EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

SAULT STE. MARIE — The spring shipping season opens in full swing, with the Army Corps of Engineers breaking the ice on the Soo Locks on March 21. Lake Huron traffic will warm up a week before that, with Lafarge Corp. in Alpena taking one of its cement carriers out of winter storage at River Rouge on March 16.

The ship will work its way north to Lafarge’s cement plant in Alpena. A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker will plow through the Soo Locks and up through Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay to open the way for coal and iron ore carriers. But Corps of Engineers district Engineer Harold Lawson said he expects little difficulty with the ice.

“Lake Superior is not froze over and the tracks left by the last boasts through the ice in Whitefish Bay on Jan 15 are still out there,” he said. “It won’t be as hard for them to reopen those tracks.”

60 years ago

UPPER PENINSULA — Contributions to the Bishop’s Relief Fund collection to be taken up in all Catholic churches of Upper Michigan this Sunday will enable contributors, as individual Americans, to join in a global food sharing campaign in which the United States government and people-to-people agencies are partners in meeting human need.

This observation was made this week by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. David Spelgatti, Bishop’s Fund director. “Mountains of surplus food have already been channeled to a valleys of want overseas by the voluntary agencies of the American people,” he said. “Your gift to Catholic Relief Services of the National Catholic Welfare Conference is your way to join in the war against hunger crusade of the 60’s.”