Influential: Looking to the past to shape the future

You could always hear the train whistles on a clear, quiet night, the steam engines pulling out of the waterfront station and shuttling husbands and fathers back to Indiana, Chicago, Detroit, while mothers and wives stayed with the children and nannies to resort along the peaceful shores at the top of Michigan’s mitten. They came northward to escape allergies and the heat of the summer in the cool, clean environs of Emmet County. They wanted their children to splash in pristine lakes, wander lush, thick woodlands, and linger amidst unspoiled natural beauty until summer faded to fall.

Though the railways have long stopped their Resort Express routes to Northern Michigan, Emmet County’s history as a resort and summer destination persists in even greater numbers today.

Land of discovery

Centuries before being discovered as a resort destination, the area’s qualities drew Native Americans to verdant woods and rivers for hunting and fishing and enticed Europeans for trading and later logging and shipping.

Former Emmet County clerk, Harriet Kilborn (1967-1980), transcribed the area’s history from the time of the early Native Americans through the Europeans’ arrival and beyond. Excerpts from her research, which can be found in its entirety on the county Web site, www.emmetcounty.org, follow:

“At first, Ottawa Indians occupied the lake shore rim. Beyond the water’s edge there was only the forest, the lakes, the streams, and some swamps dismal enough to discourage a traveling bear. Its strategic location on the Great Lakes waterways, however, marked it for early discovery by white men and the point of control for the whole upper Great Lakes territory.

Recorded history started in the early 1700s, around the time the French built Fort Michilimackinac on the Straits, at present-day Mackinaw City. The history of the area revolved around this fort for the next 66 years.

British forces were at war with the French, with France losing its struggle to control the fur trade. Until 1761, the French were in control … British forces moved into Fort Michilimackinac when the French moved out in 1761. Old Fort Michilimackinac was abandoned in 1781 and the beehive center of the fur trading, military and political doings shifted from the mainland to Mackinac Island.

The Indian settlement on the western lakeshore rim of the county, however, continued to flourish. In 1840, the year Emmet achieved shape and form as a county of the State of Michigan, Indian villages were almost continuous along the shore line from today’s Harbor Springs to Cross Village. The area was still a wilderness, the Indians, by treaty provision with the U.S. Government, having the right to occupy the land. The county continued to be mostly Indian reservation until 1875. In that period of time it was used pretty much as a political football and went through numerous changes in shape and size.

In 1840 the State Legislature, wishing to take the basic steps necessary to ensure proper development of the whole state, passed Act No. 119 laying off and outlining the boundaries of certain northern counties.

(In 1842) another act changed the name of the county (from Tonedagana) to Emmet. Why an area with such a long and colorful Indian history was required to sacrifice its original name to an Irish patriot remains a mystery.”

Resort communities begin to flourish

Further historical documents culled from various sources note that the first white settlers who came in the 1820s were fishermen, and growth of the county was expedited when the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroads started traveling to Petoskey in the mid-1800s. While the soil was poor for farming, the lumbering was good, and after the height of lumbering the resort industry grew.

The first resort was Bay View, founded in 1875 by the United Methodist Church, just outside Petoskey and along the Little Traverse Bay shoreline. Bay View is a National Historic Landmark community which is home to more than 30 community-owned buildings, nearly 450 cottages and two inns situated on 337 terraced acres in beautiful northwest Lower Michigan. Generations of families continue to visit their Victorian cottages each summer, swelling the local population and hosting public music, worship, lectures and educational seminars.

Bay View was followed by the Harbor Springs resort communities of Wequetonsing and Harbor Point, exclusive enclaves of storied homes and waterfront parcels.

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Much like in many other Michigan counties and throughout the country, Native Americans were the original inhabitants of the untamed landscape here. Today, Odawa descendants are keeping their vibrant history and rich culture alive in the Emmet County region in tangible and important ways.

Eric Hemenway, the Odawa’s research repatriation assistant, said the fact that the tribe remains strong and viable today is a testament to its people.

“The most remarkable thing is that there is still a population today. There are still Odawas,” said Hemenway, about his tribe’s legacy. “We still have our identity as Odawa people, our customs, our language, our aboriginal territory.”

The Odawas’ presence here dates back before records were kept, perhaps thousands of years. In the early years, the tribe was known as the Anishnaabek, and the language, being revived in local schools today, is known as Anishnaabemowin.

