, hilly uplands
Growing Season: 60-120 days
Annual Precipitation: 31-35 inches
Average Snowfall: 110-180 inches
Forest Type: Aspen-Birch, Maple-Hemlock
Fall Colors: Late September

Fe, originally uploaded by P_luisphoto.

Mackinac Bridge at last light, originally uploaded by norjam8.