ENGADINE

Region: Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point

Kevin Musser collection

Bisected by Highway 117 two miles north of U.S. 2, this village owes its existence to the railroad between Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie. (There are 1,146 people here in Garfield Township.) Generations of Michiganders know Engadine mostly from its catchy name, repeated frequently for many years by Detroit TV weatherman Sonny Eliott: "And in the little town of Enga-Ringa-Dinga-Dine, it'll be cloudy and cold" or whatever.

But why "Engadine" and why here? "Engadine," the name of a picturesque mountain valley in eastern Switzerland, apparently enjoyed some fame in 1888, when the first railroad depot was built here. The new settlement had no name. The centennial history speculates, "It has been written that Samuel Peterson [the first depot agent, himself of Swedish descent] one day painted the word ‘Engadine' on the depot. It is assumed that he did so in order to attract immigrants to the fledgling community." Families who came were from many backgrounds: many Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, some Croatians, and some Volga Germans, descended from the farmers recruited by Russian Empress Catherine the Great to settle and grow wheat in the Ukraine along the Volga river.

Engadine has been bypassed by history but kept alive by loyal residents. A station on the Soo Line, it was a logging, then farming, and briefly an industrial town. Now retirees move back home to its peace and quiet,

Robert Dollar, a well-known lumberman in the Tahquamenon area, platted the village in 1894. Sawmills made Engadine a busy place, especially after 1912, when a Pittsburgh company started a cooperage (barrel-making shop) and stave mill employing 50. As land was logged off, dairy farms were established north, west, and east of town. But a fire destroyed the cooperage mill in 1926, putting an end to Engadine's Golden Years.

Engadine events and people are remembered in the displays and background reading-room material at the ENGADINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM on Melville, the main east-west street, two blocks west of the "downtown" blinker light. The museum is open from May through Labor Day, Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 to 2 and by appointment. (Call 906-477-6908 or 906-477-6671.) There's a log house in the back, and a barber shop in the garage. The evolution of washing machines is shown, from washboard to wooden tub with hand crank, and the first spinning washer without a wringer to squash your hand.

The old mill pond site has been developed into a beautiful park with pools and wetlands. It’s north of the main intersection on the west side of Highway 117.

In the late 1960s Engadine won statewide fame. First a big Thanksgiving holiday snowstorm closed U.S. 2. Engadine residents opened their homes to travelers trapped by the blizzard, including many students driving back to Michigan Tech and Northern. Later someone decided to celebrate that weather event with "Enga-Ringa-Dinga-Dine Days" and invited Sonny Eliott, Detroit's famous TV weatherman, to speak at that weather-related occasion.

Engadine's pretty MILL POND PARK just west of M-117 on the north edge of town would be a pleasant picnic spot. It's the location of the ENGADINE FARMERS' MARKET, held Saturdays from 9 to noon from July 4 weekend into mid October. The market has become quite a success, with 12 vendors at its peak, and 250 customers a Saturday, thanks to a wide variety of local produce: breads; salad greens and other garden produce from local farmers, and maple syrup and honey—anything you would need. There's usually organic beef, pork, and eggs, raised or distributed by Krause Organic Farms (906-477-6537), four generations working together right here in Engadine. Customers can buy their produce at the farm by appointment. In 1985 Gary and Diane Krause went cold turkey on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, became Mackinac County's first certified organic producers, and influenced many others to take up natural farming and direct marketing. Now Gary is working on a farm-oriented transportation system.

The land here may look unpromising, but that's not the fact. "Engadine has some good soil," says farmer Amelia Duberville, who started the market with her husband and the Krauses. "The nice clay in Engadine keeps its fertility and is good for the cabbage family. There's sand for other crops, and sandy loam in the Helmer area where they can grow some gorgeous things."

North of town, sweeping vistas of the austere landscape of small farms are punctuated by occasional barns and Lutheran churches. The big sky makes sunsets and storms most dramatic.

For an interesting backroads drive from the center of Engadine to Curtis, take
M-117 six miles north to Sandtown Road, then west. It zigs and zags by woods, wetlands, and fields, past the Sandtown Cemetery and the Mennonite church to Curtis and the Manistique Lakes.

Return to Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point

PLACES AROUND ENGADINE TO

Eat Sleep Camp