Michigan

Fifth Street in downtwon Calumet
Fifth street in downtown Calumet
Courtesy of the National Park Service, Dan Johnson
Upper Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula was the site of one of the most abundant deposits of pure, elemental copper in the world. The copper range here forms a narrow spine around which tens of thousands of people came to coax copper from out of the ground. In the 19th century, Americans and immigrants flocked here to fulfill the American Dream and improve their own lives. They developed a complex system of mining, processing, smelting, and transporting copper, which stimulated America’s Industrial Revolution. The thousands of people from around the world who sought success and the large corporate mining companies eager to make a profit together transformed the Keweenaw Peninsula, forever changing its landscape and cultural makeup.

Today, Keweenaw National Historical Park, at its Calumet and Quincy units, preserves and interprets the varied elements of the copper mining industry and tells the stories of the diverse people who settled the area and worked the mines. The many preserved buildings, streets, and mines, located in the Calumet National Historic Landmark District and the Quincy Mining Company National Historic Landmark District within the park, provide visitors with a snapshot in time of how the newly industrialized America looked and felt. Dozens of cultural sites throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula (inside and outside of official park boundaries), including those of 19 official Keweenaw Heritage Site partners, also help tell the stories associated with the Keweenaw’s mining history.
Keweenaw Heritage Center, formerly St. Anne’s Church
The former St. Anne’s Church
now serves as the Keweenaw Heritage Center
Courtesy of the National Park Service

American Indians began mining and using copper in the Keweenaw Peninsula over 7,000 years ago, as is evident from the prehistoric mining sites throughout the area. Native peoples used the copper to construct tools and make items to trade. When European priests and explorers reached the Keweenaw Peninsula in the 1600s, they learned of the copper from the Ojibwa. The early European explorers attempted to mine the copper but were unsuccessful. By the 1840s, people started having success extracting the copper from the earth, prompting one of the first mineral mining rushes in the United States — one that predated the California gold rush by six years.

For a time, the Keweenaw Peninsula saw a massive rush of individual fortune seekers. After this initial rush, other entrepreneurs arrived to direct a more systematic extraction of the copper. A more lasting copper industry evolved with the establishment of the major mining companies, the Quincy Mining Company and later, the Calumet & Hecla (C&H) Company. By 1849, this area provided 96% of the entire United States copper production; from 1845 to 1887 it was the largest copper producing region in the United States. By the late 1880s, the Keweenaw Peninsula lost its dominant position as the leading copper producing region to mines located further west; but for over a hundred years, the copper mining industry had a direct effect on the lives and landscape of the people and communities in this area.

Between 1843 and 1920, miners and immigrants from all over the world, including Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Finland, Croatia, China, and Lebanon, among others, flocked to the area to work in the mines and the industries that supported their operation. These workers provided a large labor force and contributed to the evolution of a varied and diverse cultural landscape throughout the peninsula. While many of the first generation immigrants came to work in the mines, the second and third generation Americans found ways to enter other occupations. Some opened, managed, or worked in groceries, hotels, restaurants, and sawmills, while others taught school, farmed, or logged forests. Others began commercial fishing operations in Lake Superior, which surrounds the Keweenaw.
Mine Workers
Between 1843 and 1920, miners and immigrants from all over the world came to the Keweenaw Peninsula
to work the mines
Courtesy of the National Park Service
Immigrants established ethnic benevolent societies and churches. Visitors can still see some of them today like St. Anne’s Catholic Church (originally built for a thriving French-Canadian population), the Community Church of Calumet (originally serving a Scottish Presbyterian congregation), St. John the Baptist Church (originally for Calumet’s Croatian Community), and the Norwegian Lutheran Church. These institutions helped new arrivals make their way in the community and find jobs and places to live. Churches and benevolent societies played a crucial role in immigrants’ lives by attending to their spiritual needs and provided them places to speak their native tongue comfortably, listen to their traditional music, and eat their traditional food. Established immigrants built hotels or apartment buildings like the Coppo Block and the Holman Block, which visitors can walk by today in downtown Calumet. At one time, at least 38 different ethnic groups lived in the area. The workers and their families varied in their dress, politics, religions, foods, and languages, but they shared a common interest in their goals and intense desire for better lives.

Visitors can learn about the social, ethnic, commercial, and company-planned aspects of a mining community by visiting the Calumet Unit of Keweenaw National Historical Park. In the historic village of Calumet, known as Red Jacket until 1929, and throughout the C&H Mining Company’s property, visitors can see what it was like to live and work on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Visitors can take the Calumet Walking Tour, a 1.5 hour and 1.5 mile easy terrain walking tour to explore the former C&H Mining Company’s industrial area and downtown Calumet’s historic business district.

