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

30 years ago

GWINN — It was shortly before noon when Nancy Burdick set her change purse on the bumper of her car at the Kountry Korner gas station in Gwinn while she poured in a quart of oil. She slammed the hood and drove to a friend’s home in Little Lake. When she arrived, the purse was gone. About $188 — her rent money for the month — was in the purse. “My first thought was eviction,” she said. A single mother, Burdick works at the Silver Spoon Restaurant in Gwinn. The lost money was about two weeks’ pay, she said. She returned to the gas station and asked inside, but no purse. She retraced the route, looking on both sides of the road until she had to start work at 2 p.m. Out of desperation she called the Forsyth Township Police, who had her purse. Richard Weeks of Skandia, who works for Michigan Bell, found it on the side of the road near Little Lake and turned it in at the nearby Brown’s Store. A police officer picked it up and found another $10 in the bushes. Burdick said she recovered $159 — the rest apparently blew into the woods. Week’s wife wasn’t surprised by his honesty. “He’s one of the original nice guys,” she said.

90 years ago

ISHPEMING — There are fishermen and fisherwomen whipping trout streams in Marquette county this season, but it is doubtful if there is, anywhere in the Upper Peninsula, a grandmother who is adept in the art of fly fishing. Ishpeming undoubtedly possesses the only 88-year-old woman to take out a fishing license, and she uses it regularly. Anna Soderback of East Division Street is an expert trout fisherwoman and, despite her age, she enjoys the sport. Soderback goes fishing with her grandson Eric Baka, who is 30 years old. On his return home after their first day on the streams, he reported that “grandma sure knows her stuff.” Her catch was equal to that of her grandson.