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

30 years ago

GWINN — From the air, the Pike Lake shoreline this Fourth of July will probably look like a living breathing, waving American Flag. Actually, it will be the Korpis, the Miljours and the Larsons — 300 strong — each clan wearing a red, white or blue T-shirt to their 50th family reunion. They will repeat what the original 30 relatives did at Gwinn Tourist Park on July 4, 1940. On that day, George and Alvina Miljour, John and Sanna Larson, and John and Olga Korpi did what most other people in America were probably doing that day — getting together with their families for a picnic. Sanna and John were brother and sister, and all three couples were related through their married children. Thirty people played horseshoes, swam, and shared stories and salads that day. What they didn’t know was that their growing families would continue the tradition every single year. In 1948, Florence and her brother Edwin Larson moved the reunion to their neighboring cottages on Pike Lake near Gwinn. Florence said keeping track of the growing families is not difficult. “They all know about it and just show up every Fourth of July.”

60 years ago

MARQUETTE–Marquette area residents will have their last chance to have free chest x-rays taken during the current mobile health clinic, when the mobile unit will set up at the Palestra from 2 to 8 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. It will then go to Negaunee to wind up its three-week county stay. Miss Mary Murray, field nurse for the Morgan Heights Sanatorium, urges everyone 18 years of age and older who has not yet had a chest x-ray taken to take advantage of the mobile unit facilities. She pointed out that it is unnecessary to remove any clothing and the entire process is speedy. In addition to discovering tuberculosis in its early stages, which is one of the principal goals of the survey, unknown cases of lung cancer and heart conditions can also be detected.