In its heyday, the C&H Mining Company produced one-half of the country’s copper. The company, which Swiss-born Alexander Agassiz led for many years, attained success through its highly efficient management of both people and natural resources. The company utilized modern technologies and the management style known as paternalism to build its reputation as one of the nation’s best-known business enterprises.
The C&H Public Library and Agassiz House
The C&H Public Library and Agassiz House
Courtesy of the National Park Service

By practicing corporate paternalism, C&H created a mutually dependent relationship between the company and its workers by offering both benefits and constraints to its workers and the nearby communities. Like many mining companies, C&H provided not only jobs but also schools, homes, bathhouses, hospitals, tennis courts, bowling alleys, a swimming pool, and a library for its workers. The company also provided land for fraternal organizations, churches, and other social groups. Many of these corporate-sponsored community buildings are still standing today, including the C&H Public Library, many Calumet grade schools, the C&H Bathhouse, the Miscowaubik Club, and the churches on God’s Little Acre. By 1898, C&H owned nearly 1,000 dwellings and the land on which many other employee-built houses stood. C&H’s fire department served the mines and surrounding communities, and the company’s water system pumped water to employee houses.

While company management saw paternalism as the benign manifestation of a new age of enlightened capitalism, it allowed the company to control many aspects of the workers’ lives, including discouraging the organization of labor unions. In 1913, workers’ frustration with the impersonal style of management, low wages, long hours, and poor working conditions culminated in a strike that lasted for nearly a year. C&H never fully recovered from the strike. The company enjoyed some profits in the early 20th century, but as the depths of the mines increased, the copper content diminished. In 1968, the mines closed permanently, but the C&H Mining Company left its mark on the people, land, and communities of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Quincy No. 2 Mine Shaft
The former Quincy No. 2 mine shaft with accompanying hoist house
Courtesy of the National Park Service

Twelve miles from the Calumet Unit, visitors can explore the Quincy Unit of the park to learn about the processes and technologies of copper mining. The Quincy Unit, just northeast of the Hancock community and adjacent to the Portage Lake waterway, preserves the remnant structures and mines of the Quincy Mining Company, established in 1846. Visitors can take the Quincy Ruins Walk, a guided 1.5 hour, one-mile walking tour to explore the surface ruins of the mine.

Quincy and C&H share similar histories. The Quincy Copper Mining Company was also a leader in copper production in the late 19th century, attracted workers from various ethnic groups, practiced paternalism with its workers, and suffered greatly from the strike of 1913. The company eventually closed its mines for good in 1945. Today, visitors can explore the Quincy No. 2 mine shaft and hoist, which are a Keweenaw Heritage Site owned and operated by the Quincy Mine Hoist Association. Visitors can also see the world’s largest steam hoist, explore the mine’s surface area and ruins, and ride a cog-wheel tram to a mine side entrance. From there, visitors can go underground to have a firsthand view of the mine and see for themselves the miners’ working conditions.

Visitors can also explore the 19 Keweenaw Heritage Sites associated with the park. Places such as the Coppertown Mining Museum in the former C&H Pattern Shop, the former St. Anne’s Church that is now the Keweenaw Heritage Center, the Red Jacket Fire Station that is now the Upper Peninsula Firefighters Memorial Museum, and the Laurium Manor Mansion Tours, all help tell the stories of copper mining and the birth of an industrialized society.
Plan your visit

Keweenaw National Historical Park, a unit of the National Park System, is located on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper MI. Click here for the National Register of Historic Places files: Calumet Historic District, text and photos; Quincy Mining Company Historic District, text and photos. Calumet Historic District and Quincy Mining Company Historic District have also been designated National Historic Landmarks. The park’s visitor center is located in Calumet at 98 Fifth St. and headquarters is open Monday through Friday from 9:00am until 5:00pm, except on federally designated holidays. Visitor services for the park are also provided through the park’s non-Federal partners, known as Keweenaw Heritage Sites. Hours and days of operation at these sites vary with the season. For more information and directions to the park, visit the National Park Service Keweenaw National Historical Park website or call 906-337-3168.

Keweenaw National Historical Park has been documented by the National Park Service’s Historic American Buildings Survey.

