Historic Birch Lodge, Trout Lake. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

It’s Thanksgiving Week and whether you have canned or fresh, jelly or whole berry, cranberries will most likely have their place on your table. Cranberries are one of the few fruits that are native to North America, along with blueberries and concord grapes.

The cranberry of commerce [Vaccinium macrocarpon] is a low growing, trailing, woody evergreen vine. Berries are borne on short vertical shoots called uprights. An upright can grow erect for one or two seasons before its weight bends the shoot downward and new vertical growth is produced at the tip or from axillary (side) buds along the stem. Runners grow horizontally. In very vigorous beds runners may also grow across the tops of vines. Later these runners may produce uprights from axillary (side) buds.

Cranberries are nearly 90% water and have small pockets of air inside of them, which causes them to float easily. While many people envision cranberries floating in pools of water, they actually grow in marshes. Excellent drainage is essential during the active growing season for proper root growth and function. Typically, cranberry beds are bordered by drainage ditches to allow water to drain from the beds. Only when it’s time for harvest do farmers flood the bogs with water, releasing the berries from their vines.

Wild cranberries were an important food source for Native Americans. An early account from 1672 describes Native Americans and European settlers “boyling [sic] them [cranberries] with sugar for a sauce to eat with their meat.” More than a century later in a 1796 cookbook, American Cookery, author Amelia Simmons suggests pairing roast turkey with cranberry sauce and boiled onions, one of the earliest documented appearances of the combination.

Reportedly, early settlers thought cranberry blossoms resembled the head of a crane, hence the name “crane berry,” which was later shortened to cranberry. Cranberry blossoms are pretty, delicate, pink flowers that bloom in late June through early July.

Cranberry cultivation began in 1816 in Massachusetts, where Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall found that covering cranberry bogs with sand fertilized the vines and retained water around their roots. Traditionally, cranberries were picked by hand but in the 19th century, a cranberry rake, a hand-held tool with a large comb at one end and a basket on the other, improved harvesting. The rake allowed leaves and stems to pass through the tines of the comb while collecting the berries in the basket.

Wisconsin now leads the world in cranberry production, boasting about 21,000 acres of cranberry vines and growing more than half of the world’s supply. Michigan has considerably less land under cultivation for cranberries, but the oldest cranberry farm in the state is the Centennial Cranberry Farm. Located north of Paradise, near the tip of Whitefish Point, the farm was established by John Clarke in the mid-1870s.

Different sources claim that the land was purchased by Clarke on July 4, 1874, and July 4, 1876. Given that the farm was named after the United States Centennial, the later 1876 date seems more accurate. Clarke had visited the area previously and noticed the wild cranberries growing there. At the time, cranberries were selling for $3.00 a bushel, making them a profitable crop.

Three miles west of Whitefish Point, near a small inland lake, “Little Lake,” Clark built a small home, along with his friend and business partner Alex Barclay. They, along with their wives, Priscilla and Jerusha, and John’s nephew, William H. Clarke, began preparing the land for cranberry cultivation. It takes about three years after planting cranberries before they begin to bear much fruit, so the men resorted to fishing and cutting firewood to support their families in the meantime.

Once the cranberries were producing a decent crop, they hired Native Americans from Garden River and Sugar Island to come help with the harvest, picking by hand. Within a few years, the farm shifted to flooding the fields to allow for easier harvesting.

In the early 1880s, John’s brother James M. Clarke, and half-brother, Frank House, moved to Whitefish Point to help with the cranberry farm. Then, in 1888, John Clarke and his brother-in-law, W.B. Quigley, established a second cranberry farm near the Vermillion Point Life Saving Station, seven miles away.

John’s nephew William ran the Vermillion cranberry operation from 1889 until 1898. In 1897 the farm produced 1600 bushels off twenty acres. After William left to join the life-saving service in 1899, John bought out his brother-in-law and operated the farm until his death in 1914 at the age of 67. Following his death, the Vermillion farm went back to wilderness and the cranberry vines were choked out.

Back on the original farm near Whitefish Point, Frank House bought out his half-brother, John Clark in 1905. Frank’s youngest son, George, eventually took over the farm, followed by his son and daughter-in-law, Loren and Sharon House. By the early 2000s, the farm was producing up to 80 tons of cranberries in a good year. The berries were sent to a processing plant in Wisconsin, where they eventually ended up in juices sold in Wal-Mart stores under the Sam’s brand label.

After nearly 150 years, Centennial Farm continues operations under the descendants of the House family. They are open for tours during harvesting season, late September into October.