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

30 years ago

HOUGHTON — Michigan Technological University has established a Technology Action Center to provide technical assistance to Michigan companies and to market the expertise available through technical units on the school’s campus. Elsie White, currently the head of MTU’s Bureau of Industrial Development’s technical assistance program, will oversee the new center. She will be assisted by a program associate, a technical writer and a research engineer. One of the center’s projects will be to explore the possible uses of the university’s mineral processing pilot plant and its new isostatic press, which allows high-technology components to be made from metal or ceramic powders.

60 years ago

MACKINAC ISLAND — You might check your attic for a small yellow pamphlet published in 1854 on the history of Mackinac Island. If you find a copy, it’s worth $1,500 on the rare book market. The title of the volume is “Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac, Including an Account of the Controversy between Mackinac and the Mormons.” W.S. Woodfill, operator of the Grand Hotel on the Mackinac Island, is the authority for the price. Woodfill said there are only two known copies of the 1854 edition in Michigan libraries, one at the University of Michigan and the other at the Burton Historical Collection in Detroit. The pamphlet was written by James Strang, head of the Beaver Island Mormon colony, who told of his struggles with the “Gentiles” on Mackinac Island. Woodfill recently published a 500-copy reprint of the account edited by George S. May of the State Historical Commission.