Presque Isle County, Michigan: History
Early Native Americans living in the area were nomadic, using the land as hunting grounds. To them the land between the Ocqueoc and Swan Rivers was sacred ground. The name "Presque Isle" was given to the area by French fur traders who portaged over the strip of land that attaches Presque Isle to the mainland.
Early development of the area was delayed because it lacked a navigable river. The Ocqueoc River was Presque Isle's largest river yet was shallow and crooked, and had many rapids. In the spring of 1839 a surveying party, contracted by the State of Michigan, reported that the land of this area was worthless. This further discouraged development until the 1860s when the Crawford family settled into a quiet cove of Lake Huron, south of modern Rogers City. They intended to develop a stone quarry, but found the stone too flaky to be used as building material. Turning to lumbering, they sold the wood to steamers traveling the Great Lakes.
In 1868 William Evans Rogers, an Army officer, organized a surveying party to Presque Isle, with Albert Molitor as supervisor. Seeing the vast forests, they attempted to purchase Crawford's Quarry but were refused. They formed the Molitor-Rogers Company and purchased the land at the future site of Rogers City. The following year a large party of German and Polish immigrants arrived and settled in the area. The Molitor-Rogers Company built a sawmill, store, boarding house, and blacksmith shop. Only the Company supplied the small city. After a difficult winter in 1870–71, the community began to thrive. Molitor came to be seen as a despot by many residents and was assassinated in 1875.
The county's original settlers were lumbermen, fishermen, and farmers. In 1907 a mining engineer/geologist from New York, H. H. Hindshaw, visited Crawford's Quarry and found it to be rich in limestone. Following this discovery, the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company of Calcite, Michigan was founded. The company purchased 8,000 acres (32 km2) at Calcite, the new name for Crawford's Quarry. Needing a means of shipping their product, the Bradley Transportation Company was formed. The company is known in the area for being the chief business, employing a significant portion of the residents. One of the darker aspects of the county's history involved the loss of one of the Bradley Transportation Company's cargo ships, the Carl D. Bradley, which sank on Lake Michigan during a windstorm in November 1958, taking 33 lives, 28 of whom resided in Presque Isle County (23 were from Rogers City, three were from Onaway, and two were from Posen or Metz Township).
Today the world's largest limestone processing plant is in Rogers City, which is also a major Great Lakes port. This is the best natural harbor on Lake Huron between Port Huron and Mackinaw City.