In 1928, the road was rerouted to skirt the Huron Mountain Club property and in 1929 Henry Ford was voted in as a primary member. Photo by Yooperann, June 2014. Negaunee to Baraga, came to an end in 1968 when the portion of M-35 from It has kept away the loggers, miners, and developers, leaving what some consider the most magnificent wilderness remaining in the Midwest. for minor backroads and two-tracks in remote country. a long waiting list meant even Ford might be forced to wait years to gain just south of L'Anse, was Ford's center of operations in the north-central That year, Ford and naturalist John Burroughs decided to join Thomas Edison at the inventors winter home in Ft. Myers, Florida. "If anyone thinks that the Huron Mountain Club is making money, they need to get back to school and take another finance course. So why are we even bothering looking into this question? You would travel out there many a mile through dirt road[s], and if you were a member of the club and you had to call your office or home or something like that, that's how you had to do it. the first state trunklines were laid out in the second decade of the twentieth He and Edsel Ford did become members of the Au Sable Trout and Game Club, better known locally as the Dam Four Club, as it was located where the former logging dam, known as Dam 4 was situated on the North Branch of the Au Sable River, says Rob Burg, director of the Lovells Historical Museums. five miles east of Skanee. We are inholders, not members. The group spent the week circling around two questions: When is knowledge proprietary? Sited above Lake Independence and within minutes of Lake Superior, Big Bay is sandwiched between wilderness and inland sea. As noted above, Ford owned large tracts of land in nearby Baraga County It was likely they were welcomed with a homecooked meal prepared for them by Mrs. Douglas. The group was so elite, Ford originally was on the waiting list to join. Over the course of his career, he acquired over 313,000 acres of timberland for logging, operated several mill sites and owned several towns. And, they have supported it seriously as a result. The schedule planned for completion in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, to be held in San Francisco, the western terminus of the Highway, whose other end started in New York City. is complicated. Negaunee and Marquette to US-41 at This 24,000-acre tract was intended to be a private, membership-based author in September 1999, November 2003 and September 2015 showed much evidence that the He fell in love with the place he christened White Deer Lake. To help his causethat of highway through his holdings and, according to local author and historican There are over 200 named waterfalls in the U.P., which has some of the most spectacular scenery in North America. A giant polypore fungi or artists conk inhabiting a tree trunk at the Ives Lake Field Station. US-2 along the north shore of Lake Michigan and US-23 on the Lake Huron shore were early examples. Her research spans twentieth and twenty-first century transnational American literature and culture. As previously mentioned they own around 20,000 acres of some of the nicest scenery in the mountains. His. The middle of the routethe at Pequaming, one of his company towns in Baraga Co on the Keweenaw Bay. Lindau says years ago, on vacation, she and her husband drove down a little two-lane road, up to the gate, where there were two guards. An Island in Grand Traverse Bay Lake Michigan Islands Volume 1, by Kathleen Craker Firestone, Camping in Cloverland with Henry Ford, by Guy Forstrom, The Last Days of Henry Ford, by Henry Dominguez, The History of Pequaming, by Earl L. Doyle and Ruth B. MacFaralane. along the proposed route of M-35. through the Yellow Dog Plains to the south of the main Huron Mountain range. His efforts against the road project must have impressed the club, as they eventually made him a full member. Lest you think that he was some kind of con artist, Carl Fisher was a rather successful businessman and famous in his day, having built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, paved it with bricks and started the Indianapolis 500 race. Mount Arvon, about 15 miles due east of LAnse, tops out at 1,979 feet, the highest point in the state. Join as an "associate member" - a member who has access to the club, but has no voting rights, or rights to land ownership. This configuration, where M-35 ran concurrently with US-41 from Between the whiskey and the tea, we might have been swimming in a toddy. Later, he would invest in some swampland in Florida and turn it into Miami Beach. Class begins with historian-guided tours of the museum, focusing on Henry Ford, his company and how the Model T changed Michigan and the world. Henry Ford grew up on a farm and had a great love of the outdoors, which he advocating accessing by means of the automobile. The publicity the Vagabonds received also helped popularize overland car camping and the decreasing price of the Model T gave birth to what hoteliers ruefully called tin can travelers, budget conscious tourists. Follow the signs for Huron Mountain, avoiding roads to Ives Lake (to the left) or Conway Lake (to the right). Today, it's more than 20,000 acres -- thats equal to about eight Mackinac Islands. In 1919, the State Highway Department designated a new trunkline routegiven the M-35 route numberto run northwesterly from the Negaunee area through the Huron Mountains The concept of bringing vacationers en masse to the club