[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14955]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         CELEBRATING THE UNIQUE HISTORY OF MASS CITY, MICHIGAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 30, 1999

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to the 
100th birthday of Mass City, a small community in the western part of 
the Upper Peninsula in Michigan's 1st Congressional District. Although 
it is a small dot on the map, like many Midwest communities Mass City 
has its own rich and unique history. On this centennial occasion, I'd 
like to share a few highlights of that history with my House 
colleagues.
  As a local writer noted, it was the great continental glaciers 10,000 
years ago that gave final shape to the topography of northern Michigan, 
but it was geologic activity hundreds of millions of years earlier that 
planted in the area rich deposits of copper. This ore would sustain a 
long copper culture among the earliest settlers in the region, and it 
would serve as one of the powerful attractions for later European 
settlers.
  Timber was the second attraction, and land for agriculture was the 
third, especially for many Finnish immigrants who settled in the area 
in the early 1900s.
  Mass City was born in 1899 in this burst of economic activity, but 
today's guardians of local lore are left with the mystery of the 
community's name. Is it an abbreviation for ``Massachusetts City,'' 
since five members of the board of directors of the Mass Consolidated 
Mining Company were from that state?
  Maybe it was named for the Mass Mine, discovered by Noel Johnson, an 
early African-American settler in the area. The prevailing sentiment, 
however, is that the name comes from the mass copper in the surrounding 
hills. As late as the 1990s, chunks of native copper weighing more than 
a ton were found in the community's Caledonia Mine.
  The boom days of mining are gone now, Mr. Speaker, and only a few 
farms are still active. Lumbering is still important to the regional 
economy, but it takes a back seat to what I believe is the region's 
greatest asset--its remarkable quality of life. A belief in the value 
of hard work and the importance of family are reinforced by the beauty 
of the natural surroundings. This is the North Woods, where crisp, 
star-filled winter nights or summer breezes rustling the pines are 
gentle reminders of the Presence of the Almighty.
  Mass City will hold its reunion and centennial celebration July 2-4. 
I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the real celebration of this region will 
continue as long as there are men and women living there who continue 
to add to its history and treasure its heritage and values.

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