The spiritual side of the natives was integral to their lifestyle, and respect for their elders remains a cornerstone of the Odawa familial ties today. It was those elders who passed along hunting and survival skills to the younger members.

The first recorded contact with the Europeans occurred in 1615, with French traders. During those early years, relations between the Indians and French were positive, with the natives helping establish fur trading throughout the entire Tip of the Mitt region.

The natives would soon discover that the arrival of the Europeans brought diseases such as smallpox, measles and cholera into the tribal communities. Brutal wars among tribes who traveled from the East Coast to claim Michigan’s land also had a profound impact on the Odawa tribe, who started moving westward.

They slowly returned and in 1836, the first major treaty was signed that allowed them to stay on land in the Little Traverse Bay region for five years; a second in 1855 allowed the natives to stay on reservation land indefinitely. Integral in the negotiations was tribal leader Andrew J. Blackbird, whose original house is a museum today in Harbor Springs.

The tribe lost its federal recognition status in the late 1800s, and it was restored through efforts of a number of locals in 1994. It brought renewed efforts to keep the native culture alive, and ushered in the opportunity for the tribe to open its casino in Emmet County.

The Odawas also maintain a Natural Resources Department, leading the way in enforcement, conservation and management of tribal natural resources by preserving the tribe’s sovereign right to hunt and fish. The department also works to gather and analyze Great Lakes fish data and specific native wildlife data. Its Web site summarizes, “We will wisely utilize our natural resources to promote, honor and respect our traditional, spiritual and physical relationship with the land and waters.”

For the future

Northern Michigan’s history museums work diligently to make sure the area’s past is preserved for the future. At Petoskey’s waterfront, the Little Traverse Historical Society museum operates from an historic train station, filled with artifacts such as the passenger pigeon display and the area’s connections to Ernest Hemingway, who famously spent his summers along the shores of Walloon Lake. www.petoskeymuseum.org.

Across the bay in Harbor Springs, the newly renovated History Museum has unveiled colorful, informative displays documenting the rich history of this resort town and the region overall.

Its executive director, Mary Cummings, recalled when she used to attend city council meetings in the upper chambers of the building, the center for local government constructed in 1886, as a local reporter. Now, some 15 years later, she is the keeper of the region’s historical documents for perpetuity.

“This building is now history’s home in Harbor Springs,” Cummings said.

Renovations began in 2007, after a fundraising goal of $1.9 million was met. Original interior details remain, such as the wood floors and a layout of various rooms that house rotating exhibits, from replica model ships to an upcoming display of Earl Mead architectural designs. On the upper level, the “Harbor Springs Family Circle” displays interchangeable pencil-drawn portraits and information about leaders whose efforts shaped the North into what it is today.

“The museum doesn’t represent just the city or the resorts,” Cummings added. “It really encompasses the greater Harbor Springs area.”

www.harborspringshistory.org

More local history museums:

Mackinaw Area Historical Society, www.mackinawhistory.org
Bay Harbor History Museum, www.villageatbayharbor.com/business/bhmuseum

Rock of ages

Michigan’s state stone, the Petoskey stone, is prevalent along the shoreline of Little Traverse Bay. A Petoskey stone is a rock and a fossil that is composed of a fossilized coral, Hexagonaria percarinata. The stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them in the northwestern portion of Michigan’s lower peninsula. They are fragments of a coral reef that was originally deposited during the Devonian period, about 350 million years ago. In 1965, it was named the state stone of Michigan.

Historical points of interest

Mackinaw City
Fort Michilimackinac
Mackinac Bridge
Cecil Bay
McGulpin Point Lighthouse
Retired U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker museum ship, the Mackinaw

Cross Village
Skillagalee and Waugoshance light stations, off Waugoshance Point
Legs Inn restaurant and M-119
“The Tunnel of Trees”

Good Hart
St. Ignatius Church and Beach
Good Hart General Store

Petoskey
Bay View Association
Bay View Inn
Stafford’s Perry Hotel
Petoskey’s historic downtown district, homes and businesses on the National Register of Historic Places
Little Traverse History Museum
St. Francis Solanus Mission Church

Harbor Springs
Andrew J. Blackbird house/museum
Ephraim Shay House
Harbor Springs Historical Society newly renovated museum
St. Francis Solanus Mission Church
Wequetonsing

Emmet County Guide 2010 » Influential: Looking to the past to shape the future