The Peninsula Railroad finished construction of their rail line from the Jackson Mine, Negaunee to Escanaba in 1865. When Bill Bonifas arrived from Luxembourg in 1885, Escanaba was already a thriving mill town and iron ore shipping port. His first . . . — — Map (db m139275) HM
Escanaba River: The Legend
This is the land of the Chippewa Indians and the legendary Hiawatha. Indian villages existed along the banks of the river, and Indians were living here when the first white men came to this region in the 1600's. . . . — — Map (db m139220) HM
Michigan's pine, which proved more valuable than all California's gold, was gone by the early 1900's. The original hardwoods were cut by 1935. Today, due to fire protection and increasing management, more timber is grown than ever before. Within one . . . — — Map (db m139258) HM
In 1846, the Smith Brothers sold the lower mill on the Escanaba River to Jefferson Sinclair, a Maine lumberman, and Daniel Wells, Jr., a Milwaukee lumberman, after whom the Village of Wells was named. In 1847, Isaac Stephenson of New Brunswick, . . . — — Map (db m139259) HM
The first white settler in Delta County was Louis A. Roberts, a fur trader who settled just upstream from here at Flat Rock in 1830 and later operated a waterpowered sawmill on the Whitefish River. The first buildings in Escanaba were log structures . . . — — Map (db m139261) HM
The Upper Peninsula forest was more than half pine, most of it white pine. White pine was the greatest of our forest trees, growing to great size in its 400 years of life expectancy. This softwood, easily sawed with the poor saws of the time and . . . — — Map (db m139265) HM
Donald McLeod of Green Bay purchased Alden Chandler's water-powered mill, the first sawmill built on the Escanaba River, and in 1844 sold it to John and Joseph Smith. Chandler was again "first" when he became the first postmaster serving . . . — — Map (db m139246) HM
