Early Escanaba
Water and woodland - that is what our community looked like
and that is what attracted native Americans and white settlers alike to our
area. In 1851 a large watermill was built on the lower Escanaba River, and the
next year a large amount of timber was cleared on Sand Point, the original
Escanaba townsite. By 1860 the population of the Escanaba area was estimated at
about 1,200 people.
The Civil War years brought many changes to our country's
economy. One result in Escanaba was the laying of a railroad line from the
Jackson mine in Negaunee to Escanaba. The first iron ore was shipped from the
port of Escanaba in the spring of 1864. That same year the original plat for the
town was filed for record.
In 1866 Escanaba was incorporated as a village. That fall
48 voters gathered to organize the first Board of Education. A teacher was hired
for $45 a month; he conducted the four-month winter term in a rented building.
Development continued and the Michigan legislature
incorporated Escanaba as a city in 1883. The city's population was 4,335 in
1884. Writing in Celebration '87, published by The Daily Press in Spring, 1987,
Dave Andrews pointed out the connection between those early years and the
present: "Spawned by lumbermen and a railroad, the city of Escanaba was built on
sand with a foundation of iron ore, steel and timber. From a beginning on Sand
Point, the community has ridden the railroad, iron ore, and forest products
industries throughout its 125 - year history on the shores of Little Bay de Noc."
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