Alpena Our Backstory
The historic port city of Alpena sits nestled between
a vast emerald forest and a clear blue bay.
Founded H3
Aw
oy
Fo
in 1871, Alpena began as an early
co
commercial fishing port and soon grew to
be
be one of the nation’s most profitable lumber
ha
harvesting locations. Lumber camps dotted the
re
region and logs were floated down the Thunder
Bay Ba
River to the harbor where they were sawn
and/an
or loaded on ships to help build the rest
of of
the nation. The first commercial harvest of
tim
timber began during the winter of 1858-59. At
its
its peak, Alpena shipped out billions of board
feet fe
of lumber. Alpena was a thriving port
us
ushering between 1,500 and 2,000 ships in and
ou out of Thunder Bay annually in her busiest
ye
years.
Alpena Ahas been ahead of other communities
w
with the acquirement of modern conveniences.
HHistoric Alpena installed its first telephone just
3 3
years after Alexander Graham Bell received
hi
his patent; and electricity arrived just two years
aftftftft
after Thomas Edison developed the light bulb.
By
By the late 1890s the lumbering wealth began
to
to wane. The residents of this oasis of the north
f
Heroes Avenue of Flags, Courtesy Paul Gerow
A sunrise kayak paddle past Little Red, Courtesy Randy Zeeman
24 Sanctuary of the Great Lakes