Fayette the Iron Town

Hello all:

This morning we toured the historic town of Fayette, Michigan, named for Fayette Brown, the agent who founded the site. It sits on Lake Michigan, which is appropriate, since they used this lake to transport pig iron from here to all sorts of places from 1867 to 1890. I found out that "pigs" are like ingots to copper or gold. They melt these to ship them (sort of like blocks).

 

 

So the town was really bustling for the short time it was here. When they closed it in 1890, most people went down to Escanaba or other places nearby and set up as fishermen or farmers.

 

 

 the town overview

 

 hotel

 

 front desk check-in

 

 barber

 

 shave and a haircut, 2 bits

 

 school

 

 

 payroll office

 

 locked up, no freebies here

 

 the company store

(must've had a fire sale---literally; some stores burned in 1920)

 

 the working man's cabin

Apparently, there were at least 200 working-class people who lived on the back end of the town. They threw their refuse in the lake and everywhere else, so it stunk. They were also "downwind" of the factory. Some houses had at least 8 people in them (one house had husband, wife, 4 children, 2 boarders. EEEEK!)

 

 Yes, she's real.

She was "hanging out" by the side of the road, eating some foliage. At first I thought she was fake, put near a building to allude to the local flora/fauna. Until she moved. Her fawn was about 50 feet away in the woods further up the road. Super neat, since she let us get that close.

 

 

So you've seen the town. We are hanging out at the local eatery (The Garden House) and having perch, fried in beer batter (is there any other kind of batter??) and I'm drinking an import, G is drinking Blue Moon. They ran out of the local IPA yesterday. That was good, too. It went well with the whitefish sandwich. Yum!

 

Tomorrow we hit the road heading back home, taking our time, taking in most of the sites. We will miss this beautiful weather and green pastoral scenery. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. Until the next trip, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars, and we'll keep living the airstream dream!