EAGLE RIVER – A group of citizens still has concerns about the new cell tower on Brockway Mountain, but the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners does not want any more public comment on the issue.

About a dozen individuals attended the Keweenaw County Commissioners regular meeting Wednesday evening in Eagle River to address concerns over the location of the cell tower. In December, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted in favor of putting the tower on the summit and since then, a petition has circulated asking those who are opposed to sign. The petition has garnered more than 3,000 signatures from people all across the Upper Peninsula and the world.

However, when Alex Protzel asked the board to speak during public comment Wednesday, he was immediately turned down by the board.

“What would your public comment be about?” Chair Ernest Mooney asked Protzel.

When Protzel said he wanted to talk about the proposed cell phone tower on Brockway Mountain, and said he had new information to share with the commissioners, Mooney said they had heard enough.

“Let me tell you what’s going to happen,” Mooney said. “I think that this board has a responsibility when we have issues before this board to give everyone who is interested an opportunity to express their opinion whether for or against. And I think that has taken place. … Now this issue is not before this board. This issue is a closed issue. It’s been decided. So I do not feel this board has any obligation whatsoever to provide a forum for people who just want to comment on this to do so and express their views.”

Mooney compared the comments about the cell tower to a politician making a campaign speech the week after the campaign is over. Mooney said comments will no longer be accepted on the tower issue and suggested those with concerns should do so on the federal level.

“My comments were not allowed because of the reasons you gave,” Protzel, a Copper Harbor property owner said. “I was not allowed to make a public comment.”

Mooney said the issue has been closed and decided, so further comments would not have an impact.

“I think the issue we’re concerned about is there is additional information, new information that’s available today that wasn’t when those decisions were made,” said Copper Harbor property owner Phoebe Wienke.

Mooney said resolutions to problems come from people working together and said nothing is ever accomplished by people taking one adversarial side of one issue or another. Mooney said the board is open to taking suggestions about an alternate plan to provide cell service to people of Keweenaw County that is cost-effective.

“We’re not interested in people just making their statements about how many birds are going to die,” he said. “We’ve heard it all before. Everyone has had their opportunity to make their comments.”

Mooney ended his comments with the bang of his gavel and the party interested in making comments turned to leave.

Tom Liljegren of Allouez asked to make a public comment concerning the individuals leaving the room.

“The discourtesy of those who are leaving simply because their issue … if they paid more attention to what the county is doing, they would be at meetings every time like some of us are,” he said.

Peggy Kauppi, who owns a Copper Harbor business open during evening hours, said she comes to as many meetings as she is able.

“I’m not discourteous,” she said.

According to the Open Meeting Act 267 of 1976, “a person shall be permitted to address a meeting of a public body under rules established and recorded by the public body. The legislature or a house of the legislature may provide by rule that the right to address may be limited to prescribed times at hearings and committee meetings only.” The agenda for the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners allows for two sections of public comment at no more than three minutes per individual.

There is nothing specific about public comment in the commission’s bylaws. Per the county’s rights of public address, as followed by the county from the “Guide to Michigan County Government,” the public has a right to address the county board. This right, though, is more limited than the right to attend meetings and “the board or committee and its chairperson may not make up the rules as the meeting goes along.” The board may determine when and for how long a person may speak and the rules must be officially adopted and recorded.

In an interview this morning, Protzel said he wanted to tell the commissioners about alternative locations that could be investigated.

Protzel said he became aware the tower will most likely require approximately 2 miles of utility poles to provide power. That prospect of having a string of utility poles crisscrossing Brockway is unacceptable, he said.

“This issue was covered briefly at the Dec. 20, 2011, planning commission meeting,” he said. “It was raised and the tower company (representative) declined to answer, and the planning commission declined to pursue it. I was there and I said, ‘This is real important, because if this tower goes up, we can’t ignore it.’”
© Copyright 2012 The Daily Mining Gazette. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By Danny Messinger

Winter Carnival 2012 first-place statue in the fraternity division,

Winter Carnival 2012 first-place statue in the fraternity division, “Don’t Underestimate the Dreams of Detroit”
Printable version Printable version

February 9, 2012—

It’s the question that’s been on the minds of students and community members for the past month: would the balmy weather spell disaster for snow statues at Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival? In short—no.

Now, with up to a month of construction behind them, statue builders can admire their snowy creations—this year with an extra bit of pride for conquering Mother Nature’s unexpected warm-up.

