BIG BAY — On a rocky ledge overhanging the shoreline of Ives Lake in the Huron Mountain Club stands John M. Longyear’s summer home, known simply as the “Stone House.”
It’s a fitting title for a structure built of granite, some of which was blasted from the rocky cliffs across the lake and hauled across its icy surface by sled in the winter of 1901. Aside from the granite, all of the building materials were shipped the 35 miles from Marquette on Longyear’s naphtha launch, the “Abby.” The crew estimated they traveled 4,800 miles back and forth shuttling materials for the building project that year.
Longyear was an entrepreneur in mining and lumbering. He was also a founding member of the Huron Mountain Club and the Marquette County Historical Society — but it was another dream that caused him to buy acreage around Ives Lake, with its fresh, clear water, five sandy beaches and surrounding fertile soil. Always an adventurer, he was determined to farm the north woods.
He first began exploring the property in 1893, saying later in his memoirs that “the rich soil tempted one to make a farm.”
The first family cabin at Ives Lake was built in 1897 of hewn logs, and was divided into two rooms, with women housed on one side and men on the other. The 16-foot by 24-foot rustic cabin was quickly outgrown by the six Longyear children, family and friends who visited.
The Stone House was built with a 6-foot fireplace in the expansive living room, a kitchen meant for entertaining, 11 bedrooms on the second floor and a veranda that stretched along three sides of the structure for endless summer days by the lake. The house was decorated with items the Longyears brought back with them on their many travels to Europe.
Upon completion of the Stone House, a housewarming party was held in the summer of 1902. Friends from the Huron Mountain Club arrived after rowing through the Pine Lakes, hiking up the River Styx trail, then crossing Ives Lake by a steam launch. Although the fashions of that time were not very conducive to that type of travel, they could not resist the huge smorgasbord lunch on the veranda and the chance to see the new house.
After determining how much work it took to bring supplies to Ives Lake, Longyear purchased a sawmill in 1902 in order to build a new workmen’s dormitory, caretaker’s house, horse barn, cow barn, and a milk building — all from dead lumber on the property. In keeping with his dream, he created a working farm with fruit trees, alfalfa, chestnuts, vegetables, chickens, trout, and a dairy operation, called “Emblagaard.”
Longyear wrote in his memoirs in 1912, “My original intention in this enterprise was to make a sort of hunting camp, and do farming enough to keep one man and his family reasonably busy, but, like most of my enterprises, it seemed to grow from small beginnings to an important size. There are now on the place twenty-three buildings and the enterprise furnishes constant employment for from fifteen to forty men.”
Today, the Stone House is the headquarters of the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation, an organization dedicated to the scientific study of the flora, fauna, lands and waters of the Lake Superior region.
Anyone who would enjoy an afternoon touring the summer home and farm of John M. Longyear can join the Marquette County History Museum for a fund-raiser June 8. John Case, Longyear’s great-grandson, will give a guided historical tour of the property and share family stories. The event also includes a hike to Breakfast Roll for a panoramic view of Ives Lake and the Huron Mountains.
Tickets are $75 per person and support the museum’s current operating expenses. A limited number of tickets are available. Call 226-3571 or go to the museum’s Web site, marquettecohistory.org for more information.
