Eagle Harbor

Eagle Harbor was settled by copper prospectors in 1844 and later became headquarters for many of the copper mines located along the range of hills to the south. Horace Greeley landed there on June 15, 1847, arriving on the Independence, the first propeller boat on Lake Superior, which had a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour. That night, he reported, the harbor was frozen over for some distance from shore. There was no dock, and oxen he had brought were thrown overboard to swim ashore. During the winter of 1859-60, Justus H. Rathbone wrote the Knights of Pythias ritual there, and the little school house in which he taught is preserved as a shrine by the Keweenaw County Historical Society.

Eagle Harbor, Michigan · United States