Fayette Historic State Park houses a Historic Townsite, a representation of a once bustling industrial community. Located on the Big Bay de Noc of Lake Michigan on the southern side of the Upper Peninsula, it was the site of an industrial community that manufactured charcoal pig iron between 1867 and 1891. The town has been reconstructed into a living museum showing what life was like in this town in the late 19th century.
They used limestone from the local cliffs to help purify the iron ore.
The blast furnaces .....
One of the kilns used to make charcoal. Hardwoods were cut down and used to make the charcoal. The charcoal was used to fire the furnaces to melt the ore.
Pictures from the town site...
We happened to be there the day that the park was sponsoring a Halloween event.
CITES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayette_Historic_State_Park
One of the most surprising and interesting feature of this short-lived industrial community, to me, was the ethnic diversity. If you look at the family names, you see all sorts of backgrounds. It was not a little town of all Bohemians or all French or all Finnish or whatever.
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