Eagle Harbor Township’s post office opened in 1861, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940
11 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 2 buildings between them. Below: 8 old photos and papers from 1793 on.
From Eagle Harbor Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Eagle Harbor Township began
When was Eagle Harbor Township founded?
1861
The Eagle Harbor Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Eagle Harbor (1861), Island Mine (1874) and Johns (1902), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 217165 years
Founding year: the first Eagle Harbor Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Eagle Harbor Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Eagle Harbor
1861–1959
Island Mine
1874–1878
Johns
1902–1909
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Copper FallsEagle HarborNepco Camp Number 7Windigo
Gone or out of use
Calumet Air Force StationmilitaryEagle Harbor Post Officepost officeEagle Harbor Post Officepost officeHaytown MinemineIsland MinemineIsland Mine Post Officepost officeJohns Post Officepost officeLake Desor CampgroundlocaleWendigo Minesmine
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Eagle Harbor Township
Isle RoyalePine Grove
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
On the National Register
11 historic places in Eagle Harbor Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Eagle Harbor is known in the Ojibwe language as Ginoozhegoong, meaning "place of the northern pike".
The earliest known non-indigenous settlement at Eagle Harbor was a log warehouse built in 1844. In 1845, the Eagle Harbor Mining Company was established there to mine copper. In 1853, the Eagle Harbor Schoolhouse was established. A post office operated at Eagle Harbor from 1857 through 1959.
The Eagle Harbor Light was first constructed in 1851. A rocky ledge originally obstructed entrance to the harbor for larger ships, but in the late 1870s a 14 foot (4.3 m)-deep channel was dredged at the entrance to the harbor.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Eagle Harbor Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Eagle Harbor Township?
11 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Holy Redeemer Church (listed 1972, the first), 2 historic districts, the Johns Hotel and the Brockway Mountain Drive, with 2 contributing buildings, and 4 structures.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (9), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (11), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
c. 1870
1902
1902
2006
2006
2006