This is an aerial view of the former Cliffs Dow Chemical Company, circa 1940, along Lakeshore Boulevard in the city of Marquette. (Photo courtesy of Jack Deo)

By CHRISTIE

MASTRIC

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — A Northern Michigan University history professor is working on an oral history research project to document the lives of the people who were part of the Cliffs Dow Chemical Company operation.

Sarah Mittlefehldt, a professor in the NMU Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, is researching the history of biofuel production in the U.S., specifically biofuels that can be produced from wood waste and residuals.

Mittlefehldt said she recently learned that the Cliffs Dow Chemical Company, which had been located along Lakeshore Boulevard, was once the world’s largest and longest-running wood distillery in the U.S. from 1935 to 1968, when the company closed.

“I thought, well, this is amazing,” she said. “It’s right in my backyard, and it ties to my interest in biofuel production and sort of the deeper history with these technologies.”

She at least has a start in the research.

Mittlefehldt noted that the papers of R. Wesley Jenner, former Cliffs Dow president, are in the NMU Archives.

Then there’s the Marquette community.

“There are still people who live in our community who worked there or live near there,” said Mittlefehldt, who pointed out it would be a good way for her research students to learn how to conduct interviews.

On her Facebook page, Mittlefehldt indicated that interviews will be conducted with herself and student researchers at the place of the interviewee’s choosing, typically a public space such as a room at the Peter White Public Library or a room on campus at NMU. The interviews will be recorded digitally and interviewees will be provided with paper copies of the final transcripts if desired. Through collaboration with the Central Upper Peninsula and NMU Archives, transcripts and sound files will be made available to researchers at the archives and online via the Upper Peninsula Digital Network, she wrote on her page. As per Oral History Association guidelines, all interviewees retain the right to review and edit their interview transcript before the final version is deposited and, if they wish, to place restrictions on the availability of the interview.

Already, Mittlefehldt has received a lot of support on the project, with many well-wishers expressing their support on Facebook and giving tips on who to contact.

Mittlefehldt hopes to start the interviews this fall and finish the project by the end of the academic year.

She said that she has talked with Marcus Robyns, university archivist, and Betsy Rutz and Beth Gruber, educator and research librarian, respectively, at the Marquette Regional History Center, about ways they can collaborate.

“The goal is to record these interviews and have them in the NMU Archives for future researchers and people who want to hear about this fascinating story,” Mittlefehldt said.

Images of the former Cliffs Dow site, she noted, show how extensive it was at the time.

“They have nine to 11 different rail lines that were coming in and bringing wood,” Mittlefehldt said. “Charcoal was the main thing that they were creating there, but there was a methanol with a byproduct that was their second major product that they made.

“So, I’m really interested in the distilling of wood to produce what today we would call biofuel, but back then they just called it methanol,” Mittlefehldt said.

Most of methanol now comes through fossil fuels, but people now are shifting away from that source, she said.

She said the project is being funded through a Grace H. Magnaghi Research Grant. According to NMU, grant monies are given to further scholarly research about the history and culture of the Upper Peninsula and to aid the researcher with some of the expenses incurred in this endeavor.

Grace Magnaghi was a Californian, but fell in love with the U.P. and wanted to help preserve its history, said Russell Magnaghi, her son and a historian and NMU professor emeritus, in an email.

“Thus I am pleased to see that she has received the award, which will preserve an aspect of U.P. history and development,” Magnaghi said. “In the past, numerous individuals have received the award and have gone on to see their work published in book form and in journal articles.”

Mittlefehldt said are costs to be incurred, for example, through interviews and to rent out a conference room.

Anyone who knows of someone affiliated with Cliffs Dow is urged to contact Mittlefehldt at 906-227-1442 or smittlef@nmu.edu.

“I’m hoping that (with) this project, we can use the past to inform current debates about what are some of the social and some of the environmental consequences of using wood for biofuel,” Mittlefehldt said.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.