Editing Houghton, Michigan (section)

== History ==
Native Americans [[Copper mining in Michigan#Native American|mined copper]] in and around what would later be Houghton thousands of years before European settlement.<ref name="Eckert 461">{{Harvp|Eckert|1993|p=461}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Hariette |last=Mertz |title=The Mystic Symbol: Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders |publisher=Hayriver Press |isbn=0-9703985-4-9 |page=28 |year=2004}}</ref> "French explorers had noted... [its] existence [in the area] as early as the seventeenth century, [and in] 1772 Alexander Henry had prospected for copper on the [[Ontonagon River]] near [[Victoria, Michigan|Victoria]]."<ref name="Eckert 461"/>

[[File:Copper for shipment, Houghton, Mich. 1.jpg|thumb|Copper ready for shipment, c. 1906]]
Many [[Cornish people|Cornish]] and [[Finnish people|Finnish]] immigrants arrived in the Houghton area to work in the copper mines in the mining boom that made [[Copper Country]] on the Keweenaw Peninsula; both groups have had a great influence on the culture and cuisine of the local area. The Finns and others called much of the area [[Copper Island]]. Smaller numbers of [[French-Canadian]] immigrants moved to Houghton, while more of them settled elsewhere in Houghton County.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://habitant.org/houghton/fcgenealogy.htm |title=French-Canadian Genealogical Research in Houghton County, Michigan |work=habitant.org |access-date=April 22, 2007 |archive-date=March 15, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315205111/http://habitant.org/houghton/fcgenealogy.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The last nearby mines closed in the late 1960s, but a school founded in 1885 by the [[Michigan State Legislature]] to teach metallurgy and mining engineering, the Michigan College of Mines, continues today under the name of [[Michigan Technological University]] and is the primary employer in the city.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The first known European settler of Houghton was named [[Ransom Shelden]], who set up a store named Ransom's near Portage Lake,<ref>{{harvp|Taylor|2006|p= 11|ps=.}}</ref> though it is unclear whether this was in the same building as the 1852 Shelden and Shafer drugs, sometimes described as "the first commercial building constructed in Houghton," which Shelden owned with his son Ransom B.<ref>{{harvp|Taylor|2006|p= 40|ps=.}}</ref> The main street of Houghton, variously called "Sheldon Avenue," (incorrectly) Sheldon Street, and Shelden Avenue, is named for him. In the 1970s the construction of a parking deck and the connection of downtown stores<ref name="Eckert p. 409">{{harvp|Eckert|1993|p=409}}</ref> to create [[Shelden Center]] significantly changed the downtown.

William W. Henderson was appointed the first postmaster of Houghton in 1852.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

In 1854, [[Ernest F. Pletschke]] platted Houghton, and was incorporated as a village in 1861.<ref name=village>{{cite book |title=History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan |date=1883 |publisher=Western Historical Co. |location=Houghton County: Houghton |pages=272–276 |url=http://www.mfhn.com/houghton/1883HistUpperPenin/pages272-276.aspx |access-date=August 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804140238/http://www.mfhn.com/houghton/1883HistUpperPenin/pages272-276.aspx |archive-date=August 4, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Taylor p. 39">{{harvp|Taylor|2006|p= 39|ps=}}</ref> In Houghton's first days it was said that "only thieves, crooks, murderers and [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]]" lived there.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}<!--and context for who the opinion-givers were--> The postwar boom and increasing demand for copper wiring fueled the development of Houghton in the 1860s and 1870s.<ref name="Taylor p. 39"/>

Houghton gained in importance as a port with the opening of the [[Keweenaw Waterway]] in 1873,<ref name="Eckert 461" /> the waterway being the cumulative dredging and extension of the Portage Lake, Portage Shipping Canal and Lily Pond so as to isolate the northern part of the Keweenaw Peninsula into Copper Island. By 1880 Houghton had become "a burgeoning city"<ref>{{harvp|Taylor|2006|p= 43|ps=.}}</ref> and in 1883, the [[railroad]] was extended from [[Marquette, Michigan|Marquette]].

1909 saw the founding of what would later become [[Portage Lake District Library]].{{cn|date=May 2024}}

During the bitter [[Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914]], the [[Michigan National Guard]] was called in after the sheriff petitioned the governor.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Houghton was the birthplace of professional ice hockey in the United States when the [[Portage Lakes Hockey Club|Portage Lakers]] were formed in 1903. Houghton is the home of the Portage Lake Pioneers Senior Hockey Team. The team's home ice is [[Dee Stadium]], named after James R. Dee. Dee Stadium was originally called the [[Amphidrome]], before it was severely damaged in a 1927 fire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=MDI |date=2020-01-21 |title=Dee Stadium |url=https://www.cityofhoughton.com/dee-stadium/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=City of Houghton |language=en-US}}</ref>

Houghton was incorporated as a city in 1970.<ref name=city>{{cite web |title=City of Houghton Master Plan 2014-2018 |url=http://www.cityofhoughton.com/documents/Master_Plan_2013.pdf |publisher=City of Houghton |page=8 |access-date=August 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906155116/http://www.cityofhoughton.com/documents/Master_Plan_2013.pdf |archive-date=September 6, 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the winter of 2001, Houghton was the site of one of the first [[lumitalo]]s (Finnish temporary snow houses) to be constructed in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last=Coleman |first=Patrick J |title=Building with Snow: Northern Michigan Towns to Construct Snow Houses |url=http://www.upea.com/winterhouse/paper.htm |access-date=March 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316133530/http://www.upea.com/winterhouse/paper.htm |archive-date=March 16, 2012}}</ref>

=== Philatelic history ===
On October 28, 2002, the first day of issue ceremony was held in Houghton for the "[[snowman]] stamps" issued by the [[United States Postal Service]].<ref>{{cite web |title=United States Postal Service Press Release: 'Four Whimsical Snowmen Figurines Featured On U.S. Postage Stamps' |url=http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_080.htm |access-date=September 26, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313092456/http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_080.htm |archive-date=March 13, 2007}}</ref>

One of the 2006 United States Postal Service snowflake stamps ("photographed in Houghton by Caltech physicist [[Kenneth Libbrecht]] using a digital camera and special microscope") were unveiled in Houghton.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schneider |first=Dan |title=Houghton Puts Its Stamp on America |work=The Daily Mining Gazette |location=Houghton, MI |pages=1, 10 |date=February 12, 2007}}</ref>

A [[pictorial cancellation|pictorial postmark]] commemorating [[Michigan Technological University's Winter Carnival|Winter Carnival]] 2007, "Ancient Worlds Come to Play in Snowy Drifts of Modern Day", was applied at the Winter Carnival temporary station in Michigan Technological University's Memorial Union Building, February 10, 2007.
[[File:Houghton, Michigan panorama c1900.jpg|thumb|upright=3|center|Panorama of Houghton from Huron Street from 1900 to 1906. The [[Houghton County Courthouse]] is visible near the center of the photo.]]