Between the whiskey and the tea, we might have been swimming in a toddy. The Huron Mountain Club is a massive tract of privately-owned land northwest of Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula. long, one-lane span across the Dead River. Dan took the plunge more eagerly, doing a double-jump off the ancient diving board. 13 things we learned about the Huron Mountain Club. "You had to travel almost to Big Bay, and there was a little cabin with a phone on a table. It was during this time industrialist Henry Ford had purchased hundreds Still somewhat secretive today, the Huron Mountain Club is a private reserve occupying about 20,000 acres of timberland and lakes in the Huron Mountains, a small chain that rises to about 2000 feet on the east side of Keewenaw Bay, part of Lake Superior. The Employee Experience When Michigans state trunklines were first laid out and built in the nineteen teens, highway planners deliberately avoided running them along the Great Lakes shorelines, likely for winter driving safety. The group spent the week circling around two questions: When is knowledge proprietary? The Fabled Huron Mountain Club. The club is expensive to run, and the dues match. Drivers education wouldnt be required for years to come. The reason for all this, of course, is and was moneyhow to pay for all this? The club was founded to establish a remote hunting and fishing club for outdoor enthusiasts. 906 345-9323, Conflict of Interest Policy | Ford also was fond of the fresh waters of Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay. number you provided, including marketing by autodialer and prerecorded and artificial voice, and It was in 1917 that Ford first tried to join the Huron Mountain Club, unsuccessfully, even though he was by then wealthy and prominent enough to have run for the U.S. Senate that year. On this McCormick chose the site for a cluster of log and stone cabins,a grand camp, unparalleled anywhere in the world. Alberta is home to the Ford Forestry Center, managed by Michigan Tech. 12. This left an impression on Randy Annala, who's lived in the area for his entire life: I know the members spent money and hired lawyers and the Huron Mountain Club fought tooth and nail to keep the Eagle Mine out, and I think that satisfied a lot of the outdoorsmen, like me and other outdoorsmen and fishermen and stuff like that, who saw that they were on our side," said Annala. AuthorArcher Mayorwas hired by the members to write a history about the club to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1989. in a three-way concurrency of US-41/M-28/M-35 We don't know exactly how this is split up among members, but as Mayor states above, the largest burden is on the 50 "regular members.". Formed circa 1890, the club consists of 50 dwellings clustered inside about 13,000 acres of private land, encompassing the Huron Mountains area. While its easy to think of the explosive growth of the automobile industry in the early 20th century as the natural expansion of an inevitable market, the historical truth is that early auto and truck sales were hampered by the lack of good roads, particularly between cities. Kingsford set out on a week-long camping junket through the Upper Peninsula, visiting many of Fords operations along the way. It was likely they were welcomed with a homecooked meal prepared for them by Mrs. Douglas. You could get a job there and work for the Huron Mountain Club. Technicians are currently working on the problem. Our frontage and forest acreage lie two miles inside the guarded gates and 22,000 protected acres of the legendary Huron Mountain Club that surrounds us, 26 miles north of Marquette. The Clublands include unpaved roads to access a network of interior lakes and streams as well as trails to other points of interest. Naturalist Aldo Leopold produced a plan for preserving the tract in 1938. Transportation began to change dramatically in 1903, with the founding of the Ford Motor Company and its release of the first Model T in Detroit in 1908. Sited above Lake Independence and within minutes of Lake Superior, Big Bay is sandwiched between wilderness and inland sea. After our swim in the lake we returned to the field station headquarters to look over the results of our mushroom foraging from earlier that day. There are over 200 named waterfalls in the U.P., which has some of the most spectacular scenery in North America. The presumed isolation of land made it valuable and picturesque, but the isolation of people has the opposite effect. In 1928, the road was rerouted to skirt the Huron Mountain Club property and in 1929 Henry Ford was voted in as a primary member. By 1910, the state of Michigan required residents to register their vehicles and display license plates. Henry Ford's iconic tire tracks lead to dozens of historic sites around the U.P., including a 30-plus mile scenic two-track between Big Bay and L'Anse. Ford loved well-maintained Co Rd 510. Henry Ford grew up on a farm and had a great love of the outdoors, which he advocating accessing by means of the automobile. published on April 8, 2015 by Jacob Emerick. The club was founded to establish a remote hunting and fishing club for outdoor enthusiasts. The Club is home to 20,000 acres of old-growth forests, streams & inland lakes. 