Baraga County

In 1832, Methodists founded a mission at Kewawenon, aimed at converting the Indians. Eleven years later, Frederic Baraga established a Catholic mission for his Indian converts, a complex which includes the 1860 Old St. Joseph Orphanage and School, which still stands.

Baraga County is named after Frederic Baraga (1797-1868), who served as the first Bishop of the Diocese of Upper Michigan. Residents of Baraga County honored the bishop in 1875 when they named their county after him.

These two Christian missions were the only settlements in the area until 1871, when an agent for the American Fur Company platted L’Anse, and the Marquette, Houghton & Ontonagon Railroad was formed.

In the 1879, Thomas Nestor established a mill in Pequaming and, shortly afterwards built another one nearby. Soon his venture boasted a fleet of ships exporting lumber. However, by the 1910s, it became difficult to find lumber that could be easily transported.

Seeing opportunity and feeling a need to diversify, auto magnate Henry Ford bought up large holdings from the Michigan Land and Iron Company, centering his own lumber operations in L’Anse, incorporating the old lumber mills as well as the entire village of Pequaming. As automobiles were then manufactured using a great deal of wood, Ford was particularly interested in having his own supply of lumber.

When automobile production slowed during the depression, and the automobiles began to be made of metal rather than wood, the lumber industry in Baraga County declined. Ford sold his properties in the area in 1942, and Pequaming declined into a ghost town.