Alberta is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in L'Anse Township of

Baraga County Baraga County ( ) is a county in the Upper Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 8,158, making it Michigan's fifth-least populous county. The county seat is L'Anse. The county is named after Bishop ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It is situated on

US Highway 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miami, ...

(US 41) about south of the village of L'Anse at . Alberta is the site of the Ford Center, managed by the

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. The community was founded in 1936 after

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

declared the banks of the Plumbago Creek to be an ideal spot for a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. Ford named the town "Alberta" after the daughter of the superintendent of Ford's Upper Peninsula Operations at the time, which was either Fred J. Johnson or

Edward G. Kingsford Edward George Kingsford (March 1, 1862 – July 19, 1943) was an American timber cruiser, real estate developer, and automotive executive, who became the authorized representative for the Ford Motor Company and developed the Ford factory in ...

(for whom the town of

Kingsford, Michigan Kingsford is a city in Dickinson County in the U.S. state of Michigan, named for the developer Edward G. Kingsford. The population was 5,139 at the 2020 census, a slight increase from the 5,133 recorded at the 2010 census. It is part of the I ...

and

Kingsford charcoal Kingsford is a brand of charcoal briquette used for grilling, along with related products. Established in 1920, the brand is owned by The Clorox Company. Currently, the Kingsford Products Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in t ...

is named). It was Ford's intention to have a model lumber and sawmill town, as well as to construct a plant in the southeastern forests of the

Keweenaw The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of "Copper Country." As o ...

At the time Ford established Alberta, wood was used extensively in automobiles. The original village of Alberta consisted of twelve houses, two schools, and a steam-driven mill built to the most modern standards of the day. The Plumbago Creek was dammed to provide a reservoir to serve the town and mill's water supply needs. The mill was a two-story white clapboard wood-frame structure and still stands, now housing a portion of the Alberta Village Museum. The saw mill had a capacity of per day for

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

and per day for

softwood file:Pinus sylvestris wood ray section 1 beentree.jpg, Scots Pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main diff ...

. This was a small capacity even by 1936 standards, with Ford's other three mills in the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

producing twenty to twenty-five times as much. Those who resided in Alberta were expected to divide their time

lumbering Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

, milling, and

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. Similarities exist between both the Ford-established and administered communities of Alberta and the town of Belterra, in the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Pará Pará is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian state) ...

. It has been professionally noted that both towns were established by the Ford Motor Company around generally the same time. Both provided much-needed resources for the construction of the

Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

, Alberta was a supplier of wood, and Belterra, a provider of

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

to the company. Ford had closed the operations in the community around the year 1943, and the community gradually began to diminish, although it was not until the year of 1954 that the sawmill ceased its operations, and the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

officially donated the town of Alberta, Michigan, and the of land around it to what is now the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at Michigan Technological University. Buildings still standing that were part of the original village on this property are now used as a museum, they also support research and serve as a hub for teaching programs for those with

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

majors, the buildings are also used by numerous universities from around the United States for forestry education.

References

External links

Alberta Village Museum

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Baraga County, Michigan Company towns in Michigan Populated places established in 1936 1936 establishments in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan