Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1901-06-20
ROOMS IN MICHIGAN.
REcoLLEcTIoNS OF STIRRING DAYS
LONG GONE.
Speculation Fever Ragged When the
State Entered the Union - Great
Schemes Tint Were Planned-ReI-
les of a Metropolis.

State Entered the Union Great
les of n Metropolis.
In these modern days Michigan is not
given to "booms," 1t is true three or
four years ago Sault Ste. Marie indulg
ed for brief spell in many iridescent
dreams, sold real estate four miles out
in the country at urban prices and
measured city property by the frac-
tons of a square foot. But the 800"
is an isolated case, the exception to the
rule that Michigan is not state Of
booms. The older inhabitants of the
state, those who can recall the events
of threescore years, can look back up
on period when Michigan was as full
of air castles as any land of fable and
romance, when the most gorgeous bub-
bles were as numerous as the trees Of
the forest, when the state was thickly
dotted, in prospect, with thriving cities
and bustling villages.
Michigan came into statehood on a
boom of gigantic proportions. 1t was
In 1885, and at that time a widespread
western fever prevailed in the east
ern states. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois were pictured as lands of
hope and bright promise, and with the
hardy pioneers in search Of homes
came many spectators who dreamed
of speedy wealth from the rise in land
values. The land Office in Detroit was
besieged, and the stirring scenes of the
Oklahoma opening were enacted with
slightly different stage settings, but
with the same spirit manifested. The
population of the new state, according
to the census of 1887, numbered ia
061, and the people We're massed chief
ly in the southern tier of counties, with
Detroit as the center of commercial ac-
tivity and the seat of government.
Among them prevailed that same
speculative fever which ragged in other
parts of the country, and everybody
imagined that the road to immediate
and magnificent wealth was straight
and short and that he was on 1t. At
the head of the first state government
was Stevens Thomson Mason, Virgin
ian, who had come here as secretary to
the territorial governor and himself
dClcu DIS SONcIliOE III tue ubSSiSe VI Ailt
chief executive. When he came to
Michigan as secretary, he had just
passed his eighteenth birthday, and
when he entered upon his duties as the
first governor elected by the people of
the state he was barely % years old.
He was the youngest governor this or
any other state elected to the office. He
was not only young, but he was hand
some and enthusiastic and impetuous
and in common with everybody else be-
lieved that the boom then on had come
to stay.
Under the original constitution of the
state adopted in those boom days sin
ternal improvements shall be encour-
aged by the government of this state"
and the members of the early legisla-
lures, all enthusiasts, were eager to en-
ter upon the improving work and were
free in voting public money in aid of
these enterprises. Railroads to be con-
structed by the state were projected,
and the work was begun on three diff
ferent lines. Two canals across the
state to save the long voyage around
by Mackinaw were planned, and at
Mount Clemens may still be seen
traces of the early digging for one of
them.
A state banking law was enacted,
and under 1t banks were established at
every crossroads, many of them having
printing press and n stout boy to
work it as the only capital. While the
state was pushing forward the public
improvements and upon them lavish
ing millions of money individuals and
syndicates were engaged In castle
building on an equally elaborate scale.
Cities were laid out and villages were
plated, and in many an eastern city a
thriving business was done In selling
corner lots in these western wilderness
metropolises. In the course of time the
boom collapsed. The wildcat banks In
the woods went to the wall, and the
currency issued by them became as
worthless as it really was. The state
went out of the internal Improvement
business and repudiated some of the
bonds Issued for the railroad and canal
business. The boom cities In the for
ests collapsed and disappeared. and the
people of that day knew what hard
times were.
About 80 miles from Grand Rapids,
on the shore of Lake Michigan, half
way between Grand Haven and Hol-
land, will still be seen a relic of the
boom days. An old frame building
battered by the storms of many win
tiers, without windows and far gone In
decay, stands in a grove of second
growth timber, and around it will be
seen an occasional old stump, and II
the visitor will look closely he may find
traces Of what were once sidewalks and
streets. The place is deserted, and the
only visitors are the hunters who pass
that way on summer picnic parties.
The old building is all that is left of
what was once Port Sheldon, designed
to be the metropolis of the west, In the
building of which thousands of dollars
were spent and whose collapse figured
In national scandal.