QUESTION: In 1915, there was a significant settlement on Middle Island, including a machine shop, a boarding house for the more than 100 men employed there, two tugboats, a locomotive and a long dock. What were the men employed in doing?

A. Cutting stone for the breakwater at the lower harbor.

B. Cutting railroad ties for the tracks to Big Bay.

C. Building the area’s first coal-powered electrical plant.

D. Building a series of large steam-heated greenhouses to grow blueberries year around.

ANSWER: A. Thousands of tons of rock were removed from the south side of the island. The Marquette Regional History Center’s Kevin Boyer remembered watching from Middle Island Point as divers searched underwater for boulders of the right size and shape to fill the cribs.