Snail Shell Harbor

 
New stamp and logbook as of October 3, 2010!

Background Information…

Once a noisy, grimy furnace town teeming with industry, Fayette now offers the unmatched serenity of the turquoise blue waters of Snail Shell Harbor and white limestone cliffs set against a background of verdant forests.

Named after Fayette Brown, the Jackson Iron Company agent who chose the site, Fayette was once one of the Upper Peninsula’s most productive iron-smelting operations. Located on the Garden Peninsula at Snail Shell Harbor, Fayette grew up around two blast furnaces, a large dock and several charcoal kilns after the Civil War. Nearly five hundred residents, many immigrating from Canada, the British Isles and northern Europe, lived in and near the town that existed to make pig iron.

During twenty-four years of operation, 1867 to l891, Fayette’s blast furnaces produced a total of 229,288 tons of iron, using local hardwood forests for fuel and quarrying limestone from the bluffs to purify the iron ore. When the charcoal iron market began to decline, the Jackson Iron Company closed its Fayette smelting operation.

Today, visitors to Fayette State Park see nineteen structures including several public and commercial buildings, residences which housed the people of Fayette, and the stabilized ruins of the furnace complex. Visitors are free to roam the site and buildings on their own or participate in one of the scheduled tours offered from mid-June through Labor Day. The visitor center is handicapped accessible. Allow two to three hours for tour of the townsite. Annual events include the Fayette Heritage Days in August. Open 9:00 A.M. to 7:00 PM. daily, mid-May to mid-October.

Getting There…

Fayette Historic Townsite is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan between Escanaba and Manistique. Fayette is seventeen miles south of US-2 in Fayette Historic State Park, accessible via Delta County Road 183 off US-2 west of Manistique.

Clues…

There are several hiking trails at Fayette — site maps are available at the visitor center. Follow the Overlook Trail past an awesome view of Snail Shell Harbor to trail marker #2. 115 paces further reach a grassy area on the left. At 60 degrees notice a large rock outcropping. The box is hidden in a crevice at the NE corner of this massive rock, behind smaller rocks. Please be discreet and be sure the box is replaced and concealed well before you leave.