30 years ago

MUNISING — Postmaster James Byrne will issue a special mail cancellation today to commemorate the city’s first 100 years. The 8:30 a.m. event at city hall is one of several events today kicking off the city’s year-long centennial celebration. A centennial birthday party is planned for 7 p.m. at Central Elementary School followed by a cakewalk and a flashlight parade through town. The city was founded in the late 1800s after developers built smelters to produce pig iron from ra ore mined on the Marquette Iron Range, said Fred Rydholm, a regional historian from Marquette. The city’s name comes from a misspelling of the Algonquin work “Minissing,” which means near the island.

60 years ago

MARQUETTE — One of the most impressive gathering of educators in the history of the Upper Peninsula will be held here Monday. The Conference on Improvement of Education in the U.P. will be held at Northern Michigan University, with Vice President Humbert Humphrey highlighting the luncheon program by delivering the principal address. Needs in three major areas of school reorganization (districting), vocational (job) education and elementary and secondary education and its relationship to the new federal aids for such schooling will be aired.