Migrating to Michigan (11 page)

“Hurry, Professor!” Owen shouted over his shoulder. “I can't hold it off much longer.”

I looked over at the professor and saw Mister Adams open a cheese stick. At first I thought it was a funny time to look for something to eat. Then I understood what he was doing. Mister Adams threw the cheese stick to the wolf. The animal stopped growling and quickly gobbled up the treat.

“Keep throwing treats to the wolf,” shouted the professor. “I'm almost done here.”

Another cheese stick flew through the air and landed near the dark corner. It, too, was quickly snapped up by the wolf. Rachel and I crept closer to the professor as the wolf continued growling and baring its big teeth.

“Done,” shouted the professor as a green cloud once again appeared in his office. Mister Adams took a cheese stick and threw it into the cloud. The wolf chased the food and disappeared into the past. Professor Tuesday quickly closed the teleporter and sat down hard in his chair.

“Whew, that was close,” the professor said with a sigh. “Owen, you are a hero.”

Owen put his club down and started shaking. Mister Adams and I ran to his side. “You did a great job, Owen,” I said. “Don't you agree, Rachel?”

“I suppose,” Rachel said, “but now that we're all safe, I'd like to learn more about immigrants in Michigan.”

“Rachel,” I said, “you are a royal pain.”

“We can continue our research if we can do it safely,” said the professor. “I don't need another scare like we had with that wolf. My old heart can't take it. But this should be a good lesson to all of us. Immigrants who came to early Michigan had to face many dangers, including wild animals.”

Professor Tuesday's hands shook as he picked up a book from his desk. He scratched his noggin as he paged through it. “Yes, yes,” said the professor to no one in particular, “we probably should take a look at that.”

“Take a look at what?” Owen asked. Mister Adams shook his head. He was curious, too.

“I want to visit an early lumber camp,” said the professor. “But the lumber companies mostly operated during the winter.” Professor Tuesday shrugged his shoulders twice. “We don't have warm coats, and I don't want anyone to catch cold by visiting the north woods at that time of the year. Plus, there were wolves, bears, and coyotes roaming the woods in those days.”

You could tell by the look in Mister Adams's eyes that he was thinking. Suddenly, he pointed one finger in the air to get Professor Tuesday's attention. Then he started spelling out words in sign language.

“Slow down, Mister Adams,” the professor said, “I can't understand what you are signing when you go so fast.”

Mister Adams scowled at the professor and started all over again. The professor wrote down each letter on a piece of paper. When Mister Adams was done, the professor read aloud, “Peek inside the cloud.”

“Silly me,” said the professor, “Mister Adams is right. We can set up the teleporter and just peek inside. When our heads get too cold, we'll just pull them back. What a great idea! Mister Adams,” the professor said proudly, “you are a genius.”

Mister Adams agreed and nodded his head.

P
rofessor Tuesday plinked away at his keyboard as Owen and Rachel looked through the notes they'd taken so far. Rachel is a better note keeper than Owen, but he's better at drawing. While they looked through their journals, Mister Adams began to play with a Rubik's Cube. I've got one at home, but I've never been able to solve it. Mister Adams solved it in less than a minute.

“How'd he do that so fast?” Rachel asked.

I just shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe he's a genius.”

As I was watching Mister Adams, the professor called out, “Let's take a look into the lumbering era in the mid-1800s.”

We gathered around as Professor Tuesday hit the ENTER key on his laptop one more time. After the lights and sounds settled, the green cloud formed at the corner of his desk. We all poked our heads into the green cloud.

What a funny feeling! Our heads rattled around in time for a moment, then settled in a forest area in the middle of winter. It looked like northern Michigan, but I couldn't tell just where. Our heads were very cold, but the rest of our bodies stayed warm in the professor's office. I thought about what it would be like to be discovered by some lumberjacks. It made me laugh to think that seeing heads floating in a green cloud would make a good camp story.

