Michigan Tech

Michigan's most remote state university is also one of its best. In fact, Michigan Tech is one of the top public technological universities in the country.

Michigan Tech began, aptly enough, as Michigan Mining School in 1885 when copper mining was huge in the region. (Now the mining program has been eliminated.)

The university's current focus is evident from its architecturally striking modern waterfront buildings. From left to right in the photo above they are the (1) Minerals & Materials Engineering Building, (2) Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, (3) Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building, (4) R. L. Smith Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Building. Today about 60% of the degrees awarded by Michigan Tech are in engineering.

The 143-acre campus spans both sides of 41. It's pleasant to walk around. There's a good birds'-eye campus map at http//Xwww.mtu.edu/tools/map.html. Up the hill south of 41 is the areana for the school's beloved ice hockey team, the Huskies. Even further back the university has a superb cross-country ski complex with 35 km of trails in a beautiful wooded setting. The main loops are regularly groomed and allow skating or traditional skiing. Ski equipment can be rented.

Across the waterway on M-26 east of Hanock is the university's Mont Ripley ski hill with 19 runs and a 440-foot veertical drop. With over 200 inches of snow a year up here, you can ski almost a third of the year. Lighted at night in the winter, the steep white hill is a dramatic sight from campus.

Since 1922 students have enjoyed a Winter Carnival, held in February. Campus fraternites, sororities, and other campus organizations build large, ambiitious ice structures. There's fierce competition for the best. The spectacle brings natives from far and wide to view the impressive and often intricate constructions.

Another unusual student tradition is broomball, played on an open-air ice rink visible from U.S. 41 in front of Walker Hall. Players in shoes, not skates, use brooms to propel a softball-sized ball into the other team's net. The action, as in ice hockey, often gets fierce and draws appreciative crowds.

The university has grown to 400 faculty, about 6,600 students, of whom 800 are graduate students.

See also the universitiy's impressive A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and the MTU Archives/Copper Country Historical Collection.

Return to Houghton