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Passage Island Light StationPassage Island Light Station · Photo: US Coast Guard · Public domain
–Not graded
History · Houghton Township

27% of Houghton Township’s homes were built before 1940

11 places in town are on the National Register, among them four historic districts with 98 buildings between them. Below: 16 old photos and papers, maps from 1985 on, and the census since 1860.

11on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
16old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Houghton Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Houghton Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Lost villages6 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Houghton Township, and 6 old place names are still on the map.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1910 and 1960, then more than doubled.A historic districtThe Tobin Harbor Historic District takes in 52 historic buildings.A town in old photos16 old photos, postcards and papers, 1883–1906.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Six other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Eagle River
1861–today
Phoenix
1865–1954
Central Mine
1871–1906
Minong
1876–1881
Rockharbor
1911–1917
Rock Harbor
1923–1959
Isle Royale National Park
1959–1967
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
CentralEagle NestEagle RiverPhoenixRock Harbor LodgeVaughnsville
Gone or out of use
Central Mine Post Officepost officeDatolite MinemineEagle River LighthouselocaleEpidote MinemineIsle Royale Natinal Park Post Officepost officeLucky Bay MinemineMinong MinemineMinong Post Officepost officePhoenix Post Officepost officePhoenix StationlocaleRansom MinemineRock Harbor Post Officepost officeSaginaw MinemineSiskowit MinemineSmithwick Minemine
1cemetery inside Houghton Township
Cemetery Island

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

People over time

Houghton Township, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,0001900195020005,113 in 1910Low: 3,393

Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1960, then more than doubled.

16 censuses, 1860–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Houghton Township’s Wikipedia page.

On the National Register

11 listings protect 109 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
11
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
109
each building in a district counts
first listed
1970
Central Mine Methodist Church
Central Mine Methodist ChurchCentral Mine Historic DistrictEdisen FisheryRock Harbor Lighthouse, built 1855Isle Royale Light Station, built 1875Eagle River Historic DistrictChurch of the Assumption, built 1858Passage Island Light Station, built 1882Tobin Harbor Historic DistrictOjibway Fire TowerMinong
BuildingsDistrictsSitesStructures

Architectural styles listings

Gothic2
Lighthouse1
Georgian Revival1
Eastlake1
Queen Anne1
Late Victorian1
Central Mine Methodist ChurchBuilding
Central Mine Historic DistrictDistrict
Edisen FisheryBuilding
Rock Harbor LighthouseLighthouse · Built 1855
Isle Royale Light StationBuilt 1875
Eagle River Historic DistrictGeorgian Revival
Church of the AssumptionGothic · Built 1858
Passage Island Light StationLate Victorian · Built 1882
All 11 listings
Tobin Harbor Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2019Ojibway Fire TowerStructure · listed 2021MinongDistrict · listed 2019

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Houghton Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Houghton Township.

Read it all →

Native Americans mined copper in and around what would later be Houghton thousands of years before European settlement. "French explorers had noted... [its] existence [in the area] as early as the seventeenth century, [and in] 1772 Alexander Henry had prospected for copper on the Ontonagon River near Victoria."

Many Cornish and Finnish immigrants arrived in the Houghton area to work in the copper mines in the mining boom that made Copper Country on the Keweenaw Peninsula; both groups have had a great influence on the culture and cuisine of the local area. The Finns and others called much of the area Copper Island. Smaller numbers of French-Canadian immigrants moved to Houghton, while more of them settled elsewhere in Houghton County.

ChaptersPhilatelic history

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Houghton Township, 1855 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855BuiltRock Harbor Lighthouse is built
  3. 1858BuiltChurch of the Assumption is built
  4. 1861Post officeThe Eagle River post office opens
  5. 1865Post officeThe Phoenix post office opens
  6. 1871Post officeThe Central Mine post office opens
  7. 1875BuiltIsle Royale Light Station is built
  8. 1882BuiltPassage Island Light Station is built
  9. 1883In the archiveSHELDEN-Ransom
  10. 1898In the archiveCopper for Shipment, Houghton, Mich
  11. 20th century
  12. 1900In the archiveHoughton, Michigan panorama c1900
  13. 1906Post officeThe Central Mine post office closes
  14. 1954Post officeThe Phoenix post office closes
  15. 1985On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  16. 21st century
  17. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 8,386
By decade

Houghton Township, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s–1900s16 items
SHELDEN-Ransom1883SHELDEN-RansomCopper for Shipment, Houghton, Mich1898Copper for Shipment, Houghton, MichPortage Lake, Hancock-Houghton, Mich1898Portage Lake, Hancock-Houghton, MichHoughton, Michigan panorama c19001900Houghton, Michigan panorama c1900Michigan-smelter-pano-c1900-19061900Michigan-smelter-pano-c1900-1906Michigan School of Mines (Michigan Technological University)1900Michigan School of Mines (Michigan Technological Univ…Chemical laboratory, Michigan School of Mines [i.e. Michigan Technological University]1900Chemical laboratory, Michigan School of Mines [i.e. M…Copper for shipment1900Copper for shipmentPortage Lake, Hancock, and Houghton, Mich., from the west1900Portage Lake, Hancock, and Houghton, Mich., from the …Loading copper, Houghton, Michigan, c1905c. 1905Loading copper, Houghton, Michigan, c1905Picked up on Lake Superior by S.S. Juniatac. 1905Picked up on Lake Superior by S.S. JuniataLoading copper on steamer1905Loading copper on steamerCopper for shipment, Houghton, Mich. 1c. 1906Copper for shipment, Houghton, Mich. 1Copper for shipment, Houghton, Mich. 2c. 1906Copper for shipment, Houghton, Mich. 2Str. Martin Mullen, Pioneer Steam Ship Co. , coaling, Houghton, Michc. 1906Str. Martin Mullen, Pioneer Steam Ship Co. , coaling,…Michigan School of Mines, Haughton [i.e. Houghton], Mich1906Michigan School of Mines, Haughton [i.e. Houghton], M…
1910s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
On the map

Houghton Township on the map in 1985

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Houghton Township.

Houghton Township on the 1985 USGS map1985Mott Island sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Houghton Township.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

SHELDEN-Ransom
Retake this viewSHELDEN-Ransom, 1883

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Houghton Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Houghton Township’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewSHELDEN-Ransom: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Eagle Harbor Township11 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townEagle River2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townSherman TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAllouez Township1 historic placeA−

Questions about Houghton Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Houghton Township?

11 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Central Mine Methodist Church (listed 1970, the first), 4 historic districts with 98 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 109 historic buildings in all.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (10), the Library of Congress (6), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (11), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.