would prove to be ironicmore on that later. AuthorArcher Mayorwas hired by the members to write a history about the club to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1989. Firestone and Edison camped in the writers apple orchard and though the aging Burroughs initially preferred the comforts of his home, he was persuaded to join the other men by what he described as their Waldorf Astoria on wheels-level cuisine. The growing popularity of the automobile helped fill out the constituency of those who wanted better roads. In fact, only one generally passible road through the area exists Your email address will not be published. Oddly enough, Ford's wife, Clara, was unimpressed with the "cabin" and the Fords left the Club not long after. Cyrus McCormick, head of the lucrative farm-implement company that would become International Harvester, amassed a huge wilderness estate around White Deer Lake, now part of the Ottawa National Forests McCormick Tract Wilderness Area. That the state of Michigan would take the extraordinary step of granting that power to a private person shows the extent of Henry Fords political and economic might. Technicians are currently working on the problem. Stay on the main road by bearing to the right. "You had to travel almost to Big Bay, and there was a little cabin with a phone on a table. Name Title Compensation Date of data; Samuel T Desmet: General Manager: $115,666: 2021-03-31: Elizabeth Hudson: . The Club was founded as a shooting and fishing club in 1889 by John Longyear, a lumber baron, with wealthy backers in Marquette, Michigan, Detroit, and Chicago. Edison organized a camping trip to the Everglades that was originally going to be men only but Mrs. Edison, Mina, insisted on going. Though locals grumble about the lack of access to the property, the Huron Mountain Club has proved to be an exceptional steward of the land. [1] Fortunately for Ford, there was some land near Mountain Lake that was available for his purchase and it made up more than two-thirds of the property that the planned route crossed. Conditions at the club were rough at first, but cabins and amenities were instituted quickly. hunting and fishing preserve. Within its boundaries lie towering virgin pines, blue ribbon trout streams, and pristine lakes. Project Information OC Parks is planning to construct, operate, and maintain the Craig Park Bike Facility, a 9.7-acre mountain bike skills course facility for all ages and abilities. Buying land in Fullerton. Burroughs came home rejuvenated. 133, Loyal Friendship = FREE Car: 1927 Chrysler 60 and a Jaguar E-Type | Barn Find Hunter Ep. From Co Rd 502/Midway Rd just off US-41/M-28 northwesterly Many people approach the Huron Mountains from the east, where County Road 550 climbs 30 miles out of Marquette to the tiny town of Big Bay (population 270). M-35 on official state highway maps issued by the MSHD showed the highway "You had chauffeurs, you had maids, you had butlers, you had chambermaids, you had people tending to livestock, you had waiters and waitresses, you had chefs. The club has definitely purchased more land in the last 10 years. Ford said, Ill get that car up the hill, and the caretaker took Ford over a narrow bridge to the angry auto owner. The value of this collaborative endeavor increases as higher education becomes more privatized and politically vulnerablesomething not lightly felt in the state of Wisconsin, where I work. Farmers and rural politicians were clamoring for better roads to take crops to market, using the slogan Get the farmers out of the mud! Washington listened, and the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 was passed, creating the Federal Aid Highway Program which in 1919 started to fund state highway agencies with matching funds for building roads. Hebard changed the rules to put the decision in the hands of club directors and only one no was needed to block election. Be wealthy and wait for a membership spot to open up (only 50 full members are allowed). Mayor still remembers the history he wrote quite well. And in the 1930s the HMC was an important stop for Aldo Leopold whose report on the Club helped put into practice his theories of land management driven by a conservationist ethic. We don't know exactly how this is split up among members, but as Mayor states above, the largest burden is on the 50 "regular members.". for about five miles, it is a two-lane, paved road while the next 19 miles not serve any major population centers, only the small hamlets of But first, some background. Calling themselves the Vagabonds, Ford, Edison, Firestone and nature writer John Burroughs covered considerable territory over a nine-year period. The Huron Mountain Club is a private club whose land holdings in Marquette County constitute one of the largest tracts of primeval forest in the Great Lakes region. Michigan is generally flat but the Hurons have some of the highest elevations between the Rocky Mountains and the eastern mountain chains. The waters color was a testament to the accumulation of plant matter that had been steeping for centuries, if not longer. What the Huron Mountains do have, however, is peaks and valleys, virgin white pine forests, hundreds of lakes, waterfalls that dont appear on maps, and the headwaters of several classic wilderness rivers, far more wildlife than people, and utter silence. ", [Support great journalism like this by making a contribution to Michigan Radio]. Early voyageurs to Michigan made their way around the state by birch bark canoe. Big