Nobody predicted that 2023 would be the “year of the wildfire”. Where I live most of the year in downstate Michigan, we were inundated by the smoke from Canadian wildfires in early Summer 2023. As a result of this conflagration, my wife and I both woke up coughing and with…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera In her new book Impermance: Life and Loss on Superior’s South Shore, Sue Leaf details the constant change in Lake Superior’s south shore through memoir-like phases of her own life and relationship with the lake in an artistic way with vivid descriptions. Both people’s lives…
Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes: The True Indigenous Origins of Geographic Place Names, by Phil Bellfy (Modern History Press, Ann Arbor, MI 2023), 154 pages pbk, $25.95. Brockway Mountain Stories: The History of Brockway Mountain Drive and Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, by Paul LaVanway (Mudminnow Press, Copper…
Review by Brad Gischia Mikel Classen has spent most of his life traveling the Upper Peninsula and writing about the varied and colorful history of this remote place. In those travels he’s encountered any number of historians and those people have shared their collections and stories with him. Faces, Places,…
Reviewer by Sharon Brunner Michael Schumacher in his book Too Much Sea For Their Decks brought to life the remarkable history of shipping on the Great Lakes. He clearly delineated the perils faced by captains and the crews of shipwrecked schooners, wooden freighters, steel-hulled steamers, passenger vessels, whalebacks, and bulk…
New Book Highlights U.P.’s Most Prominent Architect Fred Charlton is not a household name in the U.P. or even in Marquette where he lived, yet he deserves to be as well known as Peter White, John M. Longyear, Louis G. Kaufman, and many other notable U.P. figures. Perhaps more than…
Review by Tyler Tichelaar In Digging Up the Truth and Other Big Bay Stories, Faye Bowers, a native of Big Bay, Michigan and longtime professional journalist, shares stories informed by her quest to set straight the historical record. The result is a series of stories that shed light into some…
Review by Mack Hassler Deborah K. Frontiera is a major voice in the writing of a UP literature, and I have been very interested in most of her work across several genres. She keeps trying new things. But history is a hard genre to get right. History is all we…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera This short volume, Shipwreked and Rescued, is loaded with historic photographs, maps and charts, Larry Jorgenson presents the story of one of the more famous shipwrecks on Lake Superior, the City of Bangor and its cargo of Chrysler cars. The author begins with a brief…
Across the history of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the industrial age, there have only been a handful of major employers in the private sector with more than 500 employees. We are of course drawn to the big mining concerns such as Calumet & Hecla’s copper and Cleveland Cliffs Empire Mine…
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…
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…
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…
Depot Rediscovers a Forgotten Landmark of Keweenaw’s Heritage Review by Victor R. Volkman One of the fondest memories I have of my father was our train watching visits to the huge and desolate industrial railyards of Detroit. A few times, in the late 1960s, we made special trips to see…
Marquette County’s Medical History Explored Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar The Macabre to the Mundane: Death, Life, and Medicine in Marquette County Michigan during the Early 1900’s—with Covid 2020 Updates by John Parlin, M.D., reminds me of the fat old medical books my grandmother used to own that looked like…
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…
Kawbawgam Finally Tells the True Tale of Marquette’s Most Famous Chief Reviewed by Victor R. Volkman Kawbawgam: The Chief, The Legend, The Man by Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD, is the first woke history of Native Americans in Upper Michigan that I have read. I’ll go so far as to presume…
Wildlife Photography was Born in the U.P. EDITORS NOTE: George Shiras III always referred to himself as George Shiras 3d in all matters so that convention is used here. Outside of Marquette County, there may be few people who understand the full legacy of George Shiras 3d and his contributions…
