It's an interesting thing to witness.". and was using the wood harvested (The Spring 1938 official highway map and the of determining shoreline routings for much of the Great Lakes coastline At that time, this area was US-2 along the north shore of Lake Michigan and US-23 on the Lake Huron shore were early examples. being shown as with the "IMPASSABLE" label through the Huron Mountains. Beginning around the 1880s, the Huron Mountains became the wilderness retreat of choice for several millionaire industrialists. a large sume (quivalent to millions of dollars today)! Perhaps, say, the Vagabonds expeditions were actually an important part of a publicity campaign to promote more government road construction? Featured image: Witches butter (Tremella mesenterica). Big Bay and Skanee would be situated within a few miles of the new highway. The presumed isolation of land made it valuable and picturesque, but the isolation of people has the opposite effect. 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. Among his assets was the 1914 Hebard Bungalow an expansive 5,000-square-foot summer home overlooking the bay, which today welcomes new generations of vacationers as a year-round rental. No environmental risk data is available for this property. 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. (Considering Longyear originally developed the rustic property with an eye towards steamship passengers, theres a certain irony to this logic.). The reason for all this, of course, is and was moneyhow to pay for all this? a state trunklinein addition to longer straight segments, uncommon Gov. Even by UP standards, its a rugged place. Fords household staff took care of the bushcraft so that the Vagabonds could sit around the campfire enjoying the wilderness. work completed on the Baraga Co portion. Eventually, we found the guy who wrote the book about the Huron Mountain Club. Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company didnt just own thousands of acres of land in southeastern Michigan. is two-lane gravel-surfaced. Mark Brush was Michigan Radios Digital Media Director. 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. 550 North & Big Bay. Edison was intrigued at the possibility of finding a domestic plant source for natural rubber. to travel to the U.P. This new trunkline would 4. It would be 1919 before drivers were required to apply for paper driving permits. A compass and topographic map are absolute necessities. As noted above, Ford owned large tracts of land in nearby Baraga County How do you get in? the Huron Mountains, transporting logs to his mills at Alberta. To access the McCormick Tract, follow U.S. 41/M-28 west from Marquette about 50 miles to Champion. The waters color was a testament to the accumulation of plant matter that had been steeping for centuries, if not longer. Once the private wilderness retreat of Cyrus McCormick, whose father invented the reaping machine, the 27-square-mile McCormick Wilderness was willed to the U.S. Forest Service by his family in 1967. About This Home 6. L'Anse was removed from the state trunkline system. Automakers, tire companies, and their customers werent the only people interested in better roads. The club is expensive to run, and the dues match. Nearly the entire town of 3000 people turned out to greet them at the train, along with 31 Model T owners. That year, Ford and naturalist John Burroughs decided to join Thomas Edison at the inventors winter home in Ft. Myers, Florida. Huron Mtns Trip, Pt. About 300 yards later, there is a cluster of buildings and another three-way fork. L'Anse was officially "cancelled" as a state trunkline by the State Highway The table, which comfortably accommodates the party, is in two sections with a revolving center stand, so that any of them at the table may turn it around to get any food desired.. A quarter mile after crossing a small bridge (over Pine River) there is a three-way fork in the road. Kaye is an alumnus of Michigan Tech's environmental engineering program. So why are we even bothering looking into this question? Ford said, Excuse me sir, let me help you get your Ford up that hill. The man, quite surprised to meet Mr. Ford on the banks of the North Branch, gladly let Mr. Ford take control. 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. If any club members are reading this -- we know two people named Elizabeth and Randy who would love to come for dinner! The trope of island insularity is relevant here, but so is the shape of island insularity. Upper Peninsula and Ford-operated railroads fanned out to the east into The Fabled Huron Mountain Club. An avid fan of nature, birds and travel, Ford not only delivered a way to explore Michigan, but he led by example. It is listed on the state and national historic registers and is the only public fishing lodge in the state to hold such status. Negaunee and Marquette to US-41 at The growing popularity of the automobile helped fill out the constituency of those who wanted better roads. As previously mentioned they own around 20,000 acres of some of the nicest scenery in the mountains. The region of the Hurons is generally regarded as the most rugged wilderness in Michigans Upper Peninsula, already one of the most rugged areas of the United States. He also bought the Imperial Mine and opened the Blueberry Mine near Ishpeming to supply his foundries with iron ore. Return to Part 2. As it happened, the push for good roads did nome come from automakers or motorists, but rather bicyclists. The eastern leg was completed in 1926 and the western leg by 1932. There seems to have been some grumbling that the publicity was hampering their privacy, and Edison took to guiding the Vagabonds on back roads when crowds started to gather to watch them drive through towns. The Club provides its members and its employees the opportunity for various forms of healthful recreation, 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. region represents one of the most extensive and best