CALUMET – Most Copper Country residents have some connection with the Keweenaw Waterway, whether boating or simply commuting over it.

Some of them learned more about its history and various incarnations as part of Keweenaw National History Park’s Fourth Thursday program. Park ranger Lynette Weber presented at the Calumet Visitor Center Thursday.

The first map of the area was created in 1708 by the French. In the era before the Portage Canal, there was a small strip of land which was impassable by boat. “Portage” comes from the English word for carrying or transporting. It’s also referenced in “Keweenaw,” the Ojibwa word for “carrying place.”

In 1820, Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan, came to the Copper Country on a surveying trip. A journal from the trip refers to the “deep swamp of hemlock and tamarack” needed to be traversed.

In 1844, shortly after the Ojibwa ceded mineral rights to the U.S., Fort Wilkins and the Pittsburgh and Boston mines were established. Fort Wilkins was built partially from material salvaged from the schooner John Jacob Astor, owned by the American Fur Company, which had wrecked off Copper Harbor.

The Portage Lake and River Improvement Company formed in 1860, dredging the Portage River and easing navigability.

Weber demonstrated range lights, which were placed in sequence along the shoreline to guide people to a specific target. Webber demonstrated the principle with an audience volunteer who had a flashlight on their phone; with two lights, a captain could line them up to get oriented.

“If I can’t see (the second light) after I’ve noticed it … I’m going the right direction, and I’m going to make it into the channel,” Webber said. “This system was used to guide ships all the way throughout the canal itself, right into Portage Lake,” Webber said. “That’s because it wasn’t a simple straight shot.”

The channel was lined with six-foot thick timbers, topped with a lumber deck to enable “a nice stroll along the boardwalk,” Webber said.

The Portage Lake Shipping Canal was built in 1870 primarily to speed the transportation of copper.

“They thought it would be rather clever to dig another canal through, and of course, charge tolls along the way,” Webber said.

A U.S. Coast Guard station near the North Entry remained active under 1990; some foundations from the building remain. Across the canal, the area of the Breakers had an active lighthouse which no longer exists; in its stead, there is a small automated light.

“With all the range lights they used in the canal, they did not have a range light to get you into the North Portage Entry,” she said. “That was very difficult to deal with and there were a couple of ships that actually got stuck there at different points in time.”

The U.S. Lifesaving Service, the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard, was involved in one of the most historic Lake Superior rescues, the November 1913 saving of the L.C. Waldo.

Another waterway landmark was White City, situated near Jacobsville on the South Entry. Accessible by steamer, it included a merry-go-round, rollercoaster, dance pavilion and a children’s park. In one incongruous photo from the time, a child stares incredulously at Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. bigwigs riding the merry-go-round and smiling.

Part of that popularity was due to the U.S. government’s ownership of the canal, starting in 1891.

“That allowed them to drop all those tolls, and people were enjoying it on a more free basis,” Webber said.

Today, in addition to the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, there is the Keweenaw Water Trail, a popular attraction for kayakers and canoers. It starts at McLain State Park and winds around the shoreline of the Keweenaw, “kind of purposely following the route that was avoided by the shippers in historic times,” Webber said.

At the tip of the Keweenaw, there is the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, which includes vessels from the 1800s through 1989, when the Coast Guard cutter was scuttled.