An Historical Analysis of Ahmeek, Michigan

by Robert Goniea

Text originally published 28 November 2001

Edited for web publishing 12 October 2002

Location of Ahmeek on the Keweenaw Peninsula

Introduction:

Some of the most interesting bits of history can be found in out of the way places. Take, for example, the village of Ahmeek. Ahmeek is situated on the Keweenaw Peninsula on the western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. There is not a lot to look at there right now, it is mostly a bedroom community for the village of Calumet and the Houghton/Hancock area. Plus, there are some antique and art shops in an attempt to lure in the tourists making the rounds of Keweenaw attractions. Sadly, most people drive past it on US-41 without giving it much thought at all. But, believe it or not, there is some interesting history to this place. This paper will attempt to document the early years of Ahmeek and compare the makeup of the village's population back then to what it is like in the present.

General History:

Ahmeek was first founded in 1904 by John Bosch. Before incorporation as a village in 1909, it was referred to as Ahmeek Mine Location. ⁽¹⁾ How the village got the name "Ahmeek" is interesting. The word is an adaptation of an old Indian word "ahmuk" which means "beaver." It is so named because the surrounding area used to be swampy and thought to contain many beavers. ⁽²⁾ In fact, the terrain is a key factor in the decision to incorporate into a village. Incorporation meant that they could re-direct licensing fees, paid by the area's saloons, into a fund to build a drainage system for the low lying areas of the village. ⁽³⁾ Substantial growth must also be considered a factor. The people needed that land improved in order to expand. From the time the Ahmeek Mine opened in 1902, ⁽⁴⁾ until the 1910 census, Ahmeek went from a patch of nothing to a settlement with 89 dwellings. ⁽⁵⁾ In 1915 the village had a different water problem, not enough of the drinkable kind. It built a new 1½ mile long water supply line from a spring near the old Allouez Mill which supplied a flow of 200,000 gallons a day. ⁽⁶⁾

Village officials were not the only ones seeing to the needs of the people. Churches were quick to move in on the growing population. The first to set up shop in town was the Allouez-Ahmeek Methodist Church. In 1914 they moved their church structure, which was built in 1848 to Ahmeek. The building, pictured at right, is no longer in use as a church and was last known to be used as a warehouse. ⁽⁷⁾
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church was next to arrive. They also brought a building with them. In 1920 they bought a former temperence hall in Wolverine (near Gaylord in the Lower Peninsula), took it apart, and brought it to Ahmeek. ⁽⁸⁾

The last church to get a home in Ahmeek was the Ahmeek Sacred Heart Church in 1927. Unlike the other parishes, this one built its own structure, but it did manage to save construction costs by building on the foundation of the old Morgan Grierson General Store. The church, seen in a May 2002 picture at right, has since been renamed Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. When I went to Ahmeek to take the picture, I was a bit confused by this, but comparing old pictures of the structure with this photo, I'm confident it is the same building. It has had a few changes though: new windows, new siding, a new front entrance, and new awnings on the side entrances. ⁽⁹⁾

Ahmeek's Copper Mine:

As important as some may think churches are, the driving force of the area was really the Ahmeek Mine. As was noted earlier it first opened in 1902, but the company that operated it had been organized since 1880. ⁽¹⁰⁾ As copper mines in the area go, it was pretty average. Below is a chart for comparison. ⁽¹¹⁾ It compares the Ahmeek's yearly output in pounds of copper per ton of ore stamped with that of two other mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula, the Atlantic Mine and Baltic Mine. As one can see, the Baltic and Ahmeek are quite similar in their outputs while Atlantic lagged far behind. ⁽¹²⁾ The Ahmeek mine managed to be productive for quite some time. The mine was acquired by Calumet & Hecla after 1922 ⁽¹³⁾ and managed to remain open into1959. ⁽¹⁴⁾ All mining at the site (including reprocessing of tailings) did not cease until the late 1960's. ⁽¹⁵⁾

As was noted earlier, the mine was basically the reason for Ahmeek's existence. Consultation of the 1910 and 1920 census figures bear this out. And they also help to illustrate changes in mining operations in that time period. Below is a chart listing mining related occupations and the number of people who claimed them in the village of Ahmeek for 1910 and 1920. ⁽¹⁶⁾ Take a look at the huge drop in the number of people listing themselves as "miner."

