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

30 years ago

MUNISING – The Alger County Board will meet with U.S. Forest Service officials today to discuss its continued involvement in Grand Island user group talks. The Forest Service is drafting a management plan for the 13,500-acre national recreation area. They’re currently receiving input from a number of user groups for that process. The board’s representative, Munising businessman Bud Morrison, charged the Forest Service ignored a request for a bus tour on the island and urged the board last week to withdraw from the process. Morrison also represents the Alger Chamber of Commerce, which recently pulled out of the talks in protest. The county board voted to meet with the Forest Service and Morrison to gather information. The Forest Service will send its recommendations for the island to Hiawatha Forest Supervisor Bill Spinner in October. He’ll decide the island’s future course and release information in January.

60 years ago

MARQUETTE – Northern Michigan University’s Fine and Practical Arts Building will be ready for occupancy this fall. The new $2,650,000 structure will house the Departments of Music, Art, Dramatic Arts, Home Economics and Industrial Arts. The building contains classrooms, an auditorium, laboratories, studios, offices, and workshops. It will provide badly needed facilities for a student body which has increased 370 percent in the past 10 years. Designed to provide close proximity of the departments while permitting a wide variety of functions, the building is zoned into three major areas connected by foyers and corridors. The auditorium on the east adjoins the three-level central unit which connects with the industrial arts unit to the west. The auditorium will seat 550 people in a continental seating arrangement which utilizes the best areas for seating and the sides for aisles. The auditorium will have its own storage, makeup, and dressing rooms. The music area will include studios, practice rooms, classrooms, a music library, study hall, instrument storage space, and instrumental and choral rehearsal rooms. The home economics section will contain a home management room, nutrition laboratory, and areas for foods, clothing, home furnishings, and family relations courses. Contained in the art section are a large studio, classrooms for art practice and theory, fundamentals and lettering, and workrooms. The industrial arts unit will contain classrooms, material testing laboratory, separate areas for drawing and design and graphic arts, a power mechanics room, foundry and welding areas, and work areas.