Presque Isle Park

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Presque Isle Park
Presque Isle Lake Superior.jpg
Lake Superior viewed from the east side of the park
Presque Isle OpenStreetMap.png
Map of Presque Isle Park
Type Public park
Location Flag of Michigan.svg Marquette, Michigan
Coordinates 46°35′13″N87°22′56″W / 46.586944°N 87.382222°W / 46.586944; -87.382222
Area323 acres (131 ha)
Created1886
Operated by Marquette County Parks and Recreation Commission
StatusOpen all year

Presque Isle Park is a 323-acre public park located in Marquette, Michigan, United States. The park is northwest of Marquette itself on an oval-shaped peninsula reaching out into Lake Superior, called the 'Island' locally. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Presque Isle was inhabited by Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. The last chieftain of the local Ojibwe, Charlie Kawbawgam, who died in 1903 at the age of 103, is buried at the park alongside his wife, Charlotte. [3] [4]

In the late 1800s, Presque Isle was occupied by a federally owned lighthouse. Peter White has been credited with inducing the federal government to grant the land to the city of Marquette for the purpose of turning it into a park. On July 12, 1886, the United States Congress passed a bill ceding control of the land to Michigan. White also raised the money needed to plant Lombardy Poplar trees in the park, and to build a paved road to and around it. [5] In 1891, the new road led one local organization to declare that the city had "one of the most charming and picturesque drives in the world". [6] The road was repaved in 1999. [1]

The largely untouched, forested landscape of the park was the result of a 1891 visit from famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who refused to develop a plan for it due to his belief that it "should not be marred by the intrusion of artificial objects." [7]

The park

Presque Isle Park is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on the coast of Lake Superior. The park is itself a small, oval-shaped peninsula connected to Marquette by a narrow neck of land and surrounded by sandstone cliffs. It is largely covered by natural forest and also has marshes, rocky outcrops, secluded coves and pebble beaches. The park itself is open year-round from 7am to 11pm in spring, summer and fall, and from 7am to 8pm in winter.

Facilities include two picnic areas with restrooms, a children's playground, a concert shelter and hiking trails. The main route through the park is Peter White Drive, which runs around the edges of the peninsula; the Drive allows cars with the exception of scheduled 'walking hours' when motor vehicles are prohibited and the Drive is open only to foot traffic. Dogs are not permitted outside of vehicles. A series of footpaths under the John B. Anderton Trail System wind through the interior of the park [1]

Walking hours

Flora and fauna

There are over a hundred species of native plant in the park. The wildlife includes white-tailed deer, raccoons and Canada geese. Fishing for lake whitefish, lake trout and brook trout is permitted at certain designated spots. [1]

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Presque Isle is a peninsula.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presque Isle Power Plant</span>

The Presque Isle Power Plant was a coal power plant located at Marquette, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Superior. The plant has 5 inactive generating units with a total net generating capacity of 431 Megawatts. This plant has two smokestacks 400 and 410 feet in height and was built in 1955 by Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. Units 1 and 2 were retired on January 1, 2007. Units 3 and 4 were retired on October 1, 2009. Units 5 through 9 went into service between 1975 and 1979 and were retired in March 2019.

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County Road 492 is a primary county road in Marquette County, Michigan. The road serves as an alternate route between Negaunee and Marquette. Several historic sites line the roadway as it runs south and parallel to the main highway, U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and M-28, through the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The path of the road runs near tracks of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I). The locally created Iron Ore Heritage Trail will follow CR 492 through Eagle Mills and Morgan Meadows upon completion. The western terminus of the county road is on US 41/M-28 in Negaunee and the eastern end is in Marquette next to Lake Superior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Mine</span> United States historic place

The Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine in Negaunee, Michigan, extracting resources from the Marquette Iron Range. The first iron mine in the Lake Superior region, Jackson Mine was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The Lake Superior Mining Institute said, the mine "is attractive in the iron ore region of Michigan and the entire Lake Superior region, because of the fact it was here that the first discovery of iron ore was made, here the first mining was done, and from its ore the first iron was manufactured." Multiple other mines soon followed the Jackson's lead, establishing the foundation of the economy of the entire region. The mine is located northwest of intersection of Business M-28 and Cornish Town Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter White (Michigan politician)</span> American politician

Peter White was one of the original settlers of Marquette, Michigan. He was a banker, businessman, real estate developer, and a philanthropist; and was involved in a number of the area's iron mining-related businesses, including acting as a director the Cleveland Iron Company. White served in many local and state public offices, including postmaster, county clerk, school board member, state representative and senator, and as a member of the state library commission and a Regent of the University of Michigan. Poet William Henry Drummond said of White, "the trail Peter White has cut through life is blessed by acts of private charity and deeds of public devotion that will serve as a guide to those who follow in the footsteps of a truly great, and above all, good man."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Department of Parks and Recreation (n.d.). "Presque Isle". City of Marquette . Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  2. Marquette County Convention and Visitors Bureau (November 21, 2019). "Presque Isle Park: Marquette's Perfect Playground". Travel Marquette Michigan. Marquette County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  3. "Kaw-Baw-Gum of the Chippewas is Dead". Lake Superior Journal (Editorial). Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. January 1, 1903.
  4. Berger, Adam (October 2, 2019). "Mah-je-ge-zhik was remarkable man". The Mining Journal.
  5. Russell, James (1922). "Peter White". Michigan History Magazine. 6: 311–312.
  6. Marquette, Michigan. Marquette, Michigan: Citizen's Association. 1891. p. 37.
  7. Martin, Justin (September 2, 2011). "Jewels of Olmsted's Unspoiled Midwest". The New York Times.

Further reading