Have you ever wondered how
to
the
past
historians know what they know?
They are a lot like detectives who
look for clues to help solve the
mysteries of the past. Two things that
offer clues are primary sources and artifacts.
PRIMARY SOURCES are things such as letters, documents,
and maps that are made at the time an event happens.
An ARTIFACT can be anything made by humans.
T
o see in the mines, miners used candles or lamps attached to their
helmets as they worked. These helmets are artifacts from Michigan
mines. They are in the collection of the Michigan Historical
Museum.
The leather helmet has a miner’s-pick candleholder on
the front. Helmets with candles were used between
the 1880s and 1910s. The miner could stick the candleholder into a crack in the mine’s rock wall when he
Carbide lamps on helmets like this gray leather one
got to the place where he worked.
provided better light than candles. The helmet’s lamp gave
off a bright white light. Miners used carbide helmet lamps
mostly between 1910 and the 1930s.
The reddish-brown helmet’s lamp is
powered by a battery pack.
It is the most modern of the three
helmets shown here.
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
9
rush a very
Upper Peninsula town of
large pile of
Fayette from 1867 to 1891.
rocks, add
In 1867 the Jackson Iron
another kind
Company decided Fayette,
of crushed
which is located on the
rock and some half-burnt
Garden Peninsula on the
trees, cook it all at 3,000
south shore of Lake
degrees for several
Michigan, was the
hours, and what do
perfect place to
smelt
to separate
you get? If you said
smelt iron ore in
iron ore
“iron,” you’re on the
huge brick outdoor
from rock
way to understanding
furnaces. Smelting
what happened in the
turned iron ore into
blocks of pure iron.
It required certain
C
ingredients that the
Jackson Iron Company
found near Fayette.
First, the company
needed fuel for the furnaces. They chose charcoal.
It burned at the high temperature necessary to melt
the iron out of the ore.
Negaunee
Escanaba
Fayette
On the beach at Snail
(right) had docks for
ships to load iron.
Nearby were forests
with brick kilns (inset)
for making charcoal.
Color photos Tom Buchkoe
Shell Harbor, Fayette
Fayette’s furnace complex today
To make charcoal, workers
packed thirty-five
cord
cords of
a stack of
wood measur- maple and beech
ing 8’ long x
logs into dome4’ high x 4’
deep
shaped brick
ovens called kilns.
In the kilns, the wood
burned slowly. It dried out
but didn’t turn to ashes.
Creating one batch of charcoal took six to eight days.
Along the lake, workers
mined cliffs of dolomite,
the second ingredient for
smelting iron. Dolomite is
a mineral that was crushed
and dumped into the furnaces with the charcoal.
The third ingredient was
iron ore. The ore came by
train from Negaunee to
Escanaba. It was then
shipped by boat to Fayette.
Workers smashed it into
small bits with steam-powered machines and poured
it into the fiery furnaces.
To keep the fire roaring,
workers pumped blasts of
hot air into the furnaces,
which gave them the name
“blast furnaces.” As the
fire grew hotter, the iron
ore melted. Iron dripped to
the bottom of the furnace.
FAYETTE
The dolomite melted and
blended with the leftover
rock. This melted rock,
called slag, floated to the
top and was drained out of
the furnace through a
faucet or valve. When the
slag cooled and hardened,
it was used to pave roads.
The red-hot melted iron
flowed out through a hole
in the furnace into the
casting house. This building had a floor made of
sand that was shaped into
molds. Workers guided
the liquid iron into the
molds, where it cooled and
hardened. The finished
FACTS
Iron melts at 3,000
degrees farenheit.
Fayette’s furnaces produced a total of more than
229,288 tons of iron.
Within 10 miles of Fayette
there were more than 80
kilns.
One kiln could produce
1,750 bushels of charcoal
every six to eight days.
Almost half the people
living in Fayette in 1880
were children or
teenagers.
In 1880, 43 percent of the
men in Fayette were
boarders.
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
11
RECIPE FOR
IRON
Do you remember the “recipe” for
iron? Put yourself in a Fayette worker’s
boots and see if you can fill in the
blanks to cook a batch of “pigs”.
(Answers on back cover)
INGREDIENTS:
__________________ from the cliffs on
the lakeshore
__________________ from the mine at
Negaunee
__________________ from the forests
near Fayette
1. Crush first and second ingredients,
then dump them into the
___________________.
2. Add the third ingredient.
3. Be sure to blow __________
___________ (2 words) into the furnace
to keep the fire hot.
