Caretakers of the past, stewards of the future
After the Mills: Fishing and Lumbering
The Kauppi family fishing vessels - The Beaver and Water Lily - at the Kauppi dock north of the Tobacco River. Built in 1920, the Water Lily (right) was also used in the 1920s to transport passengers to Isle Royale. The Beaver (left) was built in 1941. Courtesy: Gay Museum. Working with fishing nets. 1974. Courtesy: MTU Archives. Kauppi Collection. Big (Grand) Traverse Bay Harbor supported a commercial fishing community south of Gay. 1949. Courtesy: Gay Museum. In 1963 Dion Sawmill employed 20 to 25 men who cut, piled, and shipped raw timber on the Copper Range Gay line. Word that the line might soon close left the status of the sawmill uncertain. Daily Mining Gazette. August 24, 1963. Courtesy: MTU Archives. Dion’s Gay Sawmill with Onesime’s son Jerome, with his two sons Jerry and Robert, and their friend John. Courtesy: Gay Museum
From the early 1900s, Copper Range Railroad ran long trains of coal into the mills at Gay and copper product to the Michigan Smelter on Portage Lake. In the 1930s, after the Mohawk Mill closed, the railroad transported timber and cut wood into and out of town until the 1960s when the Gay line closed. Date: 1960s. Courtesy: Gay Museum
| News:KCHS museum sites and cottage rentals will be open for the 2022 season. Please see the site and rental webpages for specific dates and operation information. The Keweenaw County Historical Society’s Board of Directors will follow the COVID-19 Epidemic Orders issued by the State of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services. These public health orders are updated as needed, so KCHS may need to change access to buildings and events. Please check back for updates. |
Keweenaw County Historical Society |