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    Grand Marais
    Grand Marais
    Grand Marais
    Ebook182 pages1 hour

    Grand Marais

    By Grand Marais Historical Society

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    The village of Grand Marais, on the south shore of Lake Superior in Michigan s Upper Peninsula, is one of the oldest inhabited places on the Great Lakes. Native Americans camped along its beautiful natural harbor, naming it Kitchi-bitobig, or Great Pond. The French voyageurs traded furs along these shores, and in the early 1860s, a trading post was established. The lumber boom soon followed, and by the mid-1890s, Grand Marais was a bustling town of 2,000 inhabitants. The good times did not last, and by 1911, the sawmills closed, the railroad pulled out, and almost overnight the population dwindled to a mere 200 or so. But Grand Marais refused to die, and those hardy individuals who stayed somehow found a way to make a living, many in the commercial and sport fishing industries. The opening of a state road into town brought vacationers to enjoy the many recreational delights of the area. Today Grand Marais is a popular tourist destination that still retains its small-town friendliness and historic atmosphere.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 18, 2009
    ISBN9781439621097
    Grand Marais
    Author

    Grand Marais Historical Society

    The Grand Marais Historical Society invites readers to discover the fascinating history of a unique Michigan town through this collection of historic photographs, gathered from its archives and local family albums.

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      Book preview

      Grand Marais - Grand Marais Historical Society

      life.

      INTRODUCTION

      Drive north through the pine forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula along State Highway 77, and the blue expanse of Lake Superior appears on the horizon. Soon the road curves down a steep hill, and there, spread out before you, is a delightful surprise: a sparkling natural harbor. Nestled around it is the village of Grand Marais, a historical gem waiting for you to discover it.

      Grand Marais is one of the oldest locations of human habitation on the Great Lakes. Calling it Kitchi-bitobig or Great Pond, the Ojibwa Indians located their villages here long before recorded history. The first visit by a European was recorded by Pierre-Esprit Radisson in his journal of 1658. He noted that the area was most delightful and wondrous, for its nature that made it so pleasant to the eye and spirit.

      The name Grand Marais, literally great marsh, first appeared on the map Carte des Lac du Canada published in Paris in 1744. This was a misnomer, as there is no great marsh in the area. Historians now believe that the voyageurs described it as le grand maré, an old French term that translates roughly into great pond. The two terms are identical in pronunciation, and marais was already a popular term on maps of the Great Lakes region, so cartographers of the day simply assumed there was a marsh here. After all, none but the Native Americans and the voyageurs had seen the area. To the voyageurs, a sheltered, pondlike body of water would have been invaluable during Lake Superior’s sudden, fierce storms.

      The reports of the early explorers led to the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1670s. Although fur trading was lively in the area, no actual town site was established until 1853. In 1861, Peter Barbeau built a trading post on East Bay, forming the nucleus of a permanent settlement. Barbeau, a Sault Ste. Marie businessman, left the operation of the trading post to Angus MacDonald. One of MacDonald’s early requests to Barbeau was for window glass, and he fashioned window frames from grooved siding scavenged off the shipwreck Manhattan, which was lying just outside the harbor.

      In 1874, increased shipping traffic and subsequent losses on Lake Superior warranted the establishment of Au Sable Lighthouse, eight miles to the west. Grand Marais’s importance as a harbor of refuge along this dangerous stretch of Lake Superior became apparent, especially as commercial fishing was beginning to take hold in the area. Conable and Sons established a fishery in the 1860s at the end of the long sand point on the north side of the harbor.

      In 1871, an enterprising commercial fisherman from Sault Ste. Marie named Charles Endress located one of his operations in Grand Marais. His son, Emil Endress, decided to settle here and expanded the family businesses to include passenger and packet freight services for the south shore of Lake Superior. The year 1871 saw the advent of lumbering in the area. The earliest recorded lumberman was George Dawson, whose company cut pine in the area that is now known as Perry’s Landing, named for his foreman Robert D. Perry.

      In 1879, the Brazel brothers from Cheboygan built the first sawmill at the harbor on West Bay. Soon millionaire Saginaw lumberman Wellington Burt and his brother-in-law, Henry Gamble, established the narrow-gauge Burt and Gamble Railway, one of the state’s first railroads dedicated to hauling logs. Congress appropriated funds for the construction of the harbor entrance and piers in 1881, opening the port to increased lake traffic. In 1882, Wellington Burt helped organize Burt Township and establish a post office for the growing community.

      In 1883, Burt platted the new town site of West Grand Marais. At the same time, Philo Everett and Dan Ball platted the village of Grand Marais, which became known as East Town.

      By 1885, a school had been built, packet freighters were making regular stops at the new harbor and town, and a stage service connected Grand Marais with Dollarville, Newberry, and the railroad. Logging operations had expanded both east and west of town, but Grand Marais remained a tiny logging community of only a few hundred people. The white pine in the immediate vicinity had been cut, and without a railroad to bring logs from farther away, the large mill closed and the population dwindled.

      A series of events in 1893 began a new era of prosperity. The Manistique Lumbering Company purchased Burt’s old sawmill, the Alger-Smith Company decided to mill its logs at Grand Marais, and the Manistique Railway extended its line all the way into town. By 1894, the population exceeded 1,000; by 1896, it was over 2,000. In 1898, the Mining Journal noted, Grand Marais is probably the most prosperous small town in the Peninsula.

      In the years between 1893 and 1910, no fewer than 29 saloons and a dozen hotels and boardinghouses were in business. The Bay View Hospital, dentists, lawyers, photographers, meat markets, clothiers, liveries, banks, and cigar factories soon followed. The United States Life-Saving Service established a station in Grand Marais in 1900, and the brave surfmen saved many lives along this stretch of Lake Superior’s notorious Shipwreck Coast.

      The prosperity was not to last, and when the pine was gone, the businesses left too. The Alger-Smith Company closed its pine mill in 1909 and the Manistique Railway soon followed. The last train left in 1910, and with it, the town’s link to the outside world was gone. With the economic collapse, people sold their homes and businesses for whatever they could get. Within weeks, the population shrank to only a few hundred people. Grand Marais struggled for survival. Transportation was limited to the Endress Company’s South Shore packet freighter and a horse-drawn stage to Seney.

      By 1920, commercial fishing had become the basis for the town’s economy, supplemented by a fledgling tourism industry. When the state road from Grand Marais to Seney was completed in 1925, tourists were able to make their way north by automobile. Tourism grew steadily and a number of new businesses sprang up to offer services to visitors. A number of sport trolling operations opened

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