Gogebic County GenWeb

I've not been able to find histories for all the townships, cities, towns and villages of Gogebic County. Towns that have been written about (some currently have only one sentence) are in bold lettering.

If you can provide the history of one or more, please contact me. Corrections and additions to any already in place will also be gratefully accepted.

Histories of the Towns and Townships of Gogebic County
(towns whose histories are narrated to date will have blue links)

Anvil	Aurora	Auvinen Corner	Beaton
Bessemer (49911)	Bonifas	Cisco Lake	Connorville
Dunham	Ethelwood	Fuller	Gogebic
Hartley	Hautala Corner	Hillcrest	Ironwood (49938)
Jessieville	Junet	Katakitckon I.V.	Marenisco (49947)
Norrie	North Bessemer	North Ironwood	Planter
Plymouth	Ramsay (49959)	Siemens	Stickley
Tamarack	Thayer	Theilers	Thomaston
Verona	Wakefield (49968)	Watersmeet (49969)	Wellington
White City	Wico	Yale

Township Land Area in Square Miles

Origin of Names

GOGEBIC County was named after Lake Gogebic. The Indians called the lake, "AGOGEBIC," because in their native language the word meant, "A Body of Water Hanging on High." They knew that the lake had a high elevation, which was caused by the glaciers centuries ago. In other words, Lake Gogebic is 1,290.81 feet above sea level, but when the water reaches Lake Superior, the lake level is only 602 feet above sea level. The exact definition of "Gogebic" will never be known, as it all depends on the interpreter. The popular meaning, used for the purpose of tourism is "Where Trout Rising Make Rings on the Water." Research by historians has not been able to determine how and when and why "Agogebic" was changed to "Gogebic." A satisfactory conclusion is that a printer either purposely or accidentally dropped the "A" during a printing job.

IRONWOOD was named for James "Iron" Wood. He was the discoverer of the Norrie Mine at Ironwood, exposing for the holder of the lease, A. L. Norrie, what turned out to be one of the greatest bodies of high grade ore ever to be found in Michigan.

BESSEMER was named after Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor of the process of manufacturing malleable iron and steel without fuel.

RAMSAY the town in Bessemer Township, was named for Sir William Ramsay, a Scotch chemist born in Glasgow, Scotland. He won his chief reputation for his discovery of rare gases. He was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry. His discoveries are a major factor in the iron ore processes.

WAKEFIELD was named after George M. Wakefield, a financier of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who came to this area in the pioneering days. In 1881, George M. Wakefield was the secretary-treasurer of the "Ontonagon River Improvement and Boom Company," which built a number of dams and blasted rock in the Ontonagon River to float logs to the sawmills.

MARENISCO was named after Mary Enid Scott, wife of one of the early pioneers of the settlement and the wife of the founder. It will be noted that the first three letters in each name are used to spell "Marenisco."

WATERSMEET derived from the two words, "waters" and "meet." A number of waters actually meet there, and it is interesting to note that in the Watersmeet area the Ontonagon River flows north into Lake Superior, the Wisconsin River flows south into the Mississippi River, and the Paint River flows east into Lake Michigan. Also, the town is the meeting place of the water of Duke Creek, flowing north, and the Ontonagon River flowing east and north. The Indian word for Watersmeet is 'Ticonderoga.'