“With a lack of snow, we definitely had a hard time with construction,” says Eric Lindholm, Sigma Phi Epsilon president. “We were doing well for the first two weeks of the semester, but with the late warm spell we had last weekend, we had some major setbacks.”

Tim Richmond, Sigma Phi Epsilon statue co-chair, said his brothers have had to get a little creative to make sure the warm-up didn’t result in a lack of solid ice detail-work. Since Richmond’s fraternity stores all of its completed ice-work outside, he said their stockpile was almost a complete loss with last week’s 40-degree-temperatures.

“Now we’re just freezing water in whatever we can,” he said the day before statues were to be judged. “Pots, pans, trays…anything. We made a list of what we wanted to have out there for judging, and we’ll see what we get.”

“With the weather, everyone else has had some setbacks, too,” Lindholm added.

Amanda Beam, statue chair for Alpha Gamma Delta, said her sorority’s statue construction had been hit just as hard because of the weather.

“We cancelled more than half of our construction shifts because it was just too warm to build,” said Beam. “We wanted to build our back wall higher, but we had to cut back a bit and change our plans so that we can still try to finish on time.”

During the All-Nighter, Beam’s team wasn’t sure if their setbacks would mean an incomplete statue when the judges strolled by with clipboards and scorecards in hand at 7 a.m.

“We’ll see if it gets done,” she said. “If we had done the full statue—gone with the original plans—there’s no way we would have finished. I think we’ll be fine, though.”

Not everyone building a statue had to worry about the warm-up. In fact, conditions were nearly perfect for one-night statue construction.

“It’s got to be cold, of course,” said Jordan Marlor, statue chair for Keweenaw Pride’s one-night statue. “It could always be colder, but we’re doing fine. The snowplow driver who brought us a big load of snow packed some of it down, so we already have a nice base.”

As thousands of students began to head home and the thumping bass from the annual mid-campus dance party dissipated, builders stayed hard at work on their construction sites until the sun came up to make sure their statues were just as awe-inspiring as every year before.

Now, with the 2012 All-Nighter crossed off the Carnival calendar, the number of impressed tourists—and Tech natives—touring the towering statues finally quelled the worries of weather-watchers. The late nights, cold fingers, and sore muscles of Tech students have paid off in a big way.

Even when Mother Nature throws a curveball, Michigan Tech students know how to show off what makes our state so great.

Michigan Technological University (www.mtu.edu) is a leading public research university developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering; forest resources; computing; technology; business; economics; natural, physical and environmental sciences; arts; humanities; and social sciences.

The Green Film Series, sponsored by a number of local organizations, will show “Addicted to Plastic” on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 pm in Hesterberg Hall at the MTU forestry building. The film focuses on the worldwide production and environmental effects of plastic. The showing will be followed by dessert, coffee and a facilitated discussion.

Take a global journey to investigate what we know about this material of a thousand uses and why there’s so darn much of it! On the way, discover a toxic legacy, and the people striving to clean it up.

Location: G002 Hesterberg Hall, Michigan Tech Forestry Bldg.
Cost: FREE; $3 suggested donation

See more info on the movie.

The Green Film program is partially funded with a grant from the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country, Friends of the Lake of Keweenaw, and the U.P. Environmental Coalition. The film series is cosponsored by the Lake Superior Superior Stewardship Initiative, the Keweenaw Land Trust, the Michigan Tech Center for Water & Society, and the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
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HANCOCK — It is a Finnish American celebration or better known to the locals as Heikinpäivä.

For the past 13 years, Hancock has hosted the event, and the city takes pride in its large Finnish population.

“It celebrates Saint Henrik’s day, which in old folk culture was the halfway mark of winter,” said James Kurtti, Director of the Finnish American Heritage Center.

The swirling snow flurries didn’t keep people from enjoying the festival, including one of the biggest attractions, the Polar Bear Dive. With roaring cheers from the crowd, hundreds of fearless individuals leaped into the frigid waters of the Portage Canal.

“I’ve probably done it for 20 years now. I just enjoy it, it’s part of winter,” said participant Scott Quick.

The celebration also called for a parade where the grand marshal sat high atop the world’s largest kicksled, and many dressed in costumes.

“Some people are wearing Sami gakti which is the traditional clothing of the Sami or the Lappish people, and some have character costumes, which are Finnish and Finnish American folk characters,” Kurtti said.

After the parade, kids piled into the vipukelkka, or whipsled, which mimics a modern day merry go round, and they competed in a kicksled race.

People kept warm inside the Finnish American Heritage Center where vendors offered nisu, a Finnish sweet bread, and other baked goods and crafts.

