Story by John W. Jackon, Keweenaw County Engineer, Ret.
There is no doubt that the building of the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course was conceived during the depression years of the early 1930’s because of the high unemployment in the County. The mines had all closed down in Keweenaw, as they were in neighboring Houghton County, and the unemployment in Keweenaw was somewhere between 70 and 80 percent. Because the entire county was somewhat in the same predicament, the Federal Government had instituted an emergency work program in 1933, and had asked the various municipalities to submit projects that would or could help the unemployment. The first of these programs was the C.W.A., the Civil Works Administration and the one under which the Keweenaw Park and Golf Course got started.

The one man mostly responsible for the undertaking was Ocha Potter, and to most people in the area the building of a golf course in the wilds of Keweenaw was a little absurd. Even the city newspaper picked it up later and called it “Potter’s Folly.” However, it could put a lot of people to work, and in the fall and winter of 1933-34 the timber was cut from the fairway that would rnake the golf course.

The Keweenaw County Board of Park Trustees had previously negotiated an agreement with the Keweenaw Copper Company for 167 acres of land situated on a plateau overlooking Lake Superior and about one mile south of Copper Harbor. This was wilderness area with standing white pines and spruce of fairly good size along with some deciduous cover of maple and oak, so it would be no small job to lay out a golf course. As future planning included a group of cottages, pine and spruce logs were salvaged from the standing timber for this and the club house that was presently planned for construction.

The winter of 1933—34 was one of the coldest on record with temperatures considerably below zero in January and February, but the huge pile of brush from the limbs of the trees being cut made good fires for the men to work near, and it was far from being a hardship. In the spring of 1934 the trees were all cut from the fairways, and the stumping and preparation of the soil was started that summer, the greens and tees were also designed and constructed by late summer on the first nine holes, and on August 27, 1934 the first green was seeded. Subsequently, the other eight greens and all tees were seeded, and this operation was completed on September first. As the preparation of the soil on the fairways was completed, seeding had been done starting in May and being completed in September, so by the end of September all the seeding of the first nine holes had been accomplished.

A small dam had been constructed on Aetna Creek, about one quarter mile from the golf course to furnish water for the greens and tees. This was pumped to a dam that was also a water hazard at the foot of number six green, and a pump house was also constructed near this dam to distribute the water around the golf course. Later on this system was abandoned in favor of a pipe line from Copper Harbor to provide the necessary amount of water needed for the club house and the golf course.

The club house was being constructed in 1934, and by the end of the year this log building was about in the final stages of completion. Over the years, a great many revisions and renovations were made to facilitate the new needs of the building as the public demands became greater. One major revision made was to enlarge the basement to the full upstairs area by blasting it out of solid rock after the club house was already built. With a large part of the work force being former miners, this was accomplished without breaking a single window. The golf course was originally planned as an 18 hole course, and during the winter of 1933 and 1934 was actually cleared with that in mind to include all 18 fairways, but that was as far as it actually got, because after the first nine holes were built and it was found out the amount if maintenance required, the second nine holes were tabled for a future date, but to this day they have never been completed.

Following the C.W.A. (Civil Works Administration) which terminated in late 1934 or early 1935, a new program was started by the name of the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration). Projects were being prepared for this new program, and in late 1935, a project to build 10 log cottages with 10 more in the future was approved, all of which were subsequently completed, all with Federal funds.

The Keweenaw Park saw one of it’s most prosperous times after World War lI and in 1947-1948 an additional four cottages were constructed with revenue obtained from the operations of the facility.