3872 x 2592 px | 32,8 x 21,9 cm | 12,9 x 8,6 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
1 octobre 2008
Lieu:
13700 13.25 Lane Garden, MI 49835
Informations supplémentaires:
Fayette Historic State Park is an excellent restoration of a historic village. The state of Michigan says, "this well-preserved museum village recalls another time when it was a noisy, dirty company town with an immigrant population that shared daily hardships, joys and sorrows." Make sure you give yourself ample time to view all the cool buildings, it is recommend that you allot yourself at least two hours to visit all the buildings. Many visitors suggest that you plan to spend the whole day at the park. Although Fayette is best known for its history of iron smelting, the history of the area actually starts long before that. Before the first white settlers arrived in the area it was inhabited by the Chippewa Indians, the particular tribe was the Bear Paw (Naquette) tribe. When the French arrived they named the two bays in the area Big and Little Bay de Noc after the Chippewa tribe. The location for the village of Fayette, around Snail Shell Harbor, was chosen for its protected, deep port, the limestone, and the hardwood that covered the entire region. The limestone and the lumber was used in the smelting process and was essential. Fayette was founded in 1867 by the Jackson Iron Company. The only reason the town was built was to extract iron from the iron ore mined nearby. The settlement by Snail Shell Harbor was purchased from a local land owner in 1864. A total of 140-acres made up the town-site. The town was named after Fayette Brown, the Jackson Iron Company agent who chose the site. The town site soon housed two blast furnaces, a large dock, several charcoal kilns, a hotel, a company store, and many houses. The whole village was owned by the Jackson Iron Company, and workers rented houses from the company and bought goods from the company store. At the height of the smelting operation nearly 500 people lived in the area. Most residents came from Canada, Great Britain, and northern Europe. These workers produced a total of 229, 288 tons of pig iron in 24 years