4. When all your ingredients are melted, drain the ___________ off to the
side.
5. Now let the melted ___________
flow into the _____________ house.
6. Guide the hot liquid ___________
into the sand ___________.
7. Wait for the pigs to cool, then pick
them up and break them apart. Brush
off the sand, too.
Good job! Now you can ship the pigs
to cities where companies will turn
them into useful products.
12
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
This photo, taken
about 1870, shows
glowing, melted
iron flowing into the
casting house from
a blast furnace in
Munising, a U.P.
town. The lightcolored rectangles
will cool and harden into pig iron.
Marquette County Historical Society
blocks of iron, still connected to each other, reminded
workers of piglets lying
next to their mother, so
the blocks were called
pig iron.
Ships sailed into Fayette’s
harbor and picked up the
pig iron. It went to big
cities to be shaped into all
kinds of products, like frying pans, kitchen stoves,
railroad rails, clothes irons,
fireplace grates, and steel
for buildings.
Fayette’s two blast furnaces operated until 1891.
The Jackson Iron Company
decided to close the ironsmelting operation for two
main reasons. Many of the
forests near Fayette that
supplied wood for charcoal
had been cut down. More
important, Fayette’s ironsmelting technology was
becoming outdated. Other
companies were smelting
iron ore with coal, which
was much cheaper than
charcoal.
Some people stayed in
Fayette after the Jackson
Iron Company left, but
soon the town was abandoned. In 1959 the state
of Michigan turned the
site into Fayette State
Park. Today, you can visit
Fayette and see the old
furnaces and the town
buildings. Then you can
imagine what it was like
to live there when the
furnaces blasted hot
liquid iron. o
Y
d
n
Fi
o
r
u
A
n
d Faye
y
a
W
tt
ur
R
e
A
B
D
C
Carolyn Damstra
E
Q
F
H
G
K
M
L
J
I
N
O
P
Mother has given you
several errands to run before you
can go swimming. Put the letter you find
at each place you go in the blank that
corresponds with the number in the
KEY TO MAP
directions, and you’ll have the answer.
(Answer on back cover)
QUESTION: What is Fayette’s favorite “farm animal”?
1. Tell your friends at the beach you’ll be right back.
2. Pick up some horseshoes from the blacksmith.
3. Take the horseshoes to your father who works at the hotel and
get money from him.
4. Pay the blacksmith.
5. Pick up some medicine from the doctor.
6. Give your mother the medicine at the laborers’ cabins.
7. Mother gives you pie to take to your uncle, who is in jail.
NOW you can go swimming!
_____ _____ _____
1
2
3
_____ _____ _____ _____
4
5
6
7
A. Sawmill
B. Superintendent’s
house
C. Warehouses
D. Boardinghouse
E. Ice house
F. Town hall
G. Hotel
H. Company store
I. Blacksmith shop
J. Carpenter shop
K. Dolomite quarry
L. Furnace complex
M. Docks
N. Jail
O. Laborers’ cabins
P. Beach
Q. Snail Shell Harbor
R. Doctor’s house
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
13
A
P
ishing
touch
eople from many different countries came to the Upper Penipublished newspapers in the Finnish
nsula (U.P.) in the late 1800s.
language. In 1896, Suomi College was
One of the largest groups of
established to preserve Finnish culture,
immigrants came from Finland. Finns came
train Lutheran ministers, and teach English.
to the Upper Peninsula to work for mining
Today, it is called Finlandia University and
and lumbering companies. Company agents
remains the only Finnish college in America.
visited Finland to convince workers that
Many communities in the U.P. still enjoy
the good life awaited them in Michigan.
Finnish traditions. Pulla is traditional
After Finnish men arrived and began
Finnish braided cinnamon bread topped
Finnish-American Historical Archives, Finlandia University
working, many saved
with nuts. Prune tarts are
money to bring their
also a favorite Finnish treat.
families over to join
A Finnish midwinter festival
them. They wrote
called Heikinpaiva (proletters encouraging
nounced hi-kin-pie-va) is
friends back in
celebrated in Hancock every
Finland to come to
January. Festival events
the U.P. By 1911, oneinclude a dance, a parade,
quarter of the miners
a bonfire, ski races, and a
on the Gogebic Range
“polar bear plunge” where
were Finns.
brave swimmers dive into icy
Finns usually lived
Portage Lake. near each other in
mining towns. They
Maggie Walz (left) came
organized their own
to the U.P. from Finland
social clubs, churches,
in 1881. She edited a
music groups, and
Finnish-language
athletic clubs, and
women’s newspaper
14
called Naisten-Lehti.
