About the Book
Old Victoria, a ghost town from the copper boom, shows what life was like homesteading in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Over the years, some of the site has been destroyed or has collapsed; still, many of Old Victoria's original homesteads remain standing. Thanks to the efforts of a local group, The Society for the Restoration of Old Victoria, quite a few of the buildings have been restored and refurnished in their original condition. Unlike Fayette, the U.P.'s best-known ghost town and a small shipping port on Lake Michigan, Victoria is a remote, rugged mining town, buried in the Ontonagon wilderness.
Thus, Victoria is one of the least-known yet most interesting attractions of the Upper Peninsula. The town was carved out of one of the harshest sections of the rugged U.P. landscape. Situated at the top of a Michigan mountain, part of the picturesque Ontonagon River Gorge, Victoria is within the Gogebic Mineral Range. When visiting here, you get the feel for what it was like to struggle in a remote mining town.
Join Mikel B. Classen, the Yooper History Hunter, on a romp through time with two dozen photographs that portray more than a century of Old Victoria!
"Mikel B. Classen couldn't have chosen a more interesting subject for the inaugural volume than the ghost town of Victoria." -- Tom Powers, Michigan in Books
"Both history and travel guide, this thoroughly researched and gracefully written book -- illustrated with both historical and contemporary photographs -- is a must-read for people planning visits to lesser-known parts of the western Upper Peninsula." -- Jon C. Stott, author Paul Bunyan in Michigan
"Old Victoria: A Copper Country Ghost Town, the inaugural volume of the Yooper History Hunter Series, offers a colorful, up-close look at the life of a small mining town in one of the remotest corners of Michigan. Painstakingly researched, but an effortless read." --Victor R. Volkman, Marquette Monthly
Learn more at www.MikelBClassen.com
From Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
About the Author :
Mikel B. Classen has been writing and photographing northern Michigan in newspapers and magazines for forty years, creating feature articles about the life and culture of Michigan's north country. A journalist, historian, photographer and author with a fascination of the world around him, he enjoys researching and writing about lost stories from the past. He is founder of the U.P. Reader and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association. In 2020, Mikel won the Historical Society of Michigan's, George Follo Award for Upper Peninsula History. Classen makes his home in the oldest city in Michigan, historic Sault Ste. Marie. He is also a collector of out-of-print history books, and historical photographs and prints of Upper Michigan. At Northern Michigan University, he studied English, history, journalism and photo�graphy. His books, Au Sable Point Lighthouse, Beacon on Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast, was published in 2014 and Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquette Libel Trial, was published in 2015 by the History Press. His book of fiction, Lake Superior Tales, won the 2020 U.P. Notable Book Award. Points North: Discover Hidden Campgrounds, Natural Wonders, and Waterways of the Upper Peninsula, published in 2019, which has received the Historical Society of Michigan's, "Outstanding Michigan History Publication," along with a 2021 U.P. Notable Book Award. Since then, he has released True Tale: , the Forgotten History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and Faces, Places, & Days Gone By: a Pictorial History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Mikel is co-author of the Yooper Ale Trails along with Jon C. Stott. All of these books were published by Modern History Press. In late 2023 Mikel released his first novel, The Alexandria Code: an Isabella Carter Adventure, published by Modern History Press. To learn more about Mikel B. Classen and to see more of his work, please visit his website www.mikelbclassen.com
Review :
"Old Victoria is the first volume in the Yooper History Hunter Series. Each installment will explore the history of a specific, and often overlooked aspect or subject of U.P. history. Based on the first in the series, each volume will be composed of numerous historic photographs interspersed with contemporary, full-color images that complement a precise, fact-fill historical narrative that is fascinating without wasting a word. The author couldn't have chosen a more interesting subject for the inaugural volume than the ghost town of Victoria. Despite being listed in the National Register of Historic Places it is probably one of the fewest visited or even generally known historic sites in the Ontonagon area. The village rests atop a mountain within the spectacular Ontonagon River Gorge in the rugged Gogebic Mineral Range. The last couple of miles to the village is up a bone-jarring rock-strewn road. To call Victoria remote is a grand understatement. Copper was discovered here in the 1600s but for 200 years it couldn't be profitably mined. Then came Thomas Hooper who built a Taylor Hydraulic Air Compressor by digging three 400-feet-deep shafts into which the Ontonagon River and air were directed. The result (somehow) was compressed air that powered the entire mining operation and even a locomotive powered by compressed air. Mining became profitable, the village grew and prospered. The author covers working conditions (one in seven miners died in the mine) and the social and living conditions in the village. The mine closed in 1917. The village emptied, and the buildings fell victim to time and neglect until the Society for the Restoration of Old Victoria was founded and began restoring the village. This is a pure and highly polished nugget of Michigan history." -- Tom Powers, Michigan in Books