The Finnish Theme Committee says next year’s Heikinpäivä will be even more exciting because it will be the beginning of ushering in FinnFest, and as the traditional Finnish saying goes, *karhu kääntää kylkeä.

*Karhu kääntää kylkeä translates to the bear rolls over to the other side. This means winter is half over.

Update on the Keewenaw.

Some information I need to share for people that ride any of my Keewenaw tracks.

There have been some changes in the area. The local ATV club has been able to establish some new ATV trail segments on land owned by a forest products company. One of the stipulations for those segments would be that no motorcycles would be allowed.

The issue here isn’t whether you like that or you don’t, the issue is that riders in that area need to be aware that motorcycles are legitimately not allowed in certain places. This is all motorcycles – ORV and highway registered.

The other part of this issue is that the club has put up signs prohibiting two wheeled ORVs on some roads that are on the county highway map that are not trails on private property.

Askel should note that one of his favorite spots (Fish Cove) is also likely signed prohibiting no two wheeled ORVs even though the roads appear on the official county highway map. (James, next time you are there please let me know if and where it is signed.)

Although I have not read the county ordinance on this subject (if there is one in place) it is clear that DOT licensed motorcycles are entitled to travel roads that are on the official county highway map (even though they act as an ORV and are stickered as such on ORV trails).

So to prevent confusion when you encounter one of these signs, you must consider whether you are on a licensed motorcycle on a road that appears on the official county highway map OR if you are on a TRAIL segment that is posted closed for motorcyles.

There is no problem getting out to the tip at High Rock Bay on a DOT licensed dual sport motorcycle.

Hopefully we’ll develop more facts about this before the season starts.

Bay Mills Indian Community
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Law
Menominee Tribe
Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa

Jan 23 2012
Off-reservation gaming is heating up in the Great Lake State (or, to those of us who are University of Michigan grads, the Wolverine State)!

Shortly before we rang in 2012, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a decision approving the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s application for an off-reservation casino in Marquette County. This was a rare approval under the “best interests” exception to IGRA’s general prohibition against gaming on lands acquired after 1988.

Then, just over a week ago, the news broke that the Menominee Tribe was once again aggressively pursuing its dream of a Kenosha casino, with help from KMD Consulting Services in California.

HOUGHTON – With the help of a $15,000 grant from Yamaha Motor Corporation, the Keweenaw ATV Club can fund a series of trail projects.

The donation helps support Keweenaw Trails as part of an ongoing effort to encourage safe, responsible riding as well as sustainable trails and riding areas in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

“The Keweenaw ATV Club is pleased to announce it has received a Yamaha Off-Highway Vehicle Initiative grant of $15,055 to assist with signing and general maintenance of the non-DNR supported ATV trails in northern Houghton and Keweenaw counties,” said Ray Chase, on behalf of the Keweenaw ATV Club. “The grant was awarded as part of Yamaha’s OHV Access Initiative promoting safe, responsible riding and sustainable riding areas.”

The grant money will be used to support projects such as trail signs, flood control, equipment to assist with brush control and comprehensive trail maps.

The Keweenaw ATV Club is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization made up of business owners and ATV riding enthusiasts that sponsor and maintain ATV trails in parts of northern Houghton and Keweenaw counties. Chase said of the 140 miles of ATV trails KATV sponsors, only 78 miles are supported by funding from the sale of state DNR trail stickers.

“There’s just a small percentage of our trails that supported by DNR,” he said. “We have to find a way to support trails, and that’s what this grant does. There’s a lot that needs to be done on these trails to make them safe.”

Chase heard about the grant opportunity about three months ago and wrote a grant request for support. The Keweenaw ATV Club has more than 260 members and meets monthly at local business establishments to keep members updated about ongoing issues.

“We also discuss plans for future activities, such as spring and fall maintenance projects and club sponsored rides that include breakfast stops and evening cookouts,” Chase said.

Because the majority of ATV trails are on privately owned properties, Chase said the club has 22 permits from landowners to use the trails. Those private land trails do not always fit with DNR rules and regulations for a trail system, hence a lot of attention from club members to maintain them until they work out a system with the DNR to enact new rules governing private land use.

“The trails are open to ATVs and side-by-sides but are not open to dirt bikes or full-sized vehicles,” he said. “That’s not because of us. That’s because of a land restriction.”

As a result, the club has worked with the DNR and has a supported endorsed trail system while working on full designation.

