Onota was a village in the

Upper Peninsula 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 ...

of 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 was located on the Grand Island Bay of

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 ...

near the present-day community of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

about five miles (8 km) west of

Munising Munising ( ') is a city in Alger County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,355 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Alger County. The city is partially surrounded by Munising Township, but the two are administered auton ...

Alger County Alger County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census, the population was 8,842. Its county seat is Munising, Michigan, Munising. The Pictured ...

. The site of Onota is within the Bay Furnace Campground and Picnic Area of the

Hiawatha National Forest Hiawatha National Forest is a National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan in the United States. Commercial logging is conducted in some areas. The United States Forest Service administers this National Forest; it is physica ...

. The remains of Bay Furnace, a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

used for smelting iron, is the only extant remnant of the town. Bay Furnace was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971.

History

Onota was originally a Native American fishing site. When

Schoolcraft County Schoolcraft County ( ) is a county located in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 8,047, making it Michigan's fourth-least populous county. The county seat is Manistique, which lies alo ...

was set off in 1848, Onota was designated as the first

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

. However, the first recorded settlement at that location dates from 1869, when Bay Furnace, a

used for smelting iron, was established there. A post office opened May 16, 1870 and was discontinued August 14, 1879, after a fire destroyed the village. The Onota post office was reestablished and transferred on May 18, 1881, to a mining site in Onota Township approximately to the west, before being discontinued on February 29, 1924. Raw materials and supplies were unloaded from ships and

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...

was loaded onto ships docked at a pier built for that purpose which extended about into

Charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

made in Onota was also transported to furnaces in and around Marquette. Iron

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...

began in the spring of 1870, producing 3,498 tons of

that year. In 1871, the product was 3,597 tons, and 4,900 tons in 1872. In 1872, a second stack was built and began production in December; however, its use was discontinued after one year. By 1874, 52 kilns were running in the timbered land owned by the Bay Furnace Company, and Bay Furnace Stack Number One was producing fifteen tons of pig iron per day. By the fall of 1876, the Bay Furnace Company was bankrupt, having engaged in disputes with New York financier

Samuel J. Tilden Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Tilden was ...

, who had financed the New York Iron Mine which provided ore to the mine.Maynard v Tilden, 28 F1 688, August 28 1886
/ref> The town was destroyed by fire in 1877, at which time it had a population of about 500, most of whom were somehow involved in supporting the operations of the furnace or the local aspects of Michigan's early iron industry. It was a dry season and the woods around Onota had been burning for several days. On May 31, a strong wind from the south drove the flames into the village and ruined it in a matter of hours. The village was not rebuilt and only ruins of the furnace

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

remained, and were later partially reconstructed on the original location. In 1948, the

Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the largest f ...

gave to the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

for historical and recreational use. Surrounding buildings destroyed by the fire included the casting shed, charging house,

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or plast ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, and storage sheds.

Stack Description

The remnants of the blast furnace are all that remain of Onota. The Bay Furnace Stack Number One is constructed from coursed stone. It was originally 45 feet high, with a closed top, nine-foo
boshes
and boilers located at the top. Stack Number Two was an iron shell on columns with 9-1/2-foot boshes. Two sets of six charcoal kilns were located two miles from the furnace, two miles apart.

Notes

References

* {{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Alger County, Michigan Former villages in Michigan Geography of Alger County, Michigan Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites