 Yesterday TV 6 Reporter Colin Jackson met Dr. Don Lafreniere, Ph.D. Candidate James Juip and Chassell Historical Organization President Keith Meyers to discuss the grand opening of the Chassell Historic Trail. Work on the trail was extensive. It involved historical research and site archeology done by members of the Michigan Technological University Social Sciences Department. Chassell Township School students helped design the interpretive signs based on this research. A generous grant from the John and Melissa Besse Foundation made this work possible.
The Keweenaw Time Traveler team created a digital story book to go along with the trail signage. 'Stanley the Strawberry's Great Adventure' is designed to engage young children in the history of the lumber industry in Chassell. In this short children's book Stanley the Strawberry discovers this forgotten past with the help of Sheila the Shingle and friends. The news story on the project was part of the TV6 nightly news broadcast last night and can be viewed here: Chassell Historic Trail now open (uppermichiganssource.com)
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 Thank you so much to the Chassell Lions for putting on an amazing Copper Country Strawberry Festival! It was so much fun to meet so many people passionate about our Copper County heritage. Over 500 people stopped by to say hi to the Time Traveler Team over the weekend. We had dozens of people share new stories with us, which you can explore at keweenawhistory.com!  We were also excited to see so many people explore the brand-new trail created by the Chassell Heritage Center! The grand opening for this new trail debuted during the festival and so did our new digital story book. Anyone can now hike the trail and use keweenawhistory.com to follow along on 'Stanley the Strawberry's Great Adventure'. Our collaboration with the Chassell Heritage Center's brand-new trail was a success, creating many new fans of Stanley the Strawberry. We cannot wait to see everyone next year!  Thank you to the 200 people who stopped by our booth to share and learn about our Copper Country Heritage at Bridgefest! We are very lucky to live in such an amazing place with so many great people who are passionate about our community. We also debuted a number of new activities including: 'My Copper Country Memory' where kids of all ages can draw their favorite memory about the Keweenaw and share it with us on the Time Traveler as a StoryPoint! This is especially important as the stories and memories of children often get overlooked as historians collect and share the stories about the past! Come see us throughout the summer as we continue to connect with people to to start conversations about how this region’s industrial past continues to affect our lives and identities today.  Using keweenawhistory.com students at Michigan Technological University raced to find the location of unique places that used to exist across campus. To complete a square students took pictures in the location found in the square. Prizes were awarded to the most bingos completed in an hour as well as the best photo taken during the competition! You can play too! Send us a message at [email protected] if you would like a bingo card and a set of rules you can use to play KeTT Bingo in Houghton, Hancock, Calumet, Laurium, or Lake Linden! Its a fun way to get out enjoy the weather and learn about the history of this great place we call home!
This project has been a major three-year endeavor for a team of researchers in the Michigan Tech Archives, the Geospatial Research Facility, and the Department of Social Sciences. Project leads Sarah F. Scarlett (Social Sciences), Don Lafreniere (Social Sciences and Geospatial Research Facility), and Lindsay Hiltunen (University Archivist) received a grant for $240,012 in January 2020 from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), a DC-based non-profit whose “Digitizing Hidden Collections” program is made possible with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We brought together a collaborative team across University units with several interrelated and ambitious goals:
After three years, a one-year no-cost extension, countless hours of patient scanning, painstaking transcription, geocoding, record linking, debate about user interface design — all during a global pandemic! — this team is very pleased to announce the successful completion of the Michigan Miners at Home and Work Project! Over the next weeks and months, more Project News stories will appear with in-depth reflections from some of the over 25 student workers who were the heart of this project. Each of these students learned to read cursive (something new to many of them!) and dedicated themselves to deciphering and making sense of the abbreviations used by C&H clerks. They got together on Zoom to share their experiences and lend mutual support during the isolation caused by COVID-19 during 2020 and 2021. Thanks to all of them!
 Yesterday, the Michigan History Day District 1 competition was held at Michigan Technological University! High school students from around the Keweenaw presented their amazing work covering unique historical events! Topics included: 'the Implementation of Hockey Helmets', 'The Frontier of Feminist Journalism', 'the Match Girls' Strike', 'The Banana Massacre', 'Title IX: A Frontier for Female Equality', and many others! Students also played some History Bingo using keweenawhistory.com to explore the changing landscape of the Michigan Tech campus! Thank you to the Michigan Tech Department of Social Sciences and the Michigan Tech Archives for such a special day!
 A new set of post cards from the past are headed to over 90 lucky people in the Village of Calumet, Houghton Michigan, and Hancock, Michigan! This is the second batch of postcards that use www.keweenawhistory.com to share with people the history of their home and the amazing people who lived there before. Is your home in our second batch? Check your mailbox over the next week to find out!
Helping others engage with local history is one of the main goals of the Keweenaw Time Traveler! This winter, we are working with many local businesses around the Copper Country to bring local history to the businesses we use every day. Over the coming months, we will be installing window stickers which link to stories you’ve shared about these businesses.  Please join us in congratulating Timothy Stone on his completion of a Master’s Degree in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology. His thesis looked at how children’s environmental exposures are studied and included the development of an index to compare student exposures in 1920 Calumet and Laurium. His project incorporated local school records into the Keweenaw Time Traveler, which are now available to the public through the Explore application. You can read his thesis here: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr/1482/.
Have you ever received a postcard from some exotic place? Maybe a friend was vacationing in France, or a family member in Hawaii? Or maybe Calumet?
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