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

30 years ago

ISHPEMING — After a long, hard struggle to buy a monument to fallen comrades and get permission to place it on post office property, Ishpeming area veterans say they now need to raise more funds. The Greater Ishpeming Area Veteran’s Council met Tuesday to discuss how to raise an estimated $6,000 to fund lighting, landscaping and flagpoles that will surround the monument. The need to raise the money won’t affect plans to dedicate the monument on Memorial Day as planned, said Steve Guichin, commander of VFW Post 4573. He said the council hopes to raise the money by selling 4-by-8-inch bricks in a “Walk of Honor” that will encircle the monument. The bricks will sell for $25 each and include the donor’s name. The group has already paid for the $7,500 monument and $7,200 cost of installation through its own fund-raising efforts. Two weeks ago, the US Postal Service agreed to sell land for the monument to the city after 16 months of waiting and a letter-writing campaign by Ishpeming City Manager Helen St. Aubin and the veterans.

60 years ago

KI SAWYER — IBM will have a 70-man force of electronic specialists assigned to K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, it was announced today. The specialist team will be headed by Russell A. Cox, who will make his home here. The engineers will install and maintain IBM’s giant SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) computer at Sawyer. IBM’s plans for field engineering at Sawyer, headquarters for the Sault Ste. Marie Air Defense Sector, were announced at a meeting of company officials with Marquette Chamber of Commerce representatives, real estate company representatives and civic leaders. “[The] Heart of the SAGE system is the computer,” Cox said, “it is tied in with a network of land based radar, Texas Towers, airborne radar, coastal picket ships, aircraft and missiles for split-second detection, tracking and interception. IBM’s responsibility is to maintain the computers which the company engineers, builds, and tests so the complex machines operate effectively and continuously at the SAGE sites.” Cox said the field engineers “will be working in three shifts, around-the-clock, every day to fulfill that responsibility.”