The railroad depot in the city of Negaunee is shown in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy of the Negaunee Historical Society)

NEGAUNEE — The following account of a trip to Negaunee in 1868 was compiled by R.A. Brotherton from diaries and notes of his father.

It appeared in the Negaunee Iron Herald in 1944. R.A .Brotherton was a civil engineer for Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. The following are segments from that article.

“Having saved some money and having an urge to travel, I decided to go to the famous Iron Country in Northern Michigan where I had already spent one summer traveling there by boat from Detroit via the Soo to Marquette. this time I took the train from Pontiac to Chicago, from there by train to Fort Howard (Green Bay), where we arrived early in the morning, just in time to get aboard the side-wheel steamer, Gov. George L. Dunlap bound for Escanaba.

“It was one hundred and twenty miles to Escanaba and the first part of the trip was fine as the bay was smooth, but by noon a breeze spang up and by three o’clock when we sighted the lighthouse nine miles from Escanaba the wind had increased to a gale, and many of the land lubbers aboard were not especially enjoying themselves, and were glad to reach terra firma when we docked at Escanaba at four o’clock. I was able to get a train in the morning. After a four hour hot and dusty ride I arrived in Negaunee.

“As I got off the train the first thing that caught my attention was the large number of people on the station platform awaiting the arrival of the train. After making my way through the crowd I wondered at the large number of carboys of vitriol beside the railroad track and was informed that the nitric acid, valued at $7,000 arrived every month to be consumed in the nitro-glycerine factory, a mile from town. I had considerable time to look around the town and found it a very active place, with extensive stores in all lines of trade and apparently doing a thriving and profitable business.

“All of the hotels(boarding houses they called them) are crowded with guests and the restaurants are having an excellent trade. All of the buildings, churches, school and private residences are of neat appearance, but none of architectural pretension. Negaunee is the junction of two railroads, the Chicago and Northwestern and the Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon. It seems to me that Negaunee has more saloons to the acre than any other place in the United States.

“Out of curiosity, while making the rounds of the town, I counted the various places of business and found that here were, 33 saloons, 16 boarding houses and restaurants, 7 tailor shops, 4 harness shops, 10 meat markets, 10 grocery stores, 17 clothing and dry goods, 4 banks, 3 hardware shops, 2 furniture stores, 5 jewelry stores, 7 shoemakers, 3 livery stables, 2 millinery shops, 3 barber shops, 3 bakeries, 3 tinsmiths, 2 two makers, 4 blacksmiths, 1 drug store, 1 candle manufactory, 1 soft drink manufacturer, 2 nitro- glycerine plants, and from signs displayed by professional men, are 6 doctors, 1 dentist, 1 civil engineer, 4 lawyers and 1 musician.

There is only one school with a staff of eight teachers and about 100 students. The local scene has Indians selling their baskets and anything from a full size canoe to a small pair of moccasins.

After making the rounds of town, I climbed a considerable elevation, called the Iron Mountain, which enabled me to see Teal Lake in the distance and the various mine openings, as the growth of timber had been cut and removed and rocky hillsides made by miners were plainly revealed. I next visited Teal Lake and the scenery all around is grand.

“To the north and west are high, barren, rocky bluffs and out of the rocky face, is a variety of trees. One cannot help but wonder how they manage to cling to the barren rock. The shore was just as the Creator made it, undisturbed by man. Near the outlet of the lake there were several wigwams. A frame was built with poles and covered with birch bark and strips of hides.

“While spending an evening in Jim Pendill’s general store on Silver Street which was quite a hangout for the local men who did not care for the noisy saloons, I was informed by Mr. Barbeau, Pendill’s father-in-law, that the existence of iron ore all over the Upper Peninsula was known to the white fur traders as early as 1830.

“Mr. Barbeau, himself an old Indian trader, claims he traveled the forest, crossed its hills and mountains, years before the wealth of iron and copper was known, or even dreamed of.”