preserved tracts of prime- val forest in the state. Today, a separate organization, the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation, facilitates ecological research on the club property. Fisher was able to get industrialists Frank Seiberling, who ran Goodyear tires, and Henry Joy, who headed Packard Motor Car Company, to sign on to the project, which was renamed the Lincoln Highway Association after the 16th President. Approximately 25 miles north of US-41/M-28 at its intersection with Triple A (AAA) Rd, The Employee Experience While we think of cars as being made of metal, its estimated that the manufacture of one Model T used about 250 board feet of lumber. of one man, one very influential man, weighed more heavily than those of Proceed about 5 miles (on County Road KK) to the end of the paved road and the Huron Mountain Club gate. "But we were too scared and we just waved and turned around and we drove away.". During one noted trip there, Ford was harkened to assist another fisherman who was having car trouble. During this time period, the route of of Neguanee. This belief is possible first because Indigenous people were forcibly removed. In 1912, an entrepreneur named Carl Fisher had the idea of constructing a graveled transcontinental road that he initially called the Coast to Coast Rock Highway. The group was so elite, Ford originally was on the waiting list to join. as state trunklines! A steel bridge crossing the Allegheny River upstream from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was purchased, disassembled, and installed over the Dead River east of Negaunee, but the middle section through the Hurons was still marked on official state maps as Impassable. He had a hard time joining, likely because club members feared the publicity his name would bring. Could be; probably aren't. Personnel at Huron Mountain Club. north of US-41/M-28 travelling Formed circa 1890, the club consists of 50 dwellings clustered inside about 20,000 acres (31 sq mi; 8,100 ha) of private land, encompassing the Huron Mountains area. When Michigans state trunklines were first laid out and built in the nineteen teens, highway planners deliberately avoided running them along the Great Lakes shorelines, likely for winter driving safety. While the towns 20 businesses are thriving, the bank closed down. Fisher said it would cost $10 million to build. 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. through the Yellow Dog Plains to the south of the main Huron Mountain range. Whats the tallest waterfall in Michigan? So, without further ado, here are 13 things we know about the Huron Mountain Club: According to our data (circa 2006 plat maps of Marquette County), the club owns 18,621 acres of land, plus 1,905 acres of lakes that are completely surrounded by club land, which is more than 20,000 acres in total (the equivalent of eight Mackinac Islands). What may just save this piece of land, for now, is its private status. This lake had been so little tampered with that the biological matter had seasonally accumulated in the water, transforming leaves, algae, sediment, and other biotic materials into a truly magical elixir. This resulted Instead of backing the Lincoln Highway, Ford was a supporter of Charles Henry Davis National Highways Association, founded in 1911 with the slogan Good Roads Everywhere. Alberta, This is serious stuff. 12. Later, though, the State Highway Department decided to let motorists enjoy some scenery and started laying out routes for shoreline roads on the coastlines of both Upper and Lower Peninsulas. "You had to travel almost to Big Bay, and there was a little cabin with a phone on a table. Formed circa 1890, the club consists of 50 dwellings clustered inside about 20,000 acres (31sqmi; 8,100ha) of private land, encompassing the Huron Mountains area. Some say the crew invented glamping (read: luxury camping). You couldnt see more than a foot or two down. Why is this place so fascinating to some people? According to tax documents, members paid $1,803,055 in dues in 2015. We don't have up-to-date information on the number of associate members, but Mayor gave us some info in an e-mail: "Since I havent been in touch with the Club for so many years, I would hesitate to affirm that the numbers are still the same. Post Office Box 70 This discontinuity was seemingly rectified in the In fact, most roads ran well inland of the 'big lakes.' Early voyageurs to Michigan made their way around the state by birch bark canoe. This configuration, where M-35 ran concurrently with US-41 from I dipped my toes in first to test the waters temperature. [2] The research facility at Ives Lake was started in the 1960s, after it passed from a member family's hands into Club ownership. isolated area and bring another highway closer to a stretch of Great Lakes The money the Huron Mountain Club has eaten up of its devoted members is extraordinary.". We separately contacted multiple members of the club, as well as the club's arborist (he is listed on tax documents as their registered agent). One expedition even included a player piano. four-wheel drive and higher ground clearance are needed in poorer conditions, This old logging road also follows the southern edge of the Huron Mountain Club property, offering plenty of possible routes for trespassing. The trip was an experiment in collaboration. Thats all because a man who helped persuade the federal government and states to start funding highway construction subsequently used his personal power to stop a public road from being built, just so he could join a club that he quit soon afterwards. 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. Dan took the plunge more eagerly, doing a double-jump off the ancient diving board. Edge Effects is a digital magazine about environmental issues produced by graduate students at the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE), a research center within the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of WisconsinMadison.