Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

1.2.2.5 States of Michigan (Upper Peninsula) and Wisconsin
Contact Period/Exploration/Colonial Period
The first Europeans made their way to what would be later known as Michigan around 1620.
Among the earliest recorded visitors were French priests and their parties of fellow explorers.
The French government, claiming the lands for their own, gave large sections to new settlers,
who established trading posts dealing in furs and other commodities. Today, in historically
French areas such as Sault Ste. Marie, civil land divisions carry reminders of the earliest land
claims, known as ribbon farms. These narrow and deep lots front on a river or lake and extend
into the interior as much as a mile or more. This arrangement provided each settler direct access
to the waterway, which was at the time the easiest means of transportation.
A number of forts were established during early settlement, including Fort Michilimackinac in
Mackinaw City. Ironically, Fort Michilimackinac was constructed by the French to protect the
area from the British but was lost to the other side. Michigan’s forts provided both a sense of
security to those living in the region and a center for commerce and trade, thus encouraging
settlement. As a result, the State’s population grew.
In the northern portions of both Michigan and Wisconsin, settlers followed the logging and
mining industries. By the mid- to late nineteenth century, one of major immigrant groups
comprised people from Finland, who came to the United States fleeing mandatory military
service for Russia, religious bigotry, and other factors (Legreid, 1986). Many of these
immigrants made their way to the northern counties of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Transportation
Water travel facilitated the earliest settlers of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, yet settlement lagged
due to difficulty in traversing the region and long, harsh winters. The hazards associated with
early efforts to navigate through the St. Marys Rapids (now largely the site of the Soo Locks)
also meant settlement in northern Wisconsin trailed far behind the southern portion of the state.
Overland travel was initially difficult, due largely to heavy forestation. As a result, as in other
areas across the country, early routes followed long-established animal and Native American
pathways. Corduroy roads were among the earliest roads constructed when permanent roadways
were desired. These were, particularly in urban environments, followed by brick roads and
eventually concrete and asphalt paving.
Although the railroads abounded in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, they came later to the northern
regions. Most of the railroads there were used to facilitate the movement of mine workers and
goods, rather than the long-distance rails associated with southern portions of the state. One
exception was the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, which was incorporated in 1886 and extended
from St. Ignace to Duluth by the mid-twentieth century. In Wisconsin, a similar lack of railroads
existed until the second half of the nineteenth century. The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis &
Omaha, part of the Omaha Road, reached the northern portion of Bayfield County, Wisconsin, in
the early 1880s.
The International Bridge, completed in the early 1960s and connecting Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan, with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is one of Michigan’s three international bridge
Northern Border Activities H-100 July 2012