KEWEENAW BAY

Highway 41 North

Few of today's passing motorists on U.S. 41 realize this was once a significant copper processing port. In this historic photo. the stamping plant is viewed from the long shipping dock.

In the 1930s, when U.S. 41 was rerouted as a scenic highway with a bay view, it bypassed the village of Keweenaw Bay up on the bluff. You'll find the village if you turn west and go up the hill where the highway sign says "Community of Keweenaw Bay." There's a new firehouse and a community hall where many plays are performed because it has the only proscenium and stage curtain in Baraga County. Founded as a French farming community, Keweenaw Bay boomed briefly after the Mass Mining Company built its stamp mill here. Copper-rich rock mined at its Mass City mines was hauled 35 miles by rail to be pulverized and turned into copper ingots.

Pilings from a long dock just south of the Michigan Department of Transportation roadside park can still be seen. Thousands of pounds of fish a week used to be shipped to Chicago from here. Many old-timers from Houghton and L'Anse remember coming to dance at the Michigan Ballroom just north of the docks.

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