Wednesday, 7/11

It's another day, so that must mean I'm doing another tour for the Marquette Regional History Center.

Funny how that works out.

Tonight's tour is actually a repeat of one almost 200 people attended last year called “the Docks of Iron Bay”, which traces the history of Marquette's Lower Harbor. It includes two out of the three things that makes it a Jim Koski ™ tour—hookers and killers—but I like it for another reason. I like it because it allows me to play urban archaeologist, and point out to the people on the tour how things right under their noses, things they see every day yet pay no attention to, are a huge part of Marquette history.

I think that's kinda cool.

What I also find cool is that I learned something after last year's tour, as well. It started when Fred Stonehouse asked me about a bunch of pilings in the Lower Harbor, apparent remains of a dock. He even sent me a picture of a non-related event to show what he was talking about--

See that thin white line in the water just to the right of Lower Harbor Park? The line with the lone white boat right above it?  Those are the remains of pilings from an old ore dock. I wasn't sure which one, so I dug out an old Sanborn insurance map from 1897, and saw that the pilings came from the DSS&A dock #4, built in 1890--

Coincidentally, around the same time, my friend Jack Deo had come across pictures of that dock being built, and shared them with me--

Even better than the pictures he had were the notes written on the back of them, notes talking about construction of the dock, notes (with an amazing story behind them) I'll be discussing tonight. Finally, I remembered someone else had sent me a picture of several docks in Marquette, and as it turned out, Dock #4 is prominently featured--

Dock #4, the “missing” dock, is on the left, right next to the Coal Dock (which is now the Thill's Dock) and what was then DSS&A Dock #3, which is now the Association Dock. Weird how this all works, out, right? One person goes on a tour, asks a question, and pretty soon there's a whole new dock to talk about.

You ever wonder why I like to do tours? Well, now you know. If you're interested, it starts at 6 tonight at the Marquette Regional History Center. You'll hear dock stories, a bunch of interesting facts, the story of a murder, and also find out (and see with your own eyes) how the railroads that fed the docks shaped the downtown Marquette in which we now live. If you can make it, we'd love to see you there.

(jim@wmqt.com), who will let you know how it turned out tomorrow!