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

30 years ago

WAKEFIELD — Great Lakes Gas Transmission Co., which operates 131 miles of pipeline and a compressor station in Gogebic County, is marking its 25th anniversary next month, officials said this week. Great Lakes, based in Detroit, operates a 1,960-mile pipeline that transports Canadian natural gas for delivery to customers in the United States and eastern Canada. It is owned by companies in Houston, Texas, and Alberta, Canada. The company in 1991 completed a two-year, $525 million expansion program that increased the pipeline system’s capacity from 1.5 billion-cubit feet per day to 2 billion. It was the biggest expansion in company history. The pipeline runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It traverses much of the southern Upper Peninsula, from Wakefield to St. Ignace, with a connection north to Sault Ste. Marie. It then heads south into the Lower Peninsula. The company said in a statement it would mark its anniversary with a series of receptions at Great Lakes facilities.

60 years ago

SAULT STE. MARIE — The first vehicle, a bus packed with various officials, crossed the new $20 million International Bridge today. The bridge is scheduled to open to general traffic between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, but officials of the American and Canadian Soos decided to cross the span on a test run today. Concrete pouring was finished last week, but work remains to be done on railings and approaches. The bridge links this Upper Michigan city with its Ontario namesake and will eliminate ferry boat trips across the St. Mary’s River. The span is a joint project of the United States and Canada. The Michigan State Highway Department if building the American approach while the Canadian approach is being built by the province of Ontario. The structure itself is under the supervision of the International Bridge Authority, a joint Canadian-American organization. Persons seeing the bridge for the first time are surprised by its roller-coaster appearance. It rises to clear the ship canals on the American side of the Soo Locks, descends to a lower level through the middle part of its span, then rises again to clear a canal on the Canadian side.