Bay and Skanee would be situated within a few miles of the new highway. Either way, Henry found a way to leverage his power to gain membershipand it all had to do with public road building. Then, have the good fortune of being voted in as a member by the other members. In the 1920s, Henry Ford himself wanted to become a member Should dogs put their heads out car windows? Huron Mountain is a private club on a contiguous tract of woodland located within the Huron Mountains region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 30 miles northwest of the city of Marquette. email, from realtor.com and, Home buyers reveal: 'What I wish I had known before buying my first home', Selling your home? All Rights Reserved. According to Burroughs account, Ford also served as chief mechanic for the Vagabonds, fixing any machinery that needed repair. "We had heard legends about these gigantic waterfalls and caves and deep spring-fed lakes and fish that were in those lakes that had been there since the beginning of time," he said. Those were followed by Great Lakes steamers and railroads that transported families to their northern cottages for summer respite. Field trips to the area by the Although Henry Ford was a big supporter of government road building, there was one government highway that Henry literally stopped dead in its tracks so he could gain membership to a private club. Though locals grumble about the lack of access to the property, the Huron Mountain Club has proved to be an exceptional steward of the land. and was using the wood harvested In about 10 miles, youll see a sign for Arfelin Lake; take the next road to the right and watch for a sign and a small parking area. towards Rt. That's right near the Douglass Houghton Falls.Curtis said he's always wondered how, The Huron Mountain Club: The first 100 years, Judge: Oxford Schools, staff immune from shooting lawsuits, Flint launching new public notification system, Winter storm brings thundersnow, airport closure, and more power outages, New effort to expand MI low-income tax credit introduced in Lansing, Michigan lawmakers introduce legislation to ban life sentences for those 18 and under, Medical historian: The pandemic's not over, and COVID-19 is still a deadly disease, Gov. segment through the Huron Mountains west of Big Baysaw very little About This Home Two-lane wide concrete culverts and small bridges span several small streams, again, another sight not normally present on backcountry roads such as this. 11. It can be assumed this route was designated more to serve a relatively An historical marker at Cowboy Lake, southwest of Iron Mountain, identifies where Fords 1923 camping trip took place. While the towns 20 businesses are thriving, the bank closed down. The town has swung from prosperity to near ghost-town status more than once, first as a bustling logging outpost, then as one of Henry Fords company towns, home to busy sawmills. The money the Huron Mountain Club has eaten up of its devoted members is extraordinary.". Provided the preservation, protection and maintenance of property owned by the Club as well as members' personal property located within the Club. He built a large hydroelectric facility on the Menominee River to power the mill in Kingsford (and gardens to beautify the grounds). 6. Ford had massive land holdings in Michigans Upper Peninsula, more than a half million acres of pine and hardwoods he needed to produce the wood used to produce his cars. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. Michigan was a perfect area to test drive many of his new vehicles. Robert Kreipke. The HMC is island-like because some people desired an exclusive space in a way that corresponds to colonial desires for desert island paradises. The Club lands include unpaved roads to access a network of interior lakes and streams as well as trails to other points of interest. Whistle Blower Policy, Driving from Marquette to the Club's main office. Wikimedia by rossograph - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Avoidable Contact #121: In which a Radical is rescued, and raced, and crashed. The lawsuit says sulfuric acid produced by sulfide mining could pollute the river, and the club is "horror-struck" by the prospect of the watershed collapsing . He proposed that the money would come from car and automotive accessory companies donating 1 percent of their revenue to pay for materials with communities along the route paying for construction equipment. then terminated at US-41/M-28 east 550 North & Big Bay. 35 continues for approximately four miles, with the quality of the road decreasing gradually over that distance. century, very few state-maintained roads ran along the Great Lakes shorelines. Today, the Huron Mountain Club consists of 50 primary members and 100 associate members who have access to the private and heavily guarded hunting and fishing resort facility. To access the McCormick Tract, follow U.S. 41/M-28 west from Marquette about 50 miles to Champion. Those members have to cover a property tax bill thats close to $2 million these days. All of this beauty is accessible on foot or by bike (no driving necessary), directly from your accommodations. Ford and his son returned to the Au Sable the following summer, checking into the Douglas and signing the guest registry on Sunday, June 10, 1917. Dinner was a formal affair (and might still be). The Club Office is about 50 yards on the left. Several portions of these lakeshore The author steeps in Ives Lake. during that monumental summer