The End of the Road in Michigan

When copper mines closed during the Great Depression, more than three-quarters of Keweenaw County’s workforce was reportedly unemployed. Local and federal officials responded with three major public projects that helped create a new tourism economy at Michigan’s northern tip.This episode of End of the Road in Michigan examines the construction of Brockway Mountain Drive, Ocha Potter’s controversial Keweenaw Park and Golf Course, and the early development of Isle Royale National Park.Relief workers carved a road across Brockway Mountain, cleared thousands of trees and stumps for a publicly owned resort, and built early visitor facilities on Isle Royale. Critics dismissed Potter’s golf course as “Potter’s Folly,” but the lodge, road and national park remain important Keweenaw attractions more than 90 years later.These projects did not replace the copper industry or end the region’s hardship. They did, however, provide wages, build lasting public facilities and help establish Copper Harbor as a major Michigan vacation destination.#MichiganHistory #KeweenawPeninsula #CopperHarbor #IsleRoyale #GreatDepressionThe End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind PublicationsThis episode includes AI-generated content.

On Oct. 15, 1908, a freight train pulled away from Metz, Michigan, carrying families trying to escape one of the worst forest fires in state history.The passengers believed the railroad would carry them to safety. Instead, the train entered a burning corridor lined with cedar posts, railroad ties, hemlock bark and timber. Heat had damaged the tracks, and the locomotive derailed near Nowicki’s Siding. The open freight cars behind it became a deadly trap.In this episode of The End of the Road in Michigan, we revisit the Metz Fire of 1908, the doomed relief train and the families caught between flames on both sides of the track. The story includes the desperate evacuation, the survivors who crawled through smoke and burning ground, and the residents who stayed behind and lived.The fire killed 37 people across Presque Isle County, destroyed much of Metz and left hundreds without homes as winter approached. It also exposed the dangers created by logging waste, drought and the lack of organized emergency planning in early 20th-century Michigan.This is the story of a village built by the railroad—and the night that railroad carried its people into the fire.The End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind PublicationsThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Before dawn on Nov. 29, 1966, the Great Lakes freighter Daniel J. Morrell broke in two during a violent storm on Lake Huron.Twenty-nine men were aboard. Only one came home.Watchman Dennis Hale escaped onto a life raft with three crewmates. One by one, the other men died from exposure as the raft drifted through freezing spray, towering waves and two nights of darkness. Hale remained alone for 38 hours before a Coast Guard helicopter spotted movement on what appeared to be a raft carrying four bodies.In this episode of End of the Road in Michigan, we follow the Morrell’s final voyage, the terrifying sight of its powered stern racing through the storm, the delayed search and the remarkable survival of the man who lifted one arm toward the sky.The End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind PublicationsThis episode includes AI-generated content.

In 1864, a respected young banker in Hudson, Michigan, vanished with $60,000 in cash—money that belonged to townships, soldiers, and widows.His name was William Treadwell, and the bank he robbed was his own. This episode traces a Civil War–era crime that stunned the state: a carefully planned theft, a dramatic jailbreak, and a betrayal that ended in murder deep in the Ohio woods.It’s a true-crime story of greed, trust, and downfall—one of the strangest financial scandals in Michigan history.The End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind Publications

Before Route 66 became an American road-trip icon, Michigan motorists were already following another ambitious highway south.In this episode of End of the Road in Michigan, we trace the history of the Dixie Highway, a sprawling early automobile route that linked Michigan with Florida beginning in 1915. Its eastern and western divisions crossed the Lower Peninsula, passed through communities such as Detroit, Waterford and Mackinaw City, and helped usher in a new era of tourism, roadside businesses and long-distance driving.We look at Carl G. Fisher’s role in promoting the route, Michigan’s push to become part of the system, the rough conditions early motorists faced, and the stone monument that once marked the highway at Mackinaw City.We also explain how the Dixie Highway predated Route 66 by more than a decade and how much of its route was later absorbed into numbered highways such as U.S. 31. Historic maps, postcards and photographs reveal a time when a “highway” could still mean dirt, gravel and uncertainty.This is the story of the road that pointed south — from the Great Lakes toward Miami — and helped change how Americans traveled. Follow End of the Road in Michigan for more stories from Michigan’s past.The End of the Road in Michigan is a production of Thumbwind Publications