unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
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. or Yoop—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 of ...
, on the western edge of the
Keweenaw Peninsula
The Keweenaw Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of the greater landmass of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula, the Keweenaw Peninsula projects about northeasterly into Lake Superior, forming Keweena ...
. 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 wa ...
.
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 is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...
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, near Houghton, 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.