While the Lake Superior copper district created a world-famous mining industry built on native copper, this one industry greatly overshadowed others in the region, yet other industries did exist, one of which was logging and lumber.

The Lake Superior Mining Company, located at Eagle River, was the first venture to begin active mining in the region, sinking its first shaft in the early spring of 1844. In possession of some seven square miles of mineral land, nearly all of which was heavily forested, in the summer of 1844, the company erected a saw mill mill near the road between the mine site and the shore of Lake Superior. At the same time, the directors of the company had platted the town site of Eagle River and had begun selling lots for both commercial and private use. Selling timber and other building materials to settlers of the town, the company earned more money from the sale of wood products than it did from the sale of copper.

In the Portage Lake district, William Henderson arrived to erect a saw mill in 1853, a year before the town of Houghton was platted, providing lumber that allowed for the rapid building of the new settlement.

By 1862, Columbus Christopher Douglass and Ransom Shelden also owned a lumber yard on the east end of Houghton, most likely purchasing logs from a number of sources.

The forward-thinking and ambitious people, like Henderson, were gamblers in a sense. When Henderson set up his saw mill, the Isle Royale mine was the only venture operating on the south side of Portage Lake, and there were very few people in the area. While historical records are lacking, it could be assumed that Henderson set up his saw mill to sell lumber to the mining company.

Men like Henderson, who gambled on a frontier becoming a settled area, were crucial to the development of a town. Saw mills and lumber companies were important to such men as Proctor Cowels. He was a master mechanic and builder who came to Portage Lake in 1858 to build the Pewabic and Franklin mining companies’ stamp mills in Hancock. In Houghton, he also built Miller’s Hotel, the county court house, the jail, Chase’s warehouse, and at least one school.

On the north side of Portage Lake, James Close, James N. Wright, Edward Wright, and Frank White organized the Sturgeon River Lumber Company in December 1872. Establishing their saw mill on the west end of Hancock, they received their raw materials from their logging operations around the village of Chassell, some 10 miles to the east, around Pike Bay and the Sturgeon River.

Between the Sturgeon River Lumber Company mill, and the mill of Matt Moralee, also located in West Hancock, they employed more than 80 men.

The same scenario was repeated in the Ontonagon district. Levi Hanna, John Parker, and William Stevens erected the first saw mill in the region, going into business in July 1852, producing most of the lumber used in the construction of the town of Ontonagon. In the late 1800s, the Diamond Match Company established its headquarters in Ontonagon, where the company harvested millions of board feet of pine trees, which it converted to match sticks, boxes, and shingles.

These companies and mills not only provided lumber for building, they provided timbers for use underground in the mines, as well as timber for industrial buildings, ties for railroads, materials for plank roads, and poles for telegraph wires. They also provided hardwood to companies operating charcoal kilns.

While the mining industry opened up the Lake Superior copper district to settlement, it was the lumber and logging industry that provided the materials necessary to building those settlements. The mines have been the focus of interest since they began operating, but the mines could not have become what they became without other, independent industries such as lumber, logging, railroads, and foundries.

Editor’s note: Graham Jaehnig can be reached at gjaehnig@mininggazette.com