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

30 years ago

WASHINGTON — Northern Michigan University will receive $500,000 in federal funding to buy computer hardware and software for a system that links computer technology with community planning, according to U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee. The system includes many different types of data that are combined into a special map that will answer a series of questions about a community. The equipment is considered a major teaching and research tool for NMU faculty, students and other U.P. residents, Stupak said. “It will help community planners, city and state governments to solve problems such as locating landfill sites and analyzing groundwater resources,” he added.

60 years ago

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Abrams Aerial Survey Corp. of Lansing has been granted a $55,000 contract by the U.S. Forest Service for aerial photography of all timber in the Upper Peninsula. George S. James, regional forester, said the survey is part of federal efforts to intensify the Upper Peninsula forest inventory on a county-by-county basis. James said up-to-date aerial photographs will be key steps toward “showing industries what the Upper Peninsula has to offer.” Using the photographs, the Lake States Forest Experiment Station will direct field work of the survey starting next spring. The field survey will follow photo-interpretation, locating and measuring timber on ground plots determined from the aerial pictures. Counties to be surveyed from the air this summer are Marquette, Menominee, Dickinson, all of Keweenaw except Isle Royale, Houghton, Ontonagon, Gogebic and Iron that lie outside the gross boundaries of the Ottawa National Forest. The other Upper Peninsula counties will be air-surveyed from mid-June to mid-September in 1964.