This can not be attributed to a lack of production. In 1910 the company hoisted 568,935 tons of copper ore and in 1920 hoisted 822,192 tons, an increase of 44.5%. ⁽¹⁷⁾ But the number of miners decreased by 38.3%. And there was a smaller drop in the number of trammers and timberman. There is a one word answer to describe much of this phenomenon. That word is technology. Both the drills and the explosives that the miners used were improving all of the time, increasing productivity. ⁽¹⁸⁾ Technology affected the mines in an indirect way as well because it was at about the late teens and early twenties that the auto industry started to take off. The company mentions in their 1919 report that auto jobs were drawing underground help away from the mines. ⁽¹⁹⁾ Technology also explains the additions of motormen and engineers. Mining engineers were used much more often than in the past to direct where to drill for ore. ⁽²⁰⁾ And it stands to reason that more heavy machinery on the surface will require engineers to problem solve and make sure things go smoothly.

Things did not go quite that smoothly for the mine in 1913. In fact it was pretty bad all over the mining district. It was the year of "The Strike" ⁽²¹⁾ Ahmeek Mining Company was not immune from all of the troubles. In its 1913 report to the stockholders, the company absolutely bashes the Western Federation of Miners for causing all of the trouble:

Looking at production numbers for 1912-14, it is pretty easy to see why they are so mad. In 1912, the mine produced 16,455,769 pounds of refined copper. In 1913, the first year of the strike, it was all the way down to 9,220,874 pounds. 1914 was an off year as well because the workers did not come back until April 14. That year there was also the start of World War 1, and the company mentions in that year's report that due to the war, they had to cut expenses as much as possible and run the mine on a "3/4 time basis". ⁽²³⁾ Hard times would hit again in 1919. The company reports state that at the end of the war copper prices took a nosedive. Producers had been churning out copper like crazy to keep up with wartime demand and now they all had large surpluses on hand. ⁽²⁴⁾ The company coped the best they could by cutting wages and jobs. ⁽²⁵⁾

If the Ahmeek Mine had trouble at the end of World War I, rest assured it had to have trouble when the Great Depression hit. Unfortunately, specific numbers for Ahmeek and the Ahmeek Mine are not available, ⁽²⁶⁾ but there are some figures available that can hint at the trouble they must have gone through during those years. A census of population and unemployment taken by the state of Michigan in 1934 reported that unemployment in the field of "extraction of minerals" was at 46.6% in rural townships. ⁽²⁷⁾ Allouez Township, where Ahmeek is located, was listed as a rural township in this publication. Granted, not all of the able bodied workers in Ahmeek worked the copper mine, but a large percentage did. That means that businesses that depended on miners spending money were in a lot of trouble as well. The same scenario eventually had to play out in the 1960s, where, as has already been mentioned, the mine finally closed down for good.

Early Inhabitants of Ahmeek:

A lot of publicity on the Upper Peninsula likes to point out how diverse the backgrounds are of its inhabitants. The comedic musical group Da Yoopers brags "We're Yoopanese, Yoopanese, a very special breed. Daygo, Finn, Cousin Jack, German, French, and Swede" ⁽²⁸⁾ Well, in the case of early Ahmeek, it was more like Croat, Slav, Finn, Hungarian...in that order. To illustrate that point, consider the following chart.

If United States were to be added to the above chart, it would typically only rank 4^th. But when the respondent was asked where they were born, the U.S., Michigan in particular, typically came in a comfortable 1^st place. ⁽³⁰⁾ What this means is that initially Ahmeek was generally populated by first and second generation immigrants. There was probably less than 5% of the population that could claim that both parents were born in Michigan in 1910. Also, this large percentage of Eastern European people seems to help confirm what Professor Lankton says about the mines receiving the "bulk" of their new workers from eastern Europe shortly after the turn of the century. ⁽³¹⁾

The census sheets from that era did come up with a few odd entries worth noting. A five year old girl born in Arizona with parents from Croatia. One guess is her parents could not find steady work near the Arizona mines so they moved back east to Michigan. There was also a sixteen year old girl, born in Montana, to parents from Austria "Slovenia." She was also married to a 27 year old Slovenian. Times may have been different back then, but today we would probably refer to this as "robbing the cradle."

