Copper country: Part II, part 1

The following program was produced by the University of Michigan broadcasting service for national

educational radio under a grant from the National Home Library Foundation.

I recall the blowing of the whistles of typically on 6 o'clock.

For the men to be ready to awaken then be ready to.

Go down to the mining.

Thing every. Day.

When they. Were there with me.

To. Fight.

The history of a place is the sum of many memories the recollections differ

sometimes conflict. But as people give voice to that memory as history take shape

the past comes alive. The copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is an area

rich with story. It includes the keep an op into which juts into Lake

Superior and lives north of Wisconsin. On this the second of two

programs the people of the copper country create in their own words the colorful complex history

of that area and the many varied aspects of life in the copper country

and as a youngster I reckon the number of the Indians coming to our home with their use the

various They have a box in their neighborhood.

With with other straps you know and they would sell a blueberry to give them something and they'd

so embarrassed when I graduated you're in the high school 913

worried nobody didn't thing else we just had we just heard a bolt. That was

everything.

That was our priority our class day and everything you know we are in charge this

boat to go way up to the canal. That's up on the portage bay toward the big lake you know

then we go to the hotel and assume we have some Indians here to do their

heavy work. They wouldn't dare appeal the potatoes and scale the fish and we

always have planked white fish. Remember that and we have this

shared to tears you know and the rest of the night we dance in the moonlight coming down that was

everything.

That was years and years ago you couldn't get her home here to rent there was nothing

everything with a bird. And this is what's not here.

Even when I only nurse 73 years ago this time got one at

least I got what not clinician. There was no cure but one or two.

And well you still have to go right by the

where the congregation which are accused today the great big

boulder that they wish to go right now and that national bank would rather

that than me that I could remember right came right from from

Cornwall.

I came near 1914. We finally landed up at first place

I worked a pain jail. In the mine

and Newark and the war came on

depression.

And I think for six months. The work less than half time.

So from there I went to I know when I worked in the mine it Wynona.

All for a boat here I guess. And then we moved to

Calumet.

I worked at. The scene h mine.

For a boat. Six months while I came down here

1917.

And life resided here ever since.

My father came from brig Cornwall in Maine and mother's.

CORNISH But born in this country. So I'm just

about here.

CORNISH I was born in England.

And Arturo elect from

The Verge pleasure of you I don't know who you know about radar bench over

here. Writer now about to Myron you decided that you are in a word

you're not going camping. I don't run by we move to a place called the

Law of Love.

I would not been a good data mining expert

from but I were moved to a place far apart you're not going to

know my going to work or in

About Time and my father was working a cover of Vogue.

I don't know I worked you know my going for 21 years

and I worked for would you going to call your old comedian but when they

are there is such a large number of Finnish people in this area that

we are still here in the copper country have an epidemic news dissemination by means of the thing

the Finnish language over both radio stations not only does the NBL

but in our reporting the news here is Mr. Randall So you know.

Thank you John. So in a cheetah like a stolen house on the list I'm sick

and then under the guns allowed out of the building.

And you listen. It Camilla potentially to give her mother celebration.

When I got in there got hung up a lengthy letter from my son.

Many friends have given much needed a new kind of reaction to the coverage under such I think in large

numbers saw national steam vents. I have one at my home and another at

my cottage of dreamland. Nick Cornish all regarding Jack

have of course made many things famous he answers the jokes and stories.

Well they are in a class by themselves they're rather quaint humor I

think the thing that makes them as interesting as anything I think is the dialect in which they're spoken

as certain people in the copper country over the years have made rather a hobby of

collecting them all to Greece for instance with the State Board of Education well

known throughout the state educational field. While he himself is of German

extraction was quite a well-known teller collector Cousin Jack

story.

We've all heard stories there's one about the woman that kept

boarders and she went to the meat market to look for some meat and

the proprietor of the meat market had a stuffed doll

up on the back of his cash register so she went in and

she said oh let's have that chick up there and he said well

that's no chick that's out. I don't know what I would is he's good enough

for borders. Then there was a

Cornish miners came out here two fellows who were working together they just got to this

country and they noticed that all the other miners had a watch. Neither one of them had a watch.

