Houghton

History

Native Americans mined copper in and around what would later be Houghton thousands of years before European settlement. "French explorers had noted... [its] existence [in the area] as early as the seventeenth century, [and in] 1772 Alexander Henry had prospected for copper on the Ontonagon River near Victoria." The last nearby mines closed in the late 1960s, but a school founded in 1885 by the Michigan State Legislature to teach metallurgy and mining engineering, the Michigan College of Mines, continues today under the name of Michigan Technological University and is the primary employer in the city. The first known European settler of Houghton was named Ransom Shelden, who set up a store named Ransom's near Portage Lake, though it is unclear whether this was in the same building as the 1852 Shelden and Shafer drugs, sometimes described as "the first commercial building constructed in Houghton," which Shelden owned with his son Ransom B. The main street of Houghton, variously called "Sheldon Avenue," (incorrectly) Sheldon Street, and Shelden Avenue, is named for him. In the 1970s the construction of a parking deck and the connection of downtown stores to create Shelden Center significantly changed the downtown. William W. Henderson was appointed the first postmaster of Houghton in 1852. In 1854, Ernest F. Pletschke platted Houghton, and was incorporated as a village in 1861. In Houghton's first days it was said that "only thieves, crooks, murderers and Indians" lived there. The postwar boom and increasing demand for copper wiring fueled the development of Houghton in the 1860s and 1870s. and in 1883, the railroad was extended from Marquette. 1909 saw the founding of what would later become Portage Lake District Library. During the bitter Copper Country Strike of…

Geography

The city is located on the south shore of the Keweenaw Waterway, on rolling wooded hills, less than a mile across Portage Lake from Hancock. The city is bounded on the east by Portage Township and Pilgrim, on the west by Dakota Heights and Adams Township, and on the south by Hurontown and Isle Royale Location, unincorporated communities that are part of Portage Township. Houghton is named after Douglass Houghton, discoverer of copper nearby. Houghton is also the home of Michigan Technological University. The city is served by Houghton County Memorial Airport in nearby Oneco. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. In the West Houghton neighborhood is West Houghton Park, featuring an outdoor ice rink and lawn tennis courts. Along Portage Lake is the Raymond Kestner Waterfront Recreation Area, the principal feature of which is a large "Chutes and Ladders" playground; it also includes Houghton Beach. Along the waterfront, in the area that used to be occupied by the railroad tracks, runs the flat, paved Waterfront Trail for cyclists and pedestrians; at one end of this is the Houghton RV Park, at the other end the Nara Nature Park and midway along this corridor is Mattila Square. Veterans Park is just across the Portage Lake Lift Bridge from Hancock, and contains the memorial to the Houghton Company, which fought in the Civil War. Houghton is the headquarters for Isle Royale National Park. The Portage Lift Bridge spans Portage Lake, which is part of the river and canal system that crosses the entire peninsula, connecting Hancock and Houghton. The bridge, which provides of vertical clearance for ships when open, is the world's heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge. Since rail traffic…

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Houghton Elementary School
  Elementary · HOUGHTON · 643 students · 18.9:1 ratio
• Houghton Central High School
  High · HOUGHTON · 461 students · 18.4:1 ratio
• Lake LindenHubbell Schools
  Other · LAKE LINDEN · 376 students · 15:1 ratio
• Houghton Middle School
  Middle · HOUGHTON · 341 students · 17.9:1 ratio
• Hancock MiddleHigh School
  High · HANCOCK · 332 students · 15.8:1 ratio
• Copper Island Academy
  Elementary · Calumet · 324 students · 13.5:1 ratio
• Dollar BayTamarack City Area K12 School
  Other · DOLLAR BAY · 306 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• Barkell Elementary School
  Elementary · HANCOCK · 272 students · 15.1:1 ratio