Another striking thing that seems to jump out when looking at the census pages is the distribution. The surprising thing is that it is evenly distributed among ethnicities. Assuming the canvasser went straight up one street and down the next, it does not look like the various ethnic groups have segregated themselves within Ahmeek. There never seemed to be more than two or three households in a row of the same ethnic group, save for the really large groups like the Croatians or Slovenians. The numbers seem to support this. Each census sheet (except for the last one) has 50 names on it. On the 18 sheets for 1920, looking at the "Father's nation of origin" field, there are on average six or seven nationalities listed on each page. ⁽³²⁾ Ahmeek, to an extent, certainly seems to fit the stereotypical "great American melting pot."

Changes from the early years to present:

The two largest changes to Ahmeek, in terms of it's population makeup, is the tremendous decrease in population and the aging of the population. In 1920, Ahmeek had a population of 892. ⁽³³⁾ That is not large ⁽³⁴⁾, but compared to today it is. The latest census data puts the total population of the village at 157 ⁽³⁵⁾, a decrease of 82% and that is up from 1990 when the population was only 148. ⁽³⁶⁾ The population has also gotten much older. The median age in 1910 was 19.37 years old with 44.6% of the population under the age of 18. ⁽³⁷⁾ Jump ahead to 1990, (the available data for that year was more thorough) and the median age has soared to 57.8 years old with only 11.5% (17 people) of the population under 18 years old. ⁽³⁸⁾ In 1910 Ahmeek had only 3 people aged 65 to 69 and none older than that. In 1990 it had 61 senior citizens, or 41.2% of its population. Another thing that has changed is where people work. In 1910 and 1920 most of the population either worked at the mine or some supporting business. ⁽³⁹⁾ On the 1990 census data, it appears that most workers are either in administrative services, service occupations, or retail trade. ⁽⁴⁰⁾ The 1990 data also has a field specifying how people get to work and how long it takes them. 78.1% of respondents said they drove to work either alone or in carpools, 12.5% walked or worked at home, and 9.4% use "other means". Mean travel time to work was listed as 33.8 minutes. ⁽⁴¹⁾ Taking into account the people working in town bringing that average down, that would mean most of those commuters work down in the Houghton/Hancock area. It can take at least that long to get down there from Ahmeek.

Typical street scene in Ahmeek. Taken early May 2002.

One thing the census data proves has not changed much are the homes themselves. The 1990 census figures say that, of the 115 total housing units, 90 of them were built prior to 1939. ⁽⁴²⁾ It is relatively safe to assume that most of those homes are considerably older than that because 1939 was at the tail end of the Great Depression. There probably were not many homes being built in such poor economic times.

The ethnic makeup of the village has undergone somewhat of a change, but it is most likely due to the high level of people moving away. As of 1990, people claiming Finnish decent made up the bulk of the population: 71 out of 148. Next is actually "other ancestries" at 24, then English at 20. ⁽⁴³⁾ It would not be surprising if the "other" category was broken down and it turned out to be mostly Slovenians and Croatians, since they were so numerous in the past.

Conclusions:

The village of Ahmeek was once a small, but vibrant town full of people from all over Europe. They came there knowing life would be hard in the mines but that the work would pay off in the long run. When the mines finally closed and moved on, the immigrants did as well, moving on to find the next paycheck. But they all left behind a rich history, one that is actually worth turning off of US-41 for a while and investigating.

Postscript:

This web edition is long overdue, but I'm sure it's worth the wait. I'm including several photographs here at the end that did not seem to fit with the text of the original paper. I guess if this were a DVD, you could refer to them as deleted scenes.:) Also, you may have noticed I've referred several times in the text to census sheets. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it, but maybe someday I'll transfer them from paper to a digital spreadsheet. It's a lot of work though and my schedule is hectic so I doubt it will happen soon. If, however, you need information that might be on 1910 or 1920 census sheets from the Village of Ahmeek only (not Ahmeek location or the rest of Allouez Township) I may be able to help you. Just drop me an email at rjgoniea@charter.net.

This is a former streetcar station built in 1913. It became a bus station in 1931 when the streetcars were discontinued. Sometime later it became a gas station. (45) Its current incarnation is an ice cream/sandwich shop called, appropriately enough, Streetcar Station.

As you can see by the picture, this is Ahmeek's town hall. Or is it? On page 9 of Monette's book on Ahmeek he has a picture identifying a building as the town hall but it is definitely NOT the same building. (the one in his picture has a pitched roof, not a flat one.) I guess I'll have to resolve this next time I'm up there.