131, Ford Motion Picture Laboratories and Ford Photographic Department. Henry made sure the campers were refreshed with Poland Spring water he had shipped from Maine, and Edsel, then 21 years old, recorded the trip on his camera. According to Burroughs account, Ford also served as chief mechanic for the Vagabonds, fixing any machinery that needed repair. The club has 50 regular members, who own cabins, and some number of associate members. In the late teens, the area of the Huron Mountains was still only served by logging roads and unimproved two-tracks. at Pequaming, one of his company towns in Baraga Co on the Keweenaw Bay. WRSX 91.3 Port Huron is off the air due to network issues. Project Information OC Parks is planning to construct, operate, and maintain the Craig Park Bike Facility, a 9.7-acre mountain bike skills course facility for all ages and abilities. That route, utilizing Triple A (AAA), Ford, Northwestern and Erick Roads, provides No-trace camping is permitted throughout the wilderness area. Your email address will not be published. The effects to the route of M-35, however, were not immediate. Fisher was able to get industrialists Frank Seiberling, who ran Goodyear tires, and Henry Joy, who headed Packard Motor Car Company, to sign on to the project, which was renamed the Lincoln Highway Association after the 16th President. between Negaunee and central Baraga County east of Covington. in Pennsylvania where it crossed the Allegheny River upstream from Pittsburgh, By proceeding, you consent to receive calls and texts at the Ford also bought the entire town of Pequaming, on Keweenaw Bay, from its founder, Dan Hebard and turned it into a factory town. The Interstate Highway System today has 46,876 miles of roadway, within 10 percent of Charles Davis proposed National Highways system. She is especially interested in the archipelagic and oceanic networks of U.S. empire making and the affective, aesthetic, and ecological effects of these material and metaphorical relations. The couple built a large cabin in the Huron Mountain Club, an exclusive resort on Lake Superior about 40 miles north of Marquette. At each stop, the staff would set up a large round table, with seating for 20 and a giant, built-in Lazy Susan to pass the food around such a large gathering. region represents one of the most extensive and best preserved tracts of prime- val forest in the state. Au Gres and Cheboygan. There are many opportunities up here at the club. Code Of Ethics Policy | The value of this collaborative endeavor increases as higher education becomes more privatized and politically vulnerablesomething not lightly felt in the state of Wisconsin, where I work. Mayor told us that the 1920s were the height of the clubs ritziness. Once here, youll be on your own to explore this rugged terrain of high hills, rivers, muskeg, and bedrock outcroppings. Upper Peninsula and Ford-operated railroads fanned out to the east into His. That is the Huron Mountain Club. An urban legend in the 1960s said that the gentle curves on the Interstates were designed to allow trucks towing long ballistic missiles to travel at high speeds without slowing down. He was going to charge to bring people to the club on his boat. Most of the group boarded Fords 200-foot luxury steam yacht, Sialia (the ornithological name for the Eastern Bluebird) in Traverse City, traveling through northern Lake Michigan en route to Escanaba. membership, if ever. This configuration, where M-35 ran concurrently with US-41 from "We had all these scary signs wondering what in heaven's name might happen to us if we get caught. travel log from April 18, 2009. One of the NHAs first projects was publishing a map of its proposed system of National Highways, a 50,000 mile network of roads that Davis characterized as a broad and comprehensive system of National Highways, built, owned, and maintained by the National Government. The association cited defense and military purposes to promote its system of national highways, presaging one of the Eisenhower administrations rationales for starting the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s. The Steel Bridge survived a catastrophic flood in May 2003 when a dam upstream burst. I wondered, might this magic rejuvenate me in some way? Huron Mountain is a private club on a contiguous tract of woodland located within the Huron Mountains region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 30 miles northwest of the city of Marquette. In about 10 miles, youll see a sign for Arfelin Lake; take the next road to the right and watch for a sign and a small parking area. (The resort caretaker) Mr. Feldhauser found Mr. Ford in the clubhouse and told him there was a man on the other side of the river who could not get his Ford car up a steep incline. Just after you cross the Peshekee River, follow the first paved road north. View 13 photos of this 8,712 sqft lot land with a list price of $749000. Traveling no longer was limited to the rich and famous; it was open to the everyman. Huron Mountain Club Rd, Big Bay, MI 49808 41.3acre lot41.3 acre lot Ask an agent Property DetailsPrice & Tax HistorySchoolsNeighborhoodEnvironmental Risk Back Search Michigan Marquette Big. Edison) to the area on travelling expeditions. Mayor gave us this description of what summers at the club are like today: "So, when you go to the Huron Club now as a member or as a guest, you'll find that these are just folks that are up there in their summer place, and they drive up there or whatever, and they spend time on the water kayaking or canoeing or whatever and wandering around and maybe doing a lot of fishing, and they enjoy each others' company and then they go home at the end of the summer. (not allowed to own a cabin), which resulted in extremely limited and exclusive The Huron Mountain Club is a private club whose land holdings in Marquette County, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, constitute one of the largest tracts of primeval forest in the Great Lakes region. Negaunee-Marquette northwesterly and from