Boom and Bust: Calumet and Keweenaw National Historical Park 30 Years On
A new research publication by Rural Insights contributor Michael Broadway and NMU student researcher Joslin Brown takes a look at the Keweenaw National Historical Park in Calumet, MI in the Upper Peninsula, and the park’s impact on the Calumet area’s economic development.
The paper compares and gives commentary on changes in population, employment, income, and industry trends in the Calumet area over the last few decades.
“Many communities throughout the Upper Peninsula have developed their sense of place from the mining industry. On the Keweenaw Peninsula, copper mining dominated the local economy for much of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. When mines inevitably shut down, the affected communities must look elsewhere for economic development opportunities and a new sense of cultural identity. Keweenaw National Historical Park (KNHP) centered on Calumet was established in 1992, 24 years after the Calumet and Hecla mining company closed in 1968.”
Read the full paper on Rural Insights here: https://ruralinsights.org/content/publications/boom-and-bust-calumet-and-keweenaw-national-historical-park-30-years-on/
Kind of the reverse of the movie Field of Dreams theme of build it and they will come. Calumet is very much unlike Munising where a natural attraction became a National Lakeshore and has been “discovered” by the public in mass. Calumet is an interesting area but there just isn’t enough there to creat a national frenzy.