Abstract
One of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s earliest industries was iron production. Iron furnaces (smelters) were part of that industry; these were primarily fueled by charcoal, produced in hundreds of charcoal kilns scattered across the Upper Peninsula. Charcoal burning was a major industry in its own right, and one person, Charles H. Schaffer, came to dominate it, earning the name “Alger County Charcoal King.” His empire began when the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad expanded east from Marquette and was centered on charcoal kilns at the Onota station in Alger County. When wood supplies near Lake Superior declined, he expanded his charcoal locations to Delta and Menominee Counties, along the Chicago and North Western Railway. Eventually, Schaffer became an ironmaker to ensure a market for his charcoal, expanding beyond the Upper Peninsula. Schaffer was unarguably the central figure in the Upper Peninsula charcoal industry for most of the reign of the charcoal iron furnaces.
Recommended Citation
Straka, Thomas J.
(2024)
"Charles H. Schaffer: “Alger County Charcoal King”,"
Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region: Vol. 12, Article 2.
Available at:
https://commons.nmu.edu/upper_country/vol12/iss1/2
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