True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula by Mikel Classen

Review by Sharon Brunner Mikel B. Classen’s book True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula provides historical information most of us do not know about or have forgotten. The Upper Peninsula (U.P.), a rugged, uncharted wilderness, haunted and delighted many through lawlessness, natural and man-made phenomenon. The man-made…

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Empire Mine Cascade Range: Michigan’s Largest Iron Mine By Allan Koski

Review by Victor R. Volkman Allan Koski is that rare combination of an eloquent historian, talented engineer, and a storyteller with a penchant for seeing the big picture.  Because I thoroughly enjoyed Koski’s Another Time, Another Place: World War II in the Pacific 1941-1944, which details the exploits of his…

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U.P. Colony: The Story of Resource Exploitation in Upper Michigan — Focus on Sault Sainte Marie Industries

Review by Deborah K. Frontiera In U.P. Colony, Phil Belffy asked himself why Sault Ste.  Marie, Ontario, was doing so much better economically than Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, some thirty-plus years ago and ended up writing his master’s thesis on that topic. His search for answers led him to compare…

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Another Time, Another Place: World War II in the Pacific 1941-1944 by Allan Koski

Eino Koski’s Legacy Reviewed by Victor R. Volkman Allan Koski’s book Another Time, Another Place is a heartfelt and compelling memoir about his father Eino Koski’s contribution to the Pacific theatre in World War II.  Although Eino passed away in 2009, his son Allan managed to complete the manuscript with…

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Houghton – The Birthplace of Professional Hockey by William Sproule

Could a Small Town in the U.P. be the Origin of the World’s Premier Winter Sport? Dr. William Sproule, a recently retired professor of civil and environmental engineering from Michigan Tech University, wrote the new book Houghton: The Birthplace of Professional Hockey with the hopes of cementing the Keewenaw’s crucial…

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