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
Hancock’s Suomi College opened
in 1896. Now named Finlandia
University, it is the only Finnish
college in America.
SAUNAS
or pool, pouring a bucket of cold water
are another
over yourself or rolling around in snow.
popular Finnish tradition that immigrants
Return to the sauna and pour a dipper of
introduced to America. A sauna is a wood-
water over the hot stones to create steam,
paneled room with benches. A pile of rocks
or loyly. Now, take a vihta, a bundle of
in the room is heated by fire or electricity.
birch twigs and leaves, dip it in cold water
Today, many people in the U.P. have
and lay it across the hot stones to soften.
often enjoy or
“take” saunas
Then beat yourself
Tom Buchkoe
saunas. Families
gently with the
vihta. This aids in
blood circulation
together.
and helps you
Taking a sauna is
a process with sev-
sweat. Repeat this
eral steps. First, sit
cycle for as long as
in a dry sauna until
you can. Afterward,
sweat pours out.
drink a lot of water
Relaxation is the key
to replace fluids lost
to a good sauna.
through sweating.
Hyvia loyloya!
Next, cool off by
(Good sauna!)
jumping in a lake
WINTER 2002
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
15
o attract workers
and their families
to their mines,
mining companies constructed houses, boardinghouses, stores, hospitals,
and schools. These settlements were called company
towns.
Some companies built
rows and rows of houses
that looked the same.
Others designed many types
of homes to make their
towns look interesting.
T
Miners rented houses from
the companies at cheap
rates. Some were small and
shabby, with rattling windows. Other houses were
roomy and well-built, with
brick chimneys. The
Cleveland-Cliffs Iron
Company built houses with
electricity and running
water in its town of
Gwinn around
y
iet
oc
S
1907.
al
ric
sto
ty
n
ou
tte
ue
M
q
ar
Staff and boarders pose
in front of this boardinghouse near Yalmer on the
Marquette Range in
the late 1880s.
C
Hi
Unmarried miners without families did not usually
rent houses. Mining companies built boardinghouses
for them. Some families
operated boardinghouses.
The people who stayed
there were called boarders.
They paid the house
manager or owners
and got hot
meals and
a bed.
Company towns were built on both iron
State Archives of Michigan
Sometimes a miner
and copper ranges. Workers of the King
shared his bed with
Philip copper mine lived in this company
another boarder who
town of Winona.
worked the
shift
a period of opposite
time when
shift at
an employee
the mine.
works
If the boardinghouse offered laundry service, miners
could get their clothes
cleaned. Most boardinghouses provided a
Women who didn’t work
Almost all mining comparoom where boarders
in boardinghouses worked
nies hired doctors to help
played cards or just
in mining towns as serthe employees. Some
milliner
sat and visited with
vants, dressmakers,
towns even had hospitals.
a person who
each other.
milliners, cooks,
Company towns survived
makes,
designs, or
Women and chilteachers, and nurses.
into the late 1930s. By
sells hats
dren often operated
Other families in a
then, labor unions were
the boardinghouses.
mining town opened
convincing miners that
The house managers
bakeries, laundries, butcher
they did not need the comassigned chores to their
shops, general stores, and
pany to take care of them
children and hired other
other businesses.
anymore. By the 1940s,
women to help clean, cook
Before families came,
company towns were
and serve food, and wash
company stores were the
becoming less common.
clothes and bedding. Fiveonly stores available to
Today, no company towns
year-old Ruth Reippenen’s
miners. Companies often
exist in Michigan. mother ran a boardingpaid miners with special
Collins Iron Works scrip
house for the Wakefield
money, called scrip, that
Iron Mining Company in
they could spend only at
1912. Ruth’s job was to
the company store.
wake the miners by walkBy the mid-1880s,
ing past their rooms ringtowns across the iron
ing a bell two times a day,
ranges had many
Michig
an Histo
once for each shift.
houses and stores.
rical M
us
eum
MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS
17