We were near a camp in the deep woods. A shabby looking wooden bunkhouse was at the far side. A smaller building stood near it. By the smells that came from the smaller building, I guessed it was the kitchen or something. The sounds of ringing metal came from still another shed. A barn or stable was standing at the far end of the camp. Horses and oxen were feeding in the corral next to it.

The sound of voices carried through the woods. The Tuesday Translator in my ear clicked and clacked as it tried to keep up with the different languages that were being spoken. One man standing by the bunkhouse spoke in broken English as he pointed to a stand of pine trees. Two men hustled over to the nearest tree.

Though it was very cold, the men only wore light jackets. Their pants were tucked into tall boots. Floppy hats were pulled down tightly on their heads. One of them smoked a pipe. They both had scraggly beards.

As we continued to look around the camp, our attention was captured by loud chopping sounds. The two men stood on opposite sides of a tall pine tree. They took turns swinging heavy axes. Each swing of the axe bit deep into the tree. I wondered how long it would take these guys to chop one down. My head was getting cold.

A man was leading a horse and sled down an ice-covered trail. When the sled passed us, I could see water sprinkling out of a tank on the back. I guessed the icy road would be used for hauling logs.

“Let's pull our heads back and get warmed up,” said the professor. His breath was frosty when he spoke.

When we came out of the green cloud, I put my hands over my ears to warm them up.

“Whew,” said Owen, “my nose was freezing.”

The professor stepped behind his desk and typed in some new information on his laptop. “While we warm ourselves I'm going to change our location and time a little bit. We'll be a mile or so from the camp and in the early spring of the year. I want to show you how the shanty boys got trees to the sawmill.”

“What's a shanty boy?” Rachel asked.

“Shanty boy is another term for logger or lumberjack,” answered the professor.

Once our ears and noses warmed up, we took a second peek into the past. Like the professor said, we were in a different place and at a different time. It was still cold, but it was not as cold as before.

We were near a high bank that ran alongside a river. Huge logs were in neat, tall stacks on the bank. A man walked carefully among the stacks of logs. Then he took what looked like a hammer and struck each log soundly before moving on to the next pile of timber.

While the man with the hammer kept at his task, other men and animals worked together to roll the logs to the edge of the bank. Long poles and horses pushed the logs over the edge. They rolled down the steep bank and splashed into the river below. In the river, there were men standing on the floating logs. They were separating the logs with long poles that had hooks and points on the end. I wondered how they could possibly keep their balance on those logs in a moving river.

As logs were rolled down the bank, more were being delivered. Large loads of logs chained to sleds were being pulled by teams of horses along one of the ice roads. While we watched, a horn blared in the distance. When the men heard it, they stopped their work and started running in the direction of the sound. I wondered what was going on.

The professor made a sign that it was time to go.

T
he professor made himself some tea and poured some milk for us. Then he opened a bag of cookies. Yum!

Professor Tuesday smacked his lips as he nibbled on a cookie and sipped his tea. “Lumbering and mining in the state of Michigan drew thousands of immigrants looking for work. Many came thinking they would make their fortune and then use the money to buy their own farm or start a business.” Professor Tuesday looked at Owen and me. “What did you think of Houghton, Michigan?”

“It was cold, rainy, and muddy,” Rachel said. “The mine looked dirty and dangerous. I didn't like going there at all.”

Mister Adams cupped his hands in front of himself and moved them forward.

“You were paying attention,” said the professor. “Mister Adams said that he saw a boat.”

“It was a tall ship,” Owen said. “You know, with sails and stuff. I've seen them before, when my family visited Traverse City and Bay City.”

“Yes,” replied the professor. “Though there were many steamships operating on the Great Lakes in 1866, cargo and passengers were still carried by sailing ships. It looked like they were taking food and supplies off the ship and loading barrels of copper onto it. On May 31, 1855, the Soo Locks and the canal around the St. Mary's Rapids were completed. This opened up Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula to greater trade. At the same time, it allowed immigrants, like miners and lumberjacks, easier travels to that part of the state.”