L'Anse northeasterly remained mapped Many people approach the Huron Mountains from the east, where County Road 550 climbs 30 miles out of Marquette to the tiny town of Big Bay (population 270). So, dinner was not something where gentlemen could even take off their jackets if it was stifling hot, and it was stiflingly hot because there was no air conditioning in the early days.". The trail lead to the famed Huron Mountain Club that held vast amounts of land west of Big Bay, 26 miles away. Some say the crew invented glamping (read: luxury camping). An Island in Grand Traverse Bay Lake Michigan Islands Volume 1, by Kathleen Craker Firestone, Camping in Cloverland with Henry Ford, by Guy Forstrom, The Last Days of Henry Ford, by Henry Dominguez, The History of Pequaming, by Earl L. Doyle and Ruth B. MacFaralane. An avid fan of nature, birds and travel, Ford not only delivered a way to explore Michigan, but he led by example. Those were followed by Great Lakes steamers and railroads that transported families to their northern cottages for summer respite. How do you get in? Its holdings now include approximately fifteen thousand acres which embrace Today, there still is a place where drivers are invited to get behind the wheel of one of Fords legendary Model Ts. It was exclusive then and its not cheap to belong today. Later, though, the State Highway Department decided to let motorists enjoy some scenery and started laying out routes for shoreline roads on the coastlines of both Upper and Lower Peninsulas. When staying at their cabin, the Fords enjoyed feeding deer, hiking through the woods, and visiting the nearby village of Big Bay. author in September 1999, November 2003 and September 2015 showed much evidence that the Huron Mountain Club As it happened, the push for good roads did nome come from automakers or motorists, but rather bicyclists. The table, which comfortably accommodates the party, is in two sections with a revolving center stand, so that any of them at the table may turn it around to get any food desired.. We'll get to the downright practical ways you might get into the club below. By then, the Model T was a thing of past although in its 19-year history, more than 15 million Tin Lizzies were manufactured. Formed circa 1890, the club consists of 50 dwellings clustered inside about 20,000 acres (31sqmi; 8,100ha) of private land, encompassing the Huron Mountains area. was granted his full-time membership in the HMC. about four decades, a group of wealthy investors from nearby Marquette The new concurrent ", [Support great journalism like this by making a contribution to Michigan Radio]. Calling themselves the Vagabonds, Ford, Edison, Firestone and nature writer John Burroughs covered considerable territory over a nine-year period. remained on official maps and documents through the 1930s, all the while Anne, a mycologist, said that this was a very healthy lake. What may just save this piece of land, for now, is its private status. Instead of backing the Lincoln Highway, Ford was a supporter of Charles Henry Davis National Highways Association, founded in 1911 with the slogan Good Roads Everywhere. Ford had his favorite architect, Albert Kahn, design a white pine log cabin on club property that cost as much as $100,000 to build in 1929, which works out to more than a million dollars today. Dozens of others owned camps at the Huron Mountain Club, an organization so exclusive that even Henry Ford was turned down for membership when he first applied. a state trunklinein addition to longer straight segments, uncommon Photo by Andrew Thomas, September 2017. Club membership has become something of a family responsibility. Among the items available for viewing is Camping in Cloverland with Henry Ford, an out-of-print book published in 2012 by Guy Forstrom, which chronicles Fords recreational time in the U.P. members (those who are allowed to own their own cabin) and 80 "associate" members Those members have to cover a property tax bill thats close to $2 million these days. Public access to the Salmon Trout River has been a contentious issue with area fishermen, who've accused the club's guards of harassment. a large sume (quivalent to millions of dollars today)! The first concrete road in the world was a stretch of Detroits Woodward avenue, poured in 1909 a year after the Model T was first built in Henry Fords factory on Piquette Avenue, just a few blocks off of Woodward. The Club was founded as a shooting and fishing club in 1889 by John Longyear, a lumber baron, with wealthy backers in Marquette, Michigan, Detroit, and Chicago. Formed circa 1890, the club consists of 50 dwellings clustered inside about 20,000 acres of private land, encompassing the Huron Mountains area. Known today as Power Island and occasionally referred to as Ford Island (or Marion Island), it is open to the public and maintained by the Grand Traverse County Parks & Recreation Department. Early voyageurs to Michigan made their way around the state by birch bark canoe. Cyrus McCormick, head of the lucrative farm-implement company that would become International Harvester, amassed a huge wilderness estate around White Deer Lake, now part of the Ottawa National Forests McCormick Tract Wilderness Area. The eastern leg was completed in 1926 and the western leg by 1932. Ford believed in vertical integration and was heavily invested in the U.P. "One of them was Henry Ford's and it's big enough to put two of my houses [in it], but they're called cabins nevertheless.". is complicated. Needless to say, Jacob is very interested in this land and . Obviously, I was the last to join the group for a swim, but no one seemed to mind. