The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-08-08
Picturesque L'Anse.


UNI rageous, piscatorial and pictur.
esque L'Anse, or more plainly speak.
ing, clayey, sand-stony, siaty, fishy and
beautiful L'Anse! What city you
would have been, had only the various
industries scattered around the head OF
Kew eenaw bay been all concentrated at
your feet! doubly, quadruply, sextuply
confound those who could have, but did
not, so arrange agrarian matters, water
fronts, dock privileges, and land ten
ures, mot petty leases) that mills and
manufactures would have settled here,
rather than at Pequaming, Baraga and
other places where these privileges
were easily and abundantly procured.
Towns like individuals have idiosyn-
cracies OF their own. L'Anse is
peculiarly a homestead town; aristo-
cracy there is based upon homestead
ing big-bugs have homesteads, common
people do not; entire families number
ing eight or ten members, have each q
homestead; and L'Anse's people have
actually received over a quarter of o
million of dollars in cash for the pine
alone upon their bomesteads, retaining
in their possession the land itself The
dear girls even have gone into the bust.
ness and one is employed in land suit
with Uncle Sam, and they say she is
sure to win. bachelors in search of
wives with pine, should go to LAnse as
there are several girls there whose
homcsteads are worth up into the
thousands.
There are probably more stages at
L'Anse than any other town III the
Northern Peninsula. Lines of v, hicles
run from here to Arvon, Huron Bay,
Pequaming and to settlement west
whose name is forgotten; sometimes as
many as six or seven leave tor Huron
Bay and Arvon each day, all loaded to
their capacity. During the grading of
the Huron Bay railroad, where at one
time eighteen hundred men were en-
ployed, the travel from L'Anse to
Arvon was something phenomenal.
Then it was thai hotel and stage lines
reaped harvest. Jim johnson, an
old and we'll known explorer, claims to
know of the exact place where the
Indians for centuries have been getting
gold in the Huron mountains. lie was
offered $4,000 cash, merely to show
the location, and the parties actually
counted out the money when Mr.. john
son, Tor some reason or other, backed
out. He claims that for months he was
watched and that he was compelled to
visit the gold find secretly at night, in
order to keep the knowledge of its loca-
tion from others. New York specula-
tors have bothered the life out of him,
but lie alone so far holds the valuable
secret. Aud confidentially between the
reader, myself and tie gatepost he is
likely to hold it until doomsday for that
golden spot exists very likely only in
old Jim's imagination.
There i, a water power of great value
running to waste at LAnse; chair fact
ories, furniture factories, and other
wooden-ware makers, stand ready to ut
once erect manufacturing plants there,
when the site can be secured on reason
able terms. The owner offers to lease,
but will not sell; of course no one
will place valuable and costly plants of
upon leased land, so L'Anse
is compelled to wait, its growth smoth-
cred while the county seat Of Baraga
county rests upon the pleasure of
landed aristocrat. How much of that
reliance upon delusive hope is apparent
all over this peninsula if one only
directs his attention to local economies
and sociology.
There is no bank ut I'Anse but The
postoffice is money order Office and
the express office issues money orders
so that remittances can be made through
these channels. Houghton being only
one hours distance. business from here
and hereabouts goes there, rather than
to Ishpeming or Marquette; besides
Baraga county having once been part
and parcel of Eodghton county, this is
the more natural way for it to take.
One wonders what the people all do
here but, upon inquiry, enc finds lots
Of work to be done.
There is numbering and fishing which
the French take to naturally: the sand
stone industry comes next, and employs
D number Of men, the old Hurley
quarry being lately reopened. It has
been sold to Detroit and Marquette
parties, is situated two miles down the
bay shore, has good harbor, and is
near the water front. The st. Clair
brothers, of Ishpeming, are interested
in the site. L'Anse furnished the first
boy or page from the U. p.
ut the capital at Lansing, in the person
of w. Il. Menge. This young gentle
man was instrumental in promoting cer-
tain Lake Superior bills during their
passage through the houses of legisla-
tiop, and has already quite start in
politics. Near by in every direction
are farmers doing well upon their land,
and living in greater independence aud
comfort than our miners. All OF them
were originally homesteaders, but have
now proved up," and got title from
Uncle Sam. The land here is heavily
timbered and the wood meets a ready
cash sale when once loaded upon the
cars. Large quantities of it go to Ish-
pcming for family use, and to generate
steam for the mines.
Several United States geologists
have just come in from Huron mount
rins and quietly took the cars in n hur-
rieu manner for Washington to make
their IL, i,o... They were loaded down
with various specimens of quartz and
rock, but were tacituru as bear, silent
rs the great sphinx, and reserved as
genuine duke from Britain.
The only hotel on earth that ever
Lock n hoat rida from Houobfon to