Freda 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 ...

fifteen miles west of

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada * Houghton Townshi ...

, United States in the Stanton Township.

History

Freda was a key part of the copper industry 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 ...

, on the western edge of the

Keweenaw Peninsula 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 ...

. The large mill located in the town received copper ore from the surrounding region. The town was named after William A. Paine's daughter. Freda and its companion, Beacon Hill, were owned and maintained by the Champion Mining Company, a subsidiary of Copper Range Consolidated. The town existed essentially to serve the large Champion Copper Mill, which processed copper-bearing rock from the nearby Champion Mines. The mill was served by the

Copper Range Railroad The Copper Range Railroad was a former United States, U.S. Class I railroad that operated from 1899 to 1972 in the western Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan. History The Copper Range Railroad was incorporated in 1899 as a successor to ...

, which also provided passenger service to the area. A post office operated from July 12, 1907, until March 12, 1964. As a result of its location on a major railroad line, Freda became a holiday vacation spot. The Freda Park was opened in 1908, funded completely by the Copper Range Railroad. It maintained the title as the cleanest and best maintained park in the

Copper Country The Copper Country is an area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States, including Keweenaw County, Michigan, Houghton, Baraga and Ontonagon counties as well as part of Marquette County. The area is so named as copper mining was ...

. With the decline of peoples' reliance on the railroad system, the park was shut down on Labor Day in 1918, thus handicapping the Freda community. In a 1966 article in the Daily Mining Gazette, a reporter simply stated, “...only the files of newspapers, books, and periodicals will be mute evidence to days enjoyed of yesteryear.” The closing of Freda Park was only the beginning. The closing of the Champion mines and the arrival of the automobile ultimately led to the demise of Freda. Based solely on the railroad system and owned by mining companies, the town quickly lost population. Freda continued to boom after 1918, but its limited market prevented any other growth away from the copper industry.

Champion Mill

The Champion Mill processed copper-bearing rock from the nearby Champion mines. The design of the mill was based upon dumping copper-filled rocks from a locomotive into an area where one of five large stamps would break the minerals into pieces. Water from

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

was added, while the pieces were pulverized by iron balls. The result was a sludge that was forty percent copper or more. This was then sent by locomotive to

Michigan Smelter The Michigan Smelter was a copper smelter located at Cole's Creek on the Keweenaw Waterway north-west of Houghton, Michigan near the old Atlantic mill. The smelter was created in 1903-4 as a joint effort between the Copper Range Company and Sta ...

, near

, from which the copper was made into ingots and shipped to the world. Much of Freda’s fundamental character and identity were lost with the closing of the mill. The last whistle blew on November 4, 1967. With its closing, a two-year salvage operation began, involving the removal of all valuable materials. All machinery and pipe systems were gutted, and lumber was salvaged. Even the steel rails for the train system were taken, due to their value, since the Beacon Hill bridge alone contained 310 tons of iron.Daily Mining Gazette - 8/28/1971 In the wake of the mill's closing, the post office closed, and was later converted into the Superior View Restaurant, which remained open for 33 years until, in 2006, it was closed.

History

Champion Mill

References

Further reading