Notes:

1. Clarence J. Monette, A Brief History of Ahmeek, Michigan. Lake Linden, MI:

(C.J. Monette, 1981), 5.

2. Ibid. 5.

3. Ibid. 6.

4. Ibid. 5.

5. United States. Census Office. Thirteenth census of the United States, 1910. Michigan.

Washington D.C.: (National Archives Microfilm Publications 198?), microfilm.

6. Monette, 28-30.

7. Ibid. 68 and 71.

8. Ibid. 66.

9. Ibid. 66 and 68.

10. Ibid. 82.

11. Created from data taken from the Atlantic Mine, Ahmeek Mine, Baltic Mine, and Copper

Range Consolidated yearly reports.

12. For further comparison read Larry Lankton. Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the

Lake Superior Copper Mines. New York, NY: (Oxford University Press, 1991), 72.

13. Lankton, 251. Unfortunately the local historical library does not have company reports from

Calumet & Hecla, so no production numbers on Ahmeek mine are available after 1922.

14. Monette, 78.

15. Monette, 92.

16. 1910 and 1920 census microfilm data.

17. Ahmeek Mining Company Reports for 1910 and 1920.

18. See Lankton chapter 6.

19. Ahmeek Mining Company. Report to Stockholders. Boston, MA

(Ahmeek Mining Company, 1919), 7.

20. Lankton. 74-75.

21. Ibid. 219.

22. Ahmeek Mining Company. Report to Stockholders. Boston, MA

(Ahmeek Mining Company, 1913), 6.

23. Ahmeek Mining Company. Report to Stockholders. Boston, MA

(Ahmeek Mining Company, 1914), np.

24. Ahmeek Mining Company. Report to Stockholders. Boston, MA

(Ahmeek Mining Company, 1919), 7.

25. Ibid. 7.

26. Central Michigan University's Park Library does not carry full documentation for census years 1930 through 1970.

27. Michigan State Emergency Welfare Relief Commission. Michigan Census on Population and Unemployment. Lansing, MI: (State of Michigan, 1936), 8.

28. Da Yoopers, "Johnny Peckanen," Jackpine Savage, You Guys Records Inc. 81172. 1999.

29. Chart created by tabulating answers to census questions on 1910 and 1920 Census.

30. Ibid.

31. Lankton, 71.

32. 1920 Census Sheets.

33. Ibid.

34. At that size, under 1000 people, it was small enough to be skipped by the census publishers

when they were putting together their hard bound data books, thus the need to reference the census microfilm.

35. U.S. Census Bureau website. Http://www.census.gov . Accessed 20 Nov 2001.

36. Oregon State University: Information Sharing Services website.

http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/stateis.html accessed 20 Nov 2001.

37. 1910 Census sheet tabulation.

38. OR St. website

39. 1910 and 1920 Census Sheets

40. OR St. website

41. OR St. website

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. 1910 and 1920 Census Sheets

45. Monette, 76.

Bibliography

Ahmeek Mining Company. Report to Stockholders. Boston, MA

(Ahmeek Mining Company, 1902-1922)

Atlantic Mining Company. Report of the directors to the Stockholders, New York, NY: (C.H. Clayton & co., 1892-1910)

Baltic Mining Company. Report of the directors to the Stockholders. New York, N.Y.: (C.H.

Clayton & co. 1898-1901)

Copper Range Consolidated Company. Report of the directors to the Stockholders. Boston, MA: (Fort Hill Press, 1904-1923)

Da Yoopers, "Johnny Peckanen," Jackpine Savage, You Guys Records Inc. 81172. 1999.

Michigan State Emergency Welfare Relief Commission. Michigan Census on Population and Unemployment. Lansing, MI: (State of Michigan, 1936)

Monette, Clarence J. A Brief History of Ahmeek, Michigan. Lake Linden, MI:

(C.J. Monette, 1981)

Lankton, Larry. Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the

Lake Superior Copper Mines. New York, NY: (Oxford University Press, 1991)

Oregon State University: Information Sharing Services website.

http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/stateis.html accessed 20 Nov 2001.

U.S. Census Bureau website. Http://www.census.gov . Accessed 20 Nov 2001.

United States. Census Office. Thirteenth census of the United States, 1910. Michigan.

Washington D.C.: (National Archives Microfilm Publications 198?), microfilm.

United States. Census Office. The 1920 federal population census. Michigan .

Washington D.C.: (National Archives Microfilm Publications 1992), microfilm.