Calumet, Michigan
Encyclopedia
Calumet is a village in Calumet Township
Calumet Township, Michigan
Calumet Township is a charter township of Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,997 at the 2000 census.-History:Native Americans mined copper in Calumet Township thousands of years ago....

, Houghton County
Houghton County, Michigan
-National protected areas:* Keweenaw National Historical Park * Ottawa National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 36,016 people, 13,793 households, and 8,137 families residing in the county. The population density was 36 people per square mile . There were 17,748 housing...

, in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

's Upper Peninsula
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan. It is also known as the land "above the Bridge" linking the two peninsulas. The peninsula is bounded...

, that was once at the center of the mining industry of the Upper Peninsula. Also known as Red Jacket, the village includes the Calumet Downtown Historic District
Calumet Downtown Historic District
The Calumet Downtown Historic District is a historic district located in Calumet, Michigan, on 5th Street and 6th Street, between Scott Street and Pine Street. It is also known as the Red Jacket Downtown Historic District, reflecting the original name of the village...

, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NRHP). The village may itself be included within the Calumet Historic District
Calumet Historic District
The Calumet Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 1989. It was further designated a U.S...

, a larger area which is NRHP-listed and which is a National Historic Landmark District. It is bordered on the north by Calumet Township, on the south by the unincorporated town of New Town and Blue Jacket
, on the east by Blue Jacket and Calumet Township, and on the west by Yellow Jacket and Calumet Township. The population was 879 at the 2000 census. Calumet's nickname is Copper Town U.S.A.

History

What is now Calumet was settled in 1864, originally under the name of "Red Jacket
Red Jacket
Red Jacket was a Native American Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan...

", named for a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 Chief of the Seneca tribe. Until 1895 the name "Calumet" was used by the nearby town of Laurium
Laurium, Michigan
Laurium is a village in Calumet Township, Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan, in the center of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The population was 2,126 at the 2000 census.-History:...

, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

; present day Calumet was not legally named so until 1929.

Red Jacket grew due to the copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

s in the area. It was incorporated as a town in 1867. The copper mines were particularly rich; the Red Jacket-based Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was a major copper-mining company based in the Michigan Copper Country. In the 19th century, the company paid out more than $72 million in shareholder dividends, more than any other mining company in the United States during that period.-History:In 1864, Edwin J...

 produced more than half of the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

's copper from 1871 through 1880. In addition to copper mining and smelting, the region also supported the dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

 industry and truck farming.

By 1900, Red Jacket had a population of 4,668, and Calumet Township
Calumet Township, Michigan
Calumet Township is a charter township of Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,997 at the 2000 census.-History:Native Americans mined copper in Calumet Township thousands of years ago....

, which contained Red Jacket and nearby mining towns, had a population of 25,991. However, in 1913, Red Jacket suffered from the Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914, and the population began to decline. In the same year, the town was the site of the Italian Hall Disaster
Italian Hall disaster
The Italian Hall Disaster is a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan...

. Striking miners and their families were gathered on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 for a party in Italian Hall, when the cry of "fire" precipitated a stampede that crushed or suffocated seventy-three victims, the majority of them children. The identity of the person(s) who started the stampede has never been determined. Folk singer Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

's song, http://www.1913massacre.com/song.html"1913 Massacre
1913 Massacre
"1913 Massacre" is a topical ballad written by Woody Guthrie, and recorded and released in 1941 for Moses Asch's Folkways label. The song originally appeared on Struggle: Documentary No. 1, an album of labor songs, it was eventually re-released in 1999 on Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 4...

"], is based on this event.

Loss of wartime demand caused the copper price to drop following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. With the decreased demand for copper, thousands left Red Jacket in the 1920s, many moving to Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 where the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 industry was booming.

In 1929, Red Jacket and surrounding company towns including "Laurium, Hecla, and South Hecla" were reincorporated as the town of "Calumet". To be even more confusing, the area once officially known as Calumet was then re-named to Laurium.

During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, almost all mines were shut down. As a result, many miners and their families left to find work. In 1950, the population of Calumet was 1,256 people. Small-time mining continued in the area, particularly during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 until it was shut down completely by a labor strike in 1968.

The Calumet Historic District
Calumet Historic District
The Calumet Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 1989. It was further designated a U.S...

 is another area of interest, listed like the Calumet Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.



Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²), all land.

Calumet is at an elevation of 1209 feet (368.5 m) above sea level.

Parts of the Keweenaw National Historical Park
Keweenaw National Historical Park
Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan...

 are located inside the village limits.

The village of Calumet now sits on over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) of underground mine shafts, drifts and stopes, empty for many decades.

People and Culture

One of the biggest parts of the culture of not only Calumet, but the entire Copper Country
Copper Country
The Copper Country is an area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States, including all of Keweenaw County, Michigan and most of Houghton, Baraga and Ontonagon counties. The area is so named as copper mining was prevalent there from 1845 until the late 1960s, with one mine ...

 is the pasty
Pasty
A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...

. This was a main part of copper miners' diets. A pasty is a mixture of meat, potatoes, rutabaga, carrots and onions wrapped in a crust made of flour and lard. Traditionally Cornish, they have even sparked local events such as the Pasty Fest, where there are eating contests (with consumption of pasties, of course), games, events, and even a tug of war event where the losers take a dive into an inflatable pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

 filled with ketchup
Ketchup
Ketchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...

.

