History
1958-1965
The Porcupine Mountain Conference was founded in 1958 by seven small high schools in Michigan's upper peninsula: Bergland, Ewen, Marenisco, St. Ambrose in Ironwood, Rockland, Trout Creek and Watersmeet. [1] It replaced the Little Six Conference, of which all six public schools were previously members. [2] After the conference's first season, Rockland left as members and were replaced by Mass High School in Mass City. [3] Watersmeet left the Porcupine Mountain Conference's basketball roster in 1960 to compete as an independent, but retained membership for other sports. [4] The entrance of White Pine into the loop in 1961 increased the basketball roster back to seven members. [5] Conference membership reached its high-water mark at nine schools in 1965 when Mercer Public School in Wisconsin joined. [6]
1965-1970
As the Porcupine Mountain Conference entered the second half of the 1960s, it began to lose members to rural school district consolidation in the upper peninsula. Trout Creek left the conference in 1966 to compete as an independent, [7] one year before its merger with Ewen. The new school (Ewen-Trout Creek) inherited their predecessors' membership when they opened in 1967. [8] That same year, St. Ambrose High School merged with St. Paul High School in Negaunee to create the new Ironwood Catholic High School, [9] [10] which continued St. Ambrose's PMC membership. In 1968, Mass left the loop after consolidation into the Ontonagon school district. [11] Two years later, Mercer left the Porcupine Mountain Conference when it was invited to join the Wisconsin-based Indianhead Conference as members. [12]
1970-2015
After Mercer's exit, the Porcupine Mountain Conference entered a period of roster stability before further changes occurred in the 1980s. It started in 1984 when Bergland closed, and their high school students were redistricted to Wakefield before the district was consolidated into Ewen-Trout Creek in 1985. [13] Ironwood Catholic High School also closed that year, [14] and membership dropped to its low point of four schools. In 1990, the Porcupine Mountain Conference added Bessemer [15] and Wakefield [16] after both schools left the Great Western Conference. The PMC stayed at six schools throughout the 1990s, until White Pine High School was closed and its district consolidated into Ontonagon in 2003. [17] The merger of Wakefield and Marenisco in 2004 brought membership to its final roster of four schools. [18] The Porcupine Mountain Conference ceased operations in 2015 when its members were absorbed into the Copper Country Conference, but the name lives on as the Porcupine Mountain division. [19]