So they said one was call area and one was called and he said

payday we should get ourselves a watch. Well they couldn't afford to buy one so they bought one between the

two of them. And he said well one wore

it to work one day and the other one the next you know one of them could tell time but they had to

watch because everybody else had one so down in the mine to work on and he said What

time is it at ARI. So I didn't know you pulled a watch out of his pocket and

showed it Barry said there it is. He says so too is it.

They don't want to know what barriers but there were

people who came here. Either because they knew.

I. Was here all their friends came or they came together with

friends and it consequently grew up.

Into A. Very close neighborly Dubai would say

People to People would tend to live in the same neighborhood as others

from their own homeland so to speak.

So down here we were here illegally down here because there are so many people from Italy. Cuma

lived in an area in Haiti became very complicated names to him. A

lot of social life together. And I don't.

Press you are you discouraged people in this community used to always

get together and have a body. Party.

On. A bridge birthday and usually on New Years too. There's a new school

over and used a different one in the deep Jefferson School and on the third floor

dating used to be regular parties for years and years and years.

And it was that that was the group by everyone to know about.

But each group I think ahead is a reason I didn't take I

think it is only the people who did but. Behind.

The. SCENE.

He was still the outstanding thing about a collar up here I think is that we

have the evergreens pointing up the collar everywhere

so we always have that contrast. I was a green then the really dark

green and then all the colors. But first we have the maples and they start

falling. Then we have the wall and they pin Cherry and

the mountain ness. Those are only things in this you match

then the very last winter and popular virtous

turned yellow.

I have a collection of log marks which were

used by the sturgeon River Lumber Company in the

late 1800s.

Each log that was hauled

to the river by these various companies right during a fight by

a large mark which had previously been recorded

with the boom company and the blue crab the inter-net recorded the

mark with. The county clerk.

Regardless of where they live was found after the drive in the

spring the lock Mark identified it and it reverted to

its original owner. The topper lumberjack was

not concerned very much with

what would happen if he should have to quit the job.

Those that quit.

On short notice are those who worked only a few days and went on to the next camp

were called Cap inspectors. Usually one lumberjack quit.

He never gave the foreman any notice except you would

walk into the office and say Writer up or I'm hanging up

and I was on a list too. No questions were asked. When the lumberjacks said writer

up he meant that he wanted to check written out in many cases.

Camp Foreman couldn't write the check. All he did was write

a time order and then a lumberjack would take his time watered down to the

headquarters. Sawmill or duty

wherever the job started from and then

a bank check or inmate type cash would be given to him for this time or in

some cases many of the stores and almost all cases

someone would cash these time orders and bring him down to the

main office to be turned into cash.

There always were sufficient number of saloons and Hancock

especially was well supplied with saloons but I do not believe that

anybody can ever say like the writer who wrote a

story about Hancock Hurley

and hell I do not believe that anybody can say even

though Hancock has been put into that characterization that there was some

very bad drinking sprees.

In any place in the copper gantry during the Prohibition days though there were

although there was a lot of comical things happened along with the

serious affairs connected with moonshining. It is often

said if you walked on the street to Hancock at 3 o'clock in the morning you would

get drunk from the fumes coming out from underneath the from the basement windows.

Just about every other place in the COC was a moon chain joint.

But my first record recollections of in connection with Prohibition was

we went to Hancock when they had one of the

big roadster loaded with men came up the

front street and I stopped in front of what is now the Golden Pheasant

and they rushed inside and we could hear the glass tinkling and pretty

soon they started rolling up barrels of beer and chopping the heads out in the street. And of course

quite a large crowd gathered and the foam got thick as the beer ran

down the gutters and all the barflies in town were along there their

tongues hanging out. And they were really looking sad to see all

that beer being wasted. And then they.

Took their evidence and they took their prisoners over to the jail and in the next day I saw

them when they were going out they had stills along both sides of the car. Of course

the cars in those days had running boards so they had a place to tie the stills on.