Theatre

The Calumet Theatre
The Calumet Theatre
The Calumet Theatre is a historic theatre located at 340 Sixth Street in the town of Calumet, Michigan. It is also known as the Calumet Opera House or the Calumet Civic Auditorium. It is integral to, but a separate unit of, the Calumet municipal building...

 is a theater and opera house which was constructed in 1900. In 1898, the copper mining industry was booming, and the town had an enormous surplus in its treasury. The town council decided to spend some of the surplus on a theater. The theater hosted a large number of famous actors, musicians, and opera singers. With the close of the mines, the theater became a movie theater and fell into general disrepair for many years. In 1975, the town began a large project to repair and restore the theater, which is now used for many local and touring productions. The theatre is a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

.

St. Paul the Apostle Church

St. Paul the Apostle Church, formerly known as St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, was formed in 1889 by Slovenian immigrants who came to the Calumet area to work in the booming copper mines. The first church that they built burnt down in 1902, but the church was rebuilt by 1908. The church “rises authoritatively over the village like a cathedral of medieval Europe.” When the church was completed, the cost of construction was an amazing $100,000. It is constructed of local Jacobsville sandstone
Jacobsville Sandstone
Jacobsville Sandstone is a red sandstone common to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Commonly used as an architectural building stone, it is found in the Keweenaw Peninsula and north shore of the Upper Peninsula. Its name is due to the sandstone being quarried largely in Jacobsville, Michigan....

, and features beautiful stained glass windows, a custom built 19’ by 18’ pipe organ, and a beautifully painted interior. The interior of the church remains virtually unchanged architecturally. In 1966, four of the five Catholic churches in the Calumet area were forced to merge because of the low number of parishioners and economic constraints. This included St. Anne’s (the French church), St. John’s (the Croatian church), St. Mary’s (the Italian church), and St. Joseph’s. The combined parish is housed in the old St. Joseph’s building, and has changed its name to St. Paul the Apostle Church. Today, they have a large and active congregation, which pays for the upkeep of the church.

Notable natives & entertainment

  • James Tolkan
    James Tolkan
    James S. Tolkan is an American actor, often cast as a strict, overbearing, bald-headed authority figure.-Personal life:He was born in Calumet, Michigan, the son of Ralph M. Tolkan, a cattle dealer, and attended the University of Iowa, Coe College, the Actors Studio and Eastern Arizona College...

    , an American actor often cast as a strict, overbearing, bald-headed authority figure.
  • Percy Ross
    Percy Ross
    Percy Ross was an American self-made multi-millionaire. He arrived in St. Louis Park, Minnesota around 1946-1947. He was associated with Ross and Ross Auctioneers. In 1959 he purchased a company called Poly-Tech, which made polyethylene plastic bags. He died in Edina, Minnesota on November 10, 2001...

    , an American self-made multi-millionaire.
  • George Gipp
    George Gipp
    George "The Gipper" Gipp was a college football player who played for the University of Notre Dame. Gipp was selected as Notre Dame's first All-American and is Notre Dame's second consensus All-American , after Gus Dorais. Gipp played multiple positions, most notably halfback, quarterback, and...

    , a college football player who played for the University of Notre Dame.
  • Paul J. Smith
    Paul Smith (composer)
    Paul J. Smith was an Academy Award-winning American music composer. He was born in Calumet, Michigan. Smith spent much of his life working at Disney as composer for many of its films' scores, animated and live-action alike, movie and television alike...

    , an American music composer.
  • Children of the Night, a 1991 horror film directed by Tony Randel, was shot here.
  • Tyler Lumsden
    Tyler Lumsden
    Tyler Ryan Lumsden is a Chinese Professional Baseball League pitcher for the Brother Elephants organization. He attended Cave Spring High School ....

     wardrobe artist for the motion picture The Rocky Horror Picture Show
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...

  • Bill Ivey
    Bill Ivey
    Bill Ivey, a graduate of the University of Michigan, was the seventh chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton and served from 1998 to 2001...

     former chairman of the Country Music Hall of Fame and former chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 879 people, 387 households, and 136 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 4,524.2 per square mile (1,786.2/km²). There were 491 housing units at an average density of 2,527.1 per square mile (997.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 98.98% White, 0.23% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.80% from two or more races. 0.80% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 35.7% were of Finnish, 10.3% German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

, 9.3% Irish
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

, 7.1% United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 or American, 7.0% French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 and 6.5% Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 ancestry according to Census 2000. 95.7% spoke English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, 3.0% Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 and 1.2% Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 as their first language.

There were 387 households out of which 20.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 19.9% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 64.6% were non-families. 58.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 25.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.85 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the village the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 24.8% from 18 to 24, 21.8% from 25 to 44, 15.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $17,404, and the median income for a family was $22,750. Males had a median income of $21,667 versus $18,125 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $12,111. About 29.0% of families and 35.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 50.5% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.

Libraries, Museums, and Galleries

  • Calumet Public Library
    Calumet Public Library
    The Calumet Public School Library is a combined library that serves as both a school library and as a library for the public in Calumet, Michigan. The shared library has a long history in Calumet. It serves as a public library that provides school services and also a public library that is being...

  • Copper Country Associated Artists
  • Omphale Gallery
  • Spare Room Gallery
  • The Vertin Gallery is another gallery with works by local artists, including open, working studio space on the second floor.

Schools

  • Calumet High School
  • Horizons Alternative High School
  • Washington Middle School
  • CLK Elementary School

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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