HISTORY & OVERVIEW OF RIDGEFIELD, MICHIGAN

The town of Ridgefield is a port city nestled on a the mouth of the Escanaba River. The town was founded in the early 1700s by the French, although they were not the areas first settlers. The Anishinabe people were the first who lived off the land. When the French arrived in the 17th century the Native Americans and Europeans began to interact, trading fur, which made the region a rich economic resource for the French and later the English. The French left in 1763 by the terms of the Treaty of Paris and were replaced by the English.

During the American Revolution, the citizens of Ridgefield, who's English name was translated from the original French (Champ D'Arete), were relatively safe from the throws of war. However many were still loyal to the English throne and fought for England. The United States eventually took over the Old Northwest of which the Upper Peninsula was a part in 1797, after many Loyalists left the area for Great Britain. Through the first half of the 19th century the Americans continued to interact with the Native Americans around the fur trade. With the decline of the fur trade in the 1830s many turned to the fishing industry with the Native Americans as active participants. However, the American taste was not attracted to salted whitefish and many local fisheries went under.

During the years prior to the 1840s missionaries ministering to the Native Americans were an important part of the story of Ridgefield. Many Jesuit missionaries came over with the French, but were not forced to leave in 1763. Not only did they minister to the Native Americans but they were chroniclers of the land and its people who have left their observations and comments in the Jesuit Relations. With the coming of the Americans came Protestant missionaries from New England who firmly established themselves in Ridgefield and the area surrounding it, which would soon be known as Delta County. The Catholics returned in the 1830s, who are still present in today. Later, with the coming of American settlers, these missionaries were torn between ministering to the Native Americans or the American settlers.

After statehood in 1837, the State of Michigan had the Upper Peninsula surveyed linearly and geologically under the direction of Douglass Houghton and others. In the mid-1840s copper was discovered on the Keweenaw Peninsula and iron ore in the central Upper Peninsula inland west of Marquette. This began "copper fever" which attracted thousands of American and immigrants to the economic opportunities of this mining frontier. The California Gold Rush might be more famous but Michigan ultimately produced more mineral wealth. There are several abandoned mines in Ridgefield now, all of which have long been abandoned, but many teenagers like to go there as many have been rumored to be haunted by ghosts of miners who died there.

It was iron and copper that brought the first great population boom to the region. The first immigrants to enter the Upper Peninsula were the Cornish with their centuries of mining knowledge followed by the Germans and Irish fleeing famine and political unrest in the Old Country, and French Canadians. In the late 19th century immigrants from Italy, Finland, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Wales and Scotland and even from the Isle of Man and China. These people brought with them their ethnic traditions and foods. In 1917 a writer for the National Geographic Magazine could say that when you left Escanaba and traveled to Ridgefield or Gladstone some thirty to fourty miles away it was like entering a foreign land. Ethnic churches, newspapers, clubs, shops dominated Ridgefield where over 75% of the population was foreign-born. Similar conditions existed throughout the Upper Peninsula. This immigrant tradition has left the region with what dialectic folklore.

The "Golden Age" of the Ridgefield as well as the Upper Peninsula was between 1880 and 1913. Economic opportunity attracted hundreds and then thousands of people. During the summer season ore boats sailed round the clock to get the ore to industrial centers. Today this tradition continues. Jobs could be found in the expanding timber industry where the rich white pine forests were quickly cut and then the hard woods were taken. Commercial fishing brought prosperity to Ridgefield and many other towns along Lake Michigan. Railroads crisscrossed the region and connected Delta County and Ridgefield with Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis, just an overnight trip to the south.

The economy and increased population caused a demand for better education. Richmond High was founded in 1890, only originally it wasn't a high school. It served all grades and only had 5 rooms. Once more and more families moved to Ridgefield, it was clear that this certainly was not going to be sufficient. The local churches took up a collection and got enough to pay for the addition, expanding the building from 5 to 10 rooms.

The Great Depression brought the "Golden Era" to an end. There was little demand for copper and iron, the two industries that brought the most people to Ridgefield. The mining industry closed down and unemployment rose. However at the same time, many residents who had left the region for jobs in the urban industrial centers in the 1920s returned to the Ridgefiel. They wanted to return to their roots, families and traditions. New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided them with an income which kept them going through the hard times.

Tourism, however, quickly became a new industry for Ridgefield, picking up where the mining industry left off. The area's heavy snowfall has allowed skiing to develop as a major industry. Throughout the year a variety of celebrations and festivals are celebrated throughout Delta County and Ridgefield, bringing in thousands of dollars in revenues for its residents.

Today Ridgefield is a thriving city and community with a populatin varying between 40-50,000, depending on the season. Not too far away is the Hiawatha National Forest, which helps to preserve the Native American ways and made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about the young Native American. Winter or summer you will find the Upper Peninsula a pleasant place to visit, enjoy the natural beautiful, the colorful traditions, and the hospitality of the people.