Black History Month

In February we honor Black History Month acknowledging the significant contributions and struggles of Black communities. On the Ottawa National Forest, Elmwood, the site of one of the few black settlements in the Upper Peninsula, was unfortunately demolished by the straightening of Forest Highway 16.

Elmwood, once a logging community, was established when Black American families from Chicago were recruited in the 1920’s by Brown-Mitcheson of Marinette. The Wisconsin lumber company promised that the group could sell the stumpage to cover the cost of the land. The laborers were not paid for their labor and fell into extreme poverty. The settlers were not welcomed, and local newspaper reports were filled with racist remarks.  The January 21, 1927 Diamond Drill newspaper discusses the group and stated “One of the most pathetic conditions of poverty, laziness, and suffering ever exposed in Iron County…” wherein “Twenty-five people, nine of them children, were huddled into some old shacks with no food and in only one of several small buildings was there wood enough on hand to keep a fire burning overnight.”

The group did not stay in the area long. A combination of starvation and bootlegging raids by the Iron County Sheriff’s department drove the group out. A January 6^th, 1928 article in the Diamond Drill is headlined “Negro Caught in Holiday Raids; Sheriff’s Forces Made a Cleanup on West Side of County, Twenty Niggers Taken; Almost All of Them Have Been Bound Over to the Circuit Court.” The article details that all the adults were arrested by the sheriff on charges of trafficking illicit liquor. A Diamond Drill article dated January 25^th, 1929 states “Colony is Disbanded” and the colony was “virtually extinct due to the efforts of the Superintendent of the Poor, Carl Sholander and Sheriff James A. Dickey.”  The last of the Black Americans were run out of the county on bootlegging claims.

The site, briefly used by the Civilian Conservation Corps, fell into disrepair.  In the early 1980’s the Forest Service explored straightening Federal Forest Highway 16. In May of 1983 a Forest Service employee surveying the road brought up concerns that relocating the road would have potentially adverse effects on the previously unrecorded archeological site. In October 1983 the Forest Service contracted with a company to explore whether the site met the National Register of Historic Places criteria. The consultants found the condition of the site was “excellent with three structural outlines, several rich trash dumps, and no apparent vandalism.” However, the study determined the site failed to meet the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places because the temporary nature of black occupation in the area wasn’t seen as significant or indicative of a larger overall pattern. In March of 1984 the State Historic Preservation Office disagreed that the site was ineligible for National Register and in August of 1984 the Secretary of the Interior determined the site was eligible for National Register. Regardless of these findings, in the late 1980’s Forest Highway 16 was straightened, and the Elmwood site was demolished.

Special thanks to Chris Tinti and Charlotte Bofinger for all their help.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Bastien, Beverly, and William Rutter. Documentary, Oral Historical, and Phase III Archeological Investigations at Elmwood Logging Camp (201058), Iron County Michigan. June 1987.

Bigelow, Martha. ER 4489. 22 Mar. 1984.

Department of the Interior - Determination of Eligibility Notification. 2 Aug. 1984.

Halsey, John. ER-448. 18 Aug. 1983.

Keene, David, and Ted Karamanski. Cultural Resource Evaluation . Jan. 1984.