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

30 years ago

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech in Houghton and Mobitech Corp. of Germany have developed a method for removing nitrates from ground water. Two methods are currently used to remove nitrates, which have been a problem in ground water for many years, said Krishna Podila, professor of biology at Tech. One method uses chemicals, but leaves chemical waste behind and is very expensive. The other uses microorganisms to naturally degrade the nitrates, but is very slow. Tech’s method uses nitrate reductase, an enzyme produced by certain microorganisms and plants that also reduces nitrates to nitrogen gas. “The particular enzyme that is used in this process comes from the leaves of corn plants,” said Podila. The enzyme was isolated by Wilbur Campbell, professor of biology and director of the phytotechnology research center at Tech.

60 years ago

ISLE ROYALE — Minnesota Gov. Elmer L. Andersen says that Minnesota should “sort of take over” Isle Royale, 20 miles off the Minnesota shore in Lake Superior. Isle Royale is a national park which technically lies within the boundaries of Michigan, but it is much closer to Minnesota than to Michigan. Politically, it is a part of Keweenaw County. By “take over,” Andersen means the promotion of the resort island as “a Minnesota asset” and the transfer of the National Park Service headquarters for administration of the island from its present site in Houghton to Grand Portage, Minn. The governor made the statement in a talk delivered recently in Grand Marais, Minn. Anyone who asks the National Park Service how to get to Isle Royale is advised to take the excursion boat from Houghton, but nobody mentions that the island can be reached from Grand Portage, Gov. Andersen said. Paul LeGarde, senior member of the Grand Portage Indian Band Council, said the “million-dollar excursion boat should operate out of Grand Portage as well as Houghton.” Smaller boats now are available for island trips from Grand Portage. The Isle Royale proposal was one of several put forth for luring new tourists to the northeastern tip of the Minnesota Arrowhead. The National Park Service now administers a pre-Revolutionary War trading post stockade at Grand Portage as a national monument.