But probably moonshining was

just common if somebody was sent to prison nobody know nobody pointed them

up as a convict after he came back he just got caught that one of the

hot spots was the other lake dance hall. Now at the time I had

a sandwich shop right down here on the highway and on the

nights when they had a dance I used to steal until about 4 or 5 in the morning and of

course I get all the stories.

The dancing was done between fights the most the evening was taken

up fighting and every time when they get tired of fighting with

and they'd do a little dancing and we passed

there we came across the burial Plains about midnight one time.

There must have been a hundred people out in front fighting and

all.

Stages of knockdown drag out and

there was a fielder level spot across the road so my brother said well we aren't going to stop and we pulled

out in the field and we circled the place and started off down the road.

We had enough of the other leg dancehall.

One thing I remember is when we used to have the surfaces

come everything ready and the barred circus

used to come to the kidney area. They played at the.

All. Morning driving part.

The carriage theatre was a beautiful theater and the appointments were

beautiful. The felt that they competed

favorably with any Theatre in Chicago and I

think that.

That all actors and actresses who came here felt that it was a real fine theatre

it we had of course a good many of the great here

we had Schumann I think we had Jim Melba and

Caruso. As artists as well

as a great many of the very fine actors and

actresses. The brain just several years ago. Not too many years ago and

it was a great loss to the copper country.

I remember going to the kid in the theater when I moved to seem Jerry

checked in one piece and Marion Davies movies and those

days I came to the theater here. Carson had the old curtains.

And if I remember correctly one of the curtains had a princess I wonder being

carried by our service and the

decorations around the Presidium arch were

garlands and roses and cherubs and I think some of the music is

now everything I remember in connection with beer is something

that is more or less unique to the cup of country although I did see a mention of it once

in our poll it was declined from I believe the Iron River

Michigan. And next a callus something and I

looked.

I've looked it up checking to find out just what it was because I didn't remember same either saying oh

there's a telephone and you know it's count something to do and that was our Fourth of July

for the copper country was at one time was a tremendous

area for circuses and big shows and

Brian Newman barely in Ringling Brothers you were came here regular.

And one time when my dad was the station agent

they brought him in Belize were to come to a hotel

and the

delegation from Hancock met them at the depot and I offered them

a thousand dollars just to cross the bridge and come to

him and that night after the show was over when my dad was

processing the circus train through he heard

them discussing it and they said that that was the biggest gate he ever

took.

In the history of their circus big do it of course but of the famous

characters of the area. He was only

8 feet 1 inch tall. He weighed about 400 pounds.

You are a shoe in size

18 he had

probably the tallest. Strongest

Man from in the area. He spent quite

some time with the circus

and was 30. I did my own thing and

I regret what I said I really loved him he loved one to him.

And whenever you come downtown shopping. He would drive us first.

The last time I saw him he was getting out of a buckboard in front of Home Rule

the story he had little vocal in. It's halfway between a shotgun pulling a full one horse.

And he'd picked up book one lift them shove it into the sidewalk and then pick up but it's too

warm to the horse lift him up on it and said No way. He was a big man.

The first train came in here for that red road came in here in

1883 well up till that

time everybody had a stock up in the wintertime.

My grandmother said she they got that I think

drawled the apple I don't know how many my

dad said they got in.

But in regard to the apples after they'd have those barrels a

couple of weeks then they'd open up the barrels and in the evening everybody

gathered around and they'd take out the apples individually out the barrel and they'd wipe them off

wipe the sweat off of the apple. And they were repacked. So they

kept all winter. But that is one of the big items I

suppose to prevent scurvy. And

cheese and butter all that

type of stuff had to be stored in for the winter because of flour cooking that a

lot of them stored their own and then they had a lot of stock from the

store and met the folks in them by spring when you

cut the cheese. You said even the Wigglers can have the cheese

and it is pretty right.

And Uncle I would said the bread and the and the

butter was strong enough to go down the dock and Pola pressure to have a butter up the

hill. But by

spring everybody was really anxiously waiting for the boat.

In the course they were short of supplies just about everything.

Whiskey was according to the records I got there.

