Fayette Historic
Town Site
In the mid-1800s, iron ore was shipped from the Upper Peninsula mines tothe foundries in the lower Great Lakes at an enormous cost. This high cost ofshipping was caused by inefficient transportation combined with the nearly 40percent waste the ore contained.
The solution was to build a blast furnace close to the mine where the ore couldbe smelted into pig iron before it was shipped to the steel-making centers. Thetown had to be relatively close to the Escanaba ore docks, have a naturalharbor, and be near the limestone and hardwood forests that were needed to smeltthe iron ore.
Named after Fayette Brown, the Jackson Iron Company agent who chose thesite, Fayette was once one of the Upper Peninsula's most productiveiron-smelting operations. Located on the Garden Peninsula at Snail Shell Harbor,Fayette grew up around two blast furnaces, a large dock and several charcoalkilns after the Civil War. Nearly five hundred residents, many immigrating fromCanada, the British Isles and northern Europe, lived in and near the town thatexisted to make pig iron.
 During twenty-four years of operation, 1867 to l891, Fayette's blastfurnaces produced a total of 229,288 tons of iron, using local hardwood forestsfor fuel and quarrying limestone from the bluffs to purify the iron ore. Whenthe charcoal iron market began to decline, the Jackson Iron Company closed itsFayette smelting