The professor turned to Owen. “What was our purpose for visiting Houghton, Michigan, and a lumber camp near Oscoda, Michigan?”

“To see some Finnish immigrants,” Owen answered.

“That's true,” said the professor, “but I also wanted to show you how the availability of jobs in Michigan drew immigrants from many countries. In June of 1865, about thirty Finns arrived by boat at Houghton, Michigan, in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Many of the men who had worked at the mine up until that time had gone off to fight in the American Civil War, so the mine needed help.”

“Professor, I'm just curious. When was copper discovered in the Upper Peninsula in the first place?” Owen asked.

“Native Americans first found copper there thousands of years ago,” answered Professor Tuesday. “They used it to make tools, pots, and other things. In 1841, a state geologist named Douglass Houghton visited the area to investigate rumors that there was copper in the Keweenaw Peninsula. A year later, the native Chippewa people sold their rights to 25,000 square miles west of Marquette, Michigan, under the Treaty of La Pointe. Houghton's findings and the availability of this land led to a rush of prospectors, miners, and settlers.

“One of the favorite ways early prospectors used for finding copper was to look for old pits that had been dug by native people. One man, named Sam Knapp, stumbled on a large clearing in the forest in 1848. When he dug through the snow, Sam found the opening of a man-made cave. He and his friends explored the cave and found stone hammers and ancient mining tools. In the center of the cave was a huge nugget of copper. Sam Knapp's discovery of that old copper mine resulted in one of the most profitable copper mines in history. It was called the Minesota Mine. Somehow, a clerk spelled the word
Minnesota
wrong. That's how the mine got its funny spelling.”

“There was one particular piece of copper that the native people found long before the Europeans came to Michigan,” added the professor. “It came to be called the Ontonagon Boulder because it was found on the Ontonagon River. It weighed about 3,000 pounds. Today what is left of that boulder is kept at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.”

“So, Finns were the miners in Copper Country,” Owen said.

“The Finns were just some of the many people who worked in the copper mines,” said Professor Tuesday. “Finns, Swedes, Danes, Germans, Irish, Cornish, and others came to the North Country. They all had to learn to work together, overcome their differences, and get along. The same was true in the lumber camps of Michigan.”

T
he professor took another sip of tea before continuing, “What do you remember from the lumber camp visit?”

“We saw some buildings. They didn't look like they were very well built,” I said.

The professor nodded. “The buildings used in the lumber camps were made to be put up and taken down quickly. They would build a camp near where the trees were being cut. When all the trees near the camp were cut, the buildings would be taken down and re-built in the next cutting area.”

“Did you smell the cookhouse?” asked the professor. We all nodded our heads. “I love the smell of bacon and pancakes. I have two pancakes for dinner every Tuesday.”

“Just a minute, I've got a food question about Copper Country,” Rachel said. “What was that pie that the miners were eating for lunch?”

“Oh, that was a pasty,” said the professor. “It's a Cornish food that looks like a piecrust stuffed with meat, potato, rutabaga, and onion. Pasties were a favorite food of miners and lumberjacks because it was easy to carry and eat … even in a mine. Now, let's talk more about the lumber camp.

“I saw a stable,” Owen said.

“Very good,” replied the professor. “Horses and oxen were important work animals in the lumber camps and the mines. Animals were treated very well because they needed them to stay healthy and strong.”

“It seemed like I heard a lot of different languages in both places,” Owen said.

“Excellent,” said the professor. “It sounded to me like the foreman in the lumber camp, the man shouting orders, was German. He was speaking English, but not very well. The men cutting down the pine tree were French-Canadian, I think.”

“My father can speak three different languages,” Rachel said.

The professor continued, “Sometimes, communicating was difficult in the camps due to all the different languages. But they learned to get along and work as teams. Communication between the workers was important because logging and copper mining are so very dangerous.”