“We’ve been promised that by spring,” he said.
© Copyright 2012 The Daily Mining Gazette. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The company, which has a tap house in Houghton and cans beer at its brewing facility in South Range, has announced that it is in the process of expanding by adding a 4,500-square-foot building for dry storage, keg cleaning/storage and winter loading and unloading. Construction on the site has already started and is expected to help the company meet the need for increased supply thanks to its growing popularity.

Co-owner Richard Gray says the expansion is needed in the wholesale facility because it is where the growth factor is for KBC.

“It will provide additional room in the main brewery, so we can introduce another ale in a can,” he says.

That news comes to the delight of KBC fans across Michigan, because the added room in their existing facility could also potentially mean additional tanks for brewing along with the introduction of a pale ale this spring to add to the lineup of five currently canned beers.

The addition will not only give them more space, but it will also allow Keweenaw Brewing Company, which has 19 employees, to load distribution trucks inside instead of having to haul their products outside and into the trucks–a big relief, especially when you consider the snowfall the area typically gets each winter.

The growth of their facilities is definitely warranted. KBC first began production in 2004 and made 406 barrels of beer. In 2011, the company produced 6,800 barrels of beer.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Richard Gray, Keweenaw Brewing Company

ONTONAGON COUNTY – Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that a cat-like animal seen crossing before a video camera is in fact a cougar.

Adam Bump, bear and furbearer specialist with the DNR in Lansing, said the animal was caught on a bear bait camera by an individual on private property in Ontonagon. He declined to specify where out of respect for the landowners.

“We received information Sept. 9 and the video was taken Sept. 8,” Bump said.

DNR Wildlife Division staff visited the property Sept. 12 where the trail cam is mounted and verified the location of the camera.

The animal can be seen for a few seconds slowly moving through the grass on a trail. The cougar is wearing a radio collar and has a tagged ear, an indication that he traveled to Ontonagon from somewhere out west, Bump said.

“It is not from Michigan,” he said. “We assume it’s from out west and we’re trying very hard to see if we can track down the location of that animal and see who radio-collared it.”

Bump said the animal most likely made a long trip. The DNR learned from other radio-collared animals that they have traveled up to 700 miles from the Dakotas. In fact, one cougar was recently road-killed in the state of Connecticut and Bump said it most likely originated in the Dakotas and had been through Wisconsin.

“That cat had to have traveled thousands of miles to get where it was,” he said.

Unlike many other animals, cougars do not travel in packs and in most cases, a young male disperses and travels much further than females.

From the video, it’s hard to judge the size of the animal, but Bump said unique characteristics alluded to it being a cougar. The animal can be distinguished from any native cats, including bobcats and domestic cats, because they are much larger and their tail is longer and rope-like, curving down or up and has a dark tip on the end of it. The cougar’s tail is usually more than half the length of its body and the animal is usually tan in color with a white underbelly.

“There’s really nothing else that has that physical appearance,” he said.

Over the decades, Bump said the DNR has received many reported cougar sightings and evidence state-wide. They have been unable to verify any sightings until this video footage, he said. In 1906, a cougar was killed in the Upper Peninsula in Newberry.

“We’ve had five sets of tracks and now three trail camera pictures since 2008 that we’ve been able to verify,” he said. “They’ve all been in the U.P. except for this most recent one; they’ve all been from the central U.P. east.”

The cougar used to be native to Michigan but was extirpated many years ago, Bump said. Since then, it has always been questioned if they are still here; however, it’s only been proven that transients are moving throughout the region. There is no evidence of a breeding population.

Bump said it is unlikely anyone will happen upon a cougar because they are very secretive and avoid people.

“In the extremely unlikely case where you happen to run into one or encounter one close is to speak firmly to them, wave your arms, make yourself look as big as possible and try to back away,” he said.

If attacked, Bump said to fight back because cougars seem to give up easily. Even in states with healthy cougar populations with the animal in close proximity to people, cougar attacks are rare, making the likelihood in Michigan extremely rare, he said.

Throughout the years in the Copper Country, encounters or evidence of cougars have been reported and either verified or dismissed. In a Sept. 19, 2001, Daily Mining Gazette article, a woman said she encountered a cougar at Walmart, ran back to her car and called the DNR to report the sighting. In May 2003, another Gazette story reported that local biologists were collecting evidence to prove the existence of cougars in the state.

To see the Ontonagon video, visit The Daily Mining Gazette website at mininggazette.com.
© Copyright 2011 The Daily Mining Gazette. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.