Flying in the summer in the fall it ran maybe a dollar and seventy five to two dollars a

gallon.

And then through the books you'll notice it's going up to two and a quarter to him

and beg him to spring get around it was up to about $4 a gallon so that

was another big item that made a makeshift for the boats to see the boats

word would come through from the entry when they said the first boat

and then they knew they had a watch up on Quincy Hill in when

they see the sail of the boat coming into parted lake where then they get down to the

closest miner Malan the whistle started blowing and uncle will

say you have to be really on the jump to get out of the window the schoolhouse ahead of the

teacher because as a rule he was the first one out the window door open that

that was a decent day because they were expecting the boats.

Nobody bothered going through the doorway in because they knew the doorway would be crowded.

Everything stopped when the boats came. The whistle blew like crazy

and everybody headed for the docks and gramma said that you could

hear the clump of the hobnailed boots coming down over the rocky hills and we just did

a clatter. Everybody coming on the run to get down to the docks

and across they'd be down the docks along the head of the boat and it was regular

holiday spirit because nobody nobody was looking for a

fight. Everybody could say what they pleased and it was all a joke.

Come to. Our Fire tour and two years

ago and why we were there we ordered the gondola which took

quite a while to deliver.

And. It's as if they're like instrument which

developed from my Eunice string instrument into one which chance

can today be played in different keys and

it's about thirty six strings in it.

The subject of prehistoric copper mining and the miners particularly miners is

one that I can speak on freely because nobody knows anything about them.

We know that there are at least 4000 years ago. Maybe longer maybe since

that time. Above all we know we know they used cameras they

used and they made and they mined copper. And they

used fire mining which is heating up along

the vein carrying the copper with fire and then throwing water on it to

cause the rock to spawn off. Then they use the rock hammers to pound

it and liberate the copper and to form the artifacts that they made from it.

These people were smart they mind on every modernly

mind up here. They

were smart enough to know that by heating the corpora with them

Fire think and hammer it more without breaking. And they were

engineers geologists mechanical engineers

and metallurgist. So that they really were.

They really were smart people in some ways.

Santa was based on a prehistoric Indian diggings and I don't recall but what it clearly was

many of the Mayans we're talking about of course the great captain who was

founded on Indian diggings and the Indians uncovered

some things which led to further exploration in most of these mines.

Course we know that's true to the strike in

1913 14 supposedly started on July 25th

and in the middle of the middle of April in

1014. So it lasted about nine months and Siri

during the latter part of that there are say the last three months there were only a hard

core of the union members out on strike. And the earlier part

the very first weeks the mines were completely closed down.

That was the AK excuse of course for calling in the militia the National Guard the National

Guard was called in the community.

And.

Operated all along the range they were stationed clear down as far as mass

as far north ridge is up into key when all county he went to county mines in operation and clear up

as far as more. And the National Guard. The

Donald Massey situation turned up the most rapidly. That's the

masses and not going county and the mines throughout Horton County

also had the National Guard stationed in them with some vigorous

activities by the union members and the more active in the union

members. One of the complicating factors was the employment by the mining

companies and by the sheriffs of what were no one as used to be

known in popular products as the Pinkertons. Actually these were

Waddell Mohan men or ash or agency man

employed by them as mine guards. In the case of the sheriff they were

employed as instructors to his deputies.

They shot up a boarding house in pain and they killed two of the boarders in

bed and.

The Citizens Alliance went to our meek and they dragged the

people out of their own homes and beat them up and they are dead

and these Waddell man where I think they were it

seemed to be the hot spot and the town marshal

said that they came to his house and entered his house

and took his own service revolver and they put him

under arrest for having a

concealed weapon and they took him to court and Amit the

next day.

And of course the Waddell men were wearing guns and he was the marshal of

the soon as we get them in court he put them under arrest for carrying guns in the city in the

town of Amit that he

said that the they they just

needled the people they go into the bar and they

shove the men along the bar and they just try and invite trouble because they were

armed and everywhere they went.

They just want everybody to know that they were ready for a

fight. They blocked the roads and insult the the

men going by and try to egg them into a fight.