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Alger County
- University of Michigan Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
5 muNIsING—alger County is home to some of North america’s oldest place-names. some derive from the native ojibwa, whereas others are literal French and english translations of the original ojibwa name. munising, the county seat, comes from minis-sing, which means“place of the island.” across the bay from munising in lake superior is Grand Island. some of the French names still in existence, such as au train, appeared in French maps in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. but the name of the county is relatively new, for its namesake lived to see the creation of the county. russell a. alger was a prominent figure of public power and private wealth. he was a lumber baron estimated to hold over 100,000 acres of land. he served as governor of michigan, secretary of war for President William mcKinley, and u.s. senator. before the arrival of permanent european settlers, alger County had a stream of visitors. etienne brule and his companion Grenoble went by about 1619. two fur traders —Pierre esprit radisson and his brother-in-law medand Chouart, sieur de Groseilliers—came in 1658. Jesuit missionaries rene menard, Claude allouez, and Jacques marquette visited in 1660, 1665, and 1669, respectively. the Northwest Fur Company sent the first european settler to the area to establish british interests in 1763, the year that French rule ended after the French and Indian War. several years later, america gained jurisdiction, and in 1820 territorial governor lewis Cass led an expedition to upper michigan, stopping at Grand marais and Grand Island. alGer CouNty From1843to1885,algerwaspartof schoolcraftCounty, which depended first on Chippewa and then on marquette County until 1871 for local government. schoolcraft would govern the territory of alger only for a short while because the legislature saw fit to establish alger County on march 17, 1885. From may to october, much debate and maneuvering surrounded choosing the county seat. munising, au train, Grand marais, and Wetmore were all vying for the designation . au train won by sweetening the deal. It enhanced its bid by offering “a suitable building” free for a year, an offer that no competitor could match. at the time, au train only had one building to offer, Charlie schaffer’s au train hotel, the sole building in town. the county used it free of charge for two years. a new courthouse was completed in october 1887 for $5,300 on land that schaffer donated. It was a green-framed two-story structure topped with a cupola. Its iron-fenced courtyard had a small Native american cemetery with house-covered graves. Due to the trouble of transporting prisoners to and from the jail in marquette, alger County had its own jail by 1890. by the turn of the century there was a strong push to move the county seat to munising, which had grown much larger in population. other points in its favor were its central location, the poor travel routes to au train, a need for a larger jail, and a lack of accommodations in au train. It was reported that witnesses and others involved in proceedings at au train often had to sleep on the floor of the courthouse. Alger County 6 alGer CouNty Voters approved the move in 1901, and there was a new courthouse in munising by 1902. It featured an ornate design mainly of salmon-colored stone. atop it was a large statue of lady Justice holding scales. at one point during the 1960s, some imp painted a pink bikini on her, causing a local stir that drew national media coverage. earlier, some of the bronze statuary had been donated to the World War II effort. on November 16, 1978, the lady and the courthouse above which she presided met an untimely end. Fire gutted the whole building. the sheriff noticed it at 5:40 a.m., and it was under control by 8:00 a.m., but the structure was beyond repair. the records, though, were in fire-resistant vaults that the fire department watered down in order to prevent any paper from igniting. there was some water damage, and many of the records had to be spread out across the street from a gas station to dry. the fire department saved an adjoining school and church. before a modern replacement could be erected on the site of the old courthouse, alger County went through a transition period in which county offices and records were scattered about temporary office space all over the...