Emerson

Emerson is a Michigan historical marker in Whitefish Township, Chippewa County, dedicated 1980.

M-123 south of Tahquamenon River, Whitefish Township

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Once a thriving hub of pine lumbering, Emerson is now a fishing hamlet. Just one mile south of the mouth of the Tahquamenon River (immortalized in Longfellow’s poem “Hiawatha”), this settlement overlooks picturesque Whitefish Bay. The village was founded by Kurt Emerson, a lumberman from the Saginaw Bay area, in the 1880s. Emerson erected a sawmill and in 1884 sold his establishment to the Chesbrough Lumber Company. Milling and lumbering operations ceased in 1912, at which time commercial fishing became the economic bulwark of the community.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1869 · Railroad & Commercial Atlas Of The United States (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · County and Township Map of the States of Michigan and Wisconsin. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1878 · Michigan. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Railroad & Commercial Atlas Of The United States, 1869, covering the location of Emerson, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Railroad & Commercial Atlas Of The United States, 1869, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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Emerson

Historical maps covering this location

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