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. isolated area and bring another highway closer to a stretch of Great Lakes Name Title Compensation Date of data; Samuel T Desmet: General Manager: $115,666: 2021-03-31: Elizabeth Hudson: . The Huron Mountain Club is a private club whose land holdings in Marquette County constitute one of the largest tracts of primeval forest in the Great Lakes region. I had a small troop with me today as I headed down past L'Anse and Skanee. Though Ford was unable to join them, the three men set out on a two week trek to the Adirondack Mountains, roughing it with a staff of a cook and five servants. acreage in Marquette County adjacent to the HMC holdings including land (M-35 had been routed out of downtown Neguanee a few years 6. nice grade with long, sweeping curvesthe type one would find on Their families were so close that Bill Ford Jr., the chairman of Ford Motor Company, is the great grandson of both Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. This home has a n/a noise level for the surrounding area. And in the 1930s the HMC was an important stop for Aldo Leopold whose report on the Club helped put into practice his theories of land management driven by a conservationist ethic. We are inholders, not members. continues northwesterly as a road called "Blind 35" on many maps. That the state of Michigan would take the extraordinary step of granting that power to a private person shows the extent of Henry Fords political and economic might. It was the summer of 1980. middle, thus completing the route. In the meantime, we'll just say it doesn't hurt your chances if youre Channing Tatum, or related to Henry Ford (and even Ford had trouble getting in). M-35 on official state highway maps issued by the MSHD showed the highway Via GPS Huron Mountain Club, 4700 N. County Road KK, Big Bay, MI 49808. time. The Huron Mountain Club, a private club reported to encompass somewhere between 10,000 to 20,0000 acres, does not dispute that fact. membership. Moreover, these lands provide carbon sequestration, recycling the air for humans in our shared (even though unequally shared) habitation of this planet. Randy Annala is the father of one of my (Kaye's) best friends. Longyear planned it as a moneymaking operation, hoping to charge people passage to get there on his steam boat, and perhaps even build some kind of resort on the Lake Superior coast similar to the resorts on Mackinaw Island and the northern coast of Lake Huron. 3. though the Huron Mountains. designation is shown on official highway maps for the first time in early Unfortunately for the Lincoln Highway Association, the one industrialist whose support would likely have guaranteed its success, Henry Ford, did not believe private funding would be sufficient for the countrys highway needs. Clara is reported as having been unimpressed with the cabinperhaps the bungalow in Pequaming was more to her tastes. He was twice president of banks and helped organize the Huron Mountain Club located on 10,000 acres of lakefront property about forty miles across the water from Marquette. (Main entrance to Northern Michigan University is across Wright Street from the convenience store), Turn left after mile at the T intersection to stay on Rt. Within its boundaries lie towering virgin pines, blue ribbon trout streams, and pristine lakes. This new trunkline would The Ford would stall out and die before getting halfway up the incline, recounts Glen Eberly, board member of the Lovells Township Historical Society. They were frequently joined by family members and a variety of notables like President Warren G. Harding. Harvey and Tom werent exactly camping out of backpacks. Dinner was a formal affair (and might still be). There are hundreds of well-marked hiking trails and dirt roads that lead to beautiful picnic or swimming spots. As noted above, Ford owned large tracts of land in nearby Baraga County Two-lane wide concrete culverts and small bridges span several small streams, again, another sight not normally present on backcountry roads such as this. Today the 25,000-acre enclave is owned mostly by the descendants of those original members. While we think of cars as being made of metal, its estimated that the manufacture of one Model T used about 250 board feet of lumber. If you think being sustainable is a new thing, Fords Kingsford facility had a chemical plant that processed wood waste into acetate of lime, methanol, charcoal, tar, creosote, heavy and light lubricating oils, and fuel gas. "If someone wants to have dinner at my house, they make a phone call, and they say, Hey, I happen to be really good friends with your friend Bubbaand Oh, well, any friend of Bubba is a friend of mine, come on over.". as well as in northern Marquette County. trail. (Considering Longyear originally developed the rustic property with an eye towards steamship passengers, theres a certain irony to this logic.). Ford instead wanted counties, states, and the federal government to support road building, and he devoted public relations and lobbying efforts toward that endmuch as he would later do regarding airports for his Ford Tri-Motor airplanes. Map of Never-Built M-35 through the Huron Mountains, County Driving from Marquette to the Clubs main office (from Wright Street), Head north at the roundabout with a convenience store on the corner onto Sugarloaf Rd. Lovells Historical Museumlovellsmuseum.com, Marquette Regional Historical Centermarquettehistory.org, Ford Bungalowmichigan.org/property/the-henry-ford-bungalow, Ford Center, Albertamtu.edu/forest/fordcenter, Michigamme Historical Museummichigammetownship.com/michigamme-museum. The middle of the routethe