Mason, Houghton County, Michigan
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 11/01/2022

Mason, Houghton County, Michigan, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10054060 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Unincorporated_communities_in_Houghton_County,_Michigan
#Unincorporated_communities_in_Michigan
#Houghton_micropolitan_area,_Michigan
Mason is a small unincorporated community in Houghton County, Michigan that is the remainder of past stamp mill operations at the Quincy Mining Company Stamp Mills.
Still standing and mostly occupied are 23 mining company houses, all along M-26.
Mason has been dubbed by some locals "shutter town," because each house had its own distinct color of shutter.
Most of the homes are painted white, and are of the same type and style.
Mason was established in the late 1890s, when the new Stamp Mill was built.
It originally had about 40-45 homes and from 1892-1932 had a school that went to grade 9 （Clarence Monette, Some Copper Country Names and Places） The second row of homes were located where the current ruins of the reclamation plant are.
It also had a boarding house- most likely near the school as it is not listed for location in any of the maps or archival information at Michigan Tech archives.
Most of the 'T' plan houses cost around $480 to build, and were constructed by Quincy Mining carpenters.
A typical Mason home.
During a census from 1900-1910 14 families （out of nearly 45-50 homes） had been continuously renting there.
In 1915 Highway M-26 was officially named and went through Mason.
In 1926 the highway was resurfaced from a gravel road to concrete.
Around 1918 a sewer system was installed.
Around 1920 electricity and lights were installed in all of the homes.
An article from the daily Mining Gazette from 12 December 1959 claimed 125 people occupied all 25 houses in Mason.
In an article "Mason....houses by the side of the road" 25 September 1981 cited "in 1900 a 2nd mill was constructed... meanwhile more larger houses were built and the first store was opened by Herman Radther in the kitchen of his home,
and later a Bertha Ch...