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 Houghton County
Houghton is one of three counties comprising the Copper Country. The other two are Keweenaw to the north and Ontonagon to the south. Baraga County, to the southeast is also often considered part of the Copper Country. The region gained its name from the deposits of copper mined from 1844 to 1968. Although French Canadians also migrated to these neighboring Copper Country counties, most of them lived in Houghton County.
Unlike the first wave of French Canadian immigrants, the second wave did not participate in the fur trade. Most of them came to Michigan to work in the lumber trade or as surface workers in the copper or iron mines. The regions they moved to were the western end of the Upper Peninsula, the largest numbers settling in Houghton County.
Some adventurous French Canadians deserted the dying fur trade and moved into the Copper Country in the mid-1840's, as soon as the copper range was opened. However, most of them did not start to migrate to Houghton County until the end of the Civil War.
On March 9, 1843, a law of the Michigan Legislature was passed dividing the Upper Peninsula into six counties, Michimackinac, Chippewa, Schoolcraft, Ontonagon, Delta and Marquette. On March 19, 1845, this act was amended and Houghton County was established from parts of Marquette, Schoolcraft and Ontonagon Counties.
Houghton County was named for Professor Douglass Houghton, a geologist and mayor of Detroit.
Beginning in the year 1849, all meetings of the Board of Supervisors were recorded as being held in Houghton County. From 1849 to 1853 the meetings were held in the office of the County Clerk in the Phoenix Copper Company building at Phoenix Mine. Beginning in October, Eagle River was identified as the County Seat, but it was not legally established as such until October 10, 1856.
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When the 1861 Legislature separated Keweenaw County from Houghton County and provided that Houghton County’s County Seat be established in Portage Township, the village of Houghton became the County Seat. The first Board Meeting held there was on May 25, 1861, in the office of Richard Edwards. Meetings were later held in a room in the Post Office which was also the place used for County Offices.
On March 11, 1861, Keweenaw County was set off from Houghton County by an act of Legislature. The 128th Act of the session of the Legislature, 1861 gave several townships to Houghton County as payment for the separation of Keweenaw County.
On July 21, 1862 a contract was let for the construction of a Courthouse, Jail and Sheriff’s quarters to be built on Block 28, Houghton, the site of the present Courthouse. This was used until 1887 when the present Courthouse was constructed at a cost of $75,568.00. The building contained the jail and Sheriff’s quarters, but by 1961 the building had deteriorated to the point where the jail was declared hazardous and was condemned. A new jail was constructed in 1963, adjacent to the Courthouse, at a cost of $200,000.00.
In the Legislature of 1863 an Act No. 239, was passed giving 1,280 acres of swamp land to Houghton & Keweenaw Counties as payment for completing each mile of the Mineral Range State Road from Point Keweenaw to the Village of Copper Harbor in Keweenaw County. The patent for such lands was issued to the Board of Supervisors of each county upon the satisfactory completion of ten miles of such road. By this Act, the Board of Supervisors of Houghton County obtained 29,541 acres of land located in the counties of Baraga, Dickinson, Houghton, Iron, Marquette, Keweenaw, Menominee and Gogebic.
Encouraged by the boom in Michigan's copper country the Houghton County Traction Company was started in 1900. It was the only true interurban line in the Upper Peninsula. Construction began in the spring and service began in November of that year over the initial trackage connecting Houghton and Boston. By 1901, the line was extended to Calumet. The main line from Hancock and Houghton to Calumet was about 16 miles in length. The last construction was completed in 1908 to the north side of Mohawk.
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