30 years ago

GWINN — Prompted by a “sickening feeling” in his stomach, Kurt Marjonen is driving downstate with hundreds of signatures to stand before the Natural Resources Commission in Lansing to oppose the ban of deer baiting. Marjonen, the vice president of the Wildlife Enhancement of the Central Upper Peninsula, said that most people he spoke to agree with his stance, despite the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) claim that hunters cannot see eye to eye. Territorial disputes are what pushed the DNR to this ban, yet Marjonen sees no problem with self-governance and self-education. Captain Curt Bacon of the Upper Peninsula’s branch of the DNR says that blinding and baiting a territory can be a real ethical concern as it becomes part of the hunters “property,” and people become territorial. The law enforcement, overall, is interested in a safe hunt.

60 years ago

MARQUETTE — Twenty four Marquette firemen and 30 off duty firemen battled a fire at the First Baptist Church at the south east corner of North Front and East Ridge streets from 2:53 until 8:30 p.m. All in all, it took 13 streams of water between 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches of water to douse the fire. The damage was estimated, once the “inferno” was completely settled, to be $400,000. Erected in 1886, the church had been one of Marquette’s oldest buildings containing priceless Michigan artifacts, including the first pipe organ installed in a Michigan church. The pews and woodwork were made of flammable solid oak, formerly illuminated by three art glass windows valued at $25,000, two of which were ruined. The fire was reported by a cook, Mrs. Ruth Clish, at the nearby Northland Hotel who was enjoying her coffee break when she smelled smoke. Fire Chief Meyers reported that the fire began in the Church’s boiler room by an overheated smoke pipe, which is connected to the back church by a stairway, had allowed the flames to spread into the pulpit like wildfire. No one was hurt, and because of the still air, the fire was contained to the one building. The Baptist Church fire was catalogued as the biggest fire in Marquette since the Nestor Block burned in 1951, as well as being the first church burned since 1935.