Local history books, many written by Upper Peninsula authors, are gathered together in the Michigan Non-fiction section on the library’s top floor. If you want to know about the history of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Russell M. Magnaghi, long-time history professor at Northern Michigan University, has spent years writing books about many aspects of life in the region. Magnaghi is now retired from NMU, but continues to write about the people and economic forces that settled the northern regions of the Great Lakes, especially the Upper Peninsula.

Hot off the presses, “Apple Culture In The Upper Peninsula Of Michigan And Wisconsin Border” (910.4 ST) co-authored by David J. Smith is about Upper Peninsula agriculture. When the U.P. was being settled in the 1800’s, apple orchards were planted to promote and encourage farming. Apple orchards were found in every U.P. county, and some of the more successful farms are mentioned. In the twentieth century, the Cohodas Brothers Company dominated the distribution of fresh produce (including apples) in almost every U.P. grocery store until they sold the business in 1977. The last pages of the book provide some heritage apple recipes to try in your own U.P. kitchen.

“Upper Peninsula Beer: A History Of Brewing Above The Bridge” (641.873 MA) is filled with a full circle of information from colonial times when beer was brewed in homes, to the age of mega-breweries in the industrialized 1800’s, and back again to the emergence of micro-breweries that began in the Upper Peninsula in the1970’s and are part of the craft beer movement today. This book also has a small section on the Era of Prohibition in Michigan.

Adding the distillation of liquor to the business of beer brewing, “Prohibition In The Upper Peninsula: Booze & Bootleggers On The Border” (364.1332 MA) encompasses the prohibition years in Michigan. The era of prohibition began with the Volstead Act in 1919 and stretched across the years to 1933. During that time, illegal beer and liquor establishments replaced formerly legal ones and led to criminal activities such as bootlegging, bribery, and prostitution.

“The Way It Happened: Settling Michigan’s Upper Peninsula” (977.49 MA), written in 1982, is a collection of short chapters covering unusual topics that make up the civilized history of the U.P. The book starts with Indian treaties, slavery by the French, and attempts at assimilation into European culture. It moves on to a trio of earthquakes in the early 1900’s, immigration patterns, iron ore mining, and the impact of two World Wars on the area.

“Upper Peninsula Of Michigan: A History” (977.49 MA), written in 2017, is an updated and in-depth history of the U.P. It explains the politics of the fur trade, the importance of the straits of Mackinac, the American Revolution, the ethnic diversity of Sault Ste. Marie, becoming a state, the Civil War, copper and iron mining as widespread industries, the timber and fishing industries, and economic survival after the mineral resources were removed by the mid-1900s.

“Feeding The Furnaces: A History Of Marquette’s Iron Ore Dock No. 6” (385.0973 MA) includes the history of iron ore mining in the area, and covers the chronology of Marquette’s Lower Harbor ore dock from its construction in 1931 to its present day status as a downtown icon. The text is supplemented with historical photographs.

True to its title, “Miners, Merchants, And Midwives: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Italians” (977.49 MA) surveys all aspects of Italian American life in the Upper Peninsula. Fifteen short chapters cover Italian immigration in the western and central U.P, including churches, social clubs, Italian-owned businesses and how iron ore mining was at the heart of it all. From the publication of Magnaghi’s first books in the 1980s to today, readers will find interesting text and numerous vintage photographs that bring the stories to life.

By Lynette Suckow

Reference Department