of 1923. During World War II, the factory produced military gliders. published on April 8, 2015 by Jacob Emerick. in 1927. Co Rd 510 southwest of Big Bay to the corner of Skanee & Portice Rds of thousands of acres of land in the U.P. Sara Thomas is a Literary Studies Ph.D. student in the English Department at the University of WisconsinMadison and a member of the Edge Effects editorial board. Even by UP standards, its a rugged place. Adding sub-categories of non-voting and non-cabin-owning members helped the bottom line somewhat, butagain as the book points outthe heaviest financial burden falls and has always fallen on the fifty full members.". Known today as Power Island and occasionally referred to as Ford Island (or Marion Island), it is open to the public and maintained by the Grand Traverse County Parks & Recreation Department. The Upper Peninsula is also not very large and its surrounded on three sides by Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan. Mayor told us that the 1920s were the height of the clubs ritziness. Annala says he and a childhood friend got a little bit obsessed. M-35 began (not allowed to own a cabin), which resulted in extremely limited and exclusive John Dunlop didnt patent the shock absorbing air-filled pneumatic bicycle tire until 1888. The club owns nearly 20,000 acres of forest downstream from the mine on the Salmon Trout River. "Well, on the back road then when we got there, lo and behold there was this blasted big gate that had all these warning signs, 'Warning: Huron Mountain Club'," he said. of determining shoreline routings for much of the Great Lakes coastline WHEN THE FIRST MODEL T rolled off the Ford assembly line in the fall of 1908, there wasnt an education program for drivers or licenses for their cars. mid-section of M-35 was removed from the maps, the remaining "spurs" from Their relationship with locals in the U.P. As a matter of fact, regarding the publicity that the Vagabonds received, many transportation historians think that Ford had more on his mind than enjoying fresh air and the great outdoors. 1950s when the portion of US-41 and M-28 from One expedition even included a player piano. Sign up to receive the latest news, events, and offerings from, michigan.org/property/the-henry-ford-bungalow. The trail lead to the famed Huron Mountain Club that held vast amounts of land west of Big Bay, 26 miles away. From Herders to Hikers, the Shifting Lives of Scottish Bothies, What Dogs Can Teach Us About Justice: A Conversation with Colin Dayan, 2020 Visions: Imagining (Post-) COVID Worlds, Plantationocene Series: Plantation Worlds, Past and Present, invasive species, climate change, and other factors, Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE), Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, When Aboriginal Burning Practices Meet Colonial Legacies in Australia, Reflections on the Plantationocene: A Conversation with Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing, In Hawaii, Plantation Tourism Tastes Like Pineapple, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. four-wheel drive and higher ground clearance are needed in poorer conditions, of Negaunee. So it became a family outing, with Clara Ford and the Fords son Edsel coming along. membership, if ever. Rick Snyder has signed into law changes to the regulation of Michigan copper mines.Legislation enacted Tuesday establishes separate regulations for, The moose population in the western Upper Peninsula appears to be rebounding after taking a dip a few years ago.Moose were reintroduced into the western, Jim Curtis lives in Ahmeek, a village in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. 10. Ford had his favorite architect, Albert Kahn, design a white pine log cabin on club property that cost as much as $100,000 to build in 1929, which works out to more than a million dollars today. prior to avoid a sinking area caused by flooded underground mine shafts An ideal place for wealthy folks that want to enjoy the scenery in privacy, one would think. Finally, as teenagers, they made an attempt to sneak in. He then hired Ford needed to stack the deck in his favor to ensure I should add that at one point, there was also a Provisional Member category, and no Seniors." M-35 (The resort caretaker) Mr. Feldhauser found Mr. Ford in the clubhouse and told him there was a man on the other side of the river who could not get his Ford car up a steep incline. The Huron Mountain Club is a massive tract of privately-owned land northwest of Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula. Today, no navigable road exists through the Huron Mountains along the And it did: the water was a deep amber color, dark and golden. The club was founded to establish a remote hunting and fishing club for outdoor enthusiasts. Moon Michigan reveals the best of the Great Lakes States charming small towns, vibrant urban hubs, and vast, untouched wilderness. Code Of Ethics Policy | was forced to wait until a club member either resigned or died. A mushroom breaks through the duff on the forest floor. There's no excess; there are no hot and cold running servants like there used to be. Ford also was fond of the fresh waters of Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay. But as Mayor points out, the Club has come a long way from that vision, and is really a money-losing venture for the families who run it. continues northwesterly as a road called "Blind 35" on many maps. Post Office Box 70
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