|
Alberta was named for the daughter of one of Henry Ford’s top executives, Edward G. Kingsford. Henry Ford began this “model” lumber town in the spring of 1936 as a step toward his intention of building a plant in the region. The town included homes, churches, schools. When Ford closed the operation around 1943, the community dwindled away. Michigan College of Mining and Technology procured the village of with its sawmill and 4,000-acre forest from the Ford Motor Company. Efforts are underway to revitalize the CCC in Michigan. Two Michigan CCC camps are now operating: Camp Alberta, in Alberta, Michigan and Camp Mathieu, in Vanderbilt, Michigan. At the time Ford established Alberta, wood was used extensively in automobiles. Mr. Ford envisioned the town as a model sawmill community; consisting of twelve houses, two schools, and a steam driven mill built to the most modern standards of the day. The Plumbago Creek was dammed to provide a reservoir to serve the town and mill's water supply needs. The mill was a two-story white clapboard wood frame structure and still stands, now housing a portion of the Alberta Village Museum. The saw mill had a capacity of 14,000 board feet per day for hardwood and 20,000 board feet (47 m³) per day for softwood. This was a small capacity even by 1936 standards, with Mr. Ford's other three mills in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan producing twenty to twenty-five times as much. Alberta buildings still standing on the property are used as a museum, support research and teaching programs for forestry and ecology majors, and are used by numerous universities from around the United States for forestry education.
|
|
Alberta Village Museum, Route 2, P.O. Box 633, Baraga, MI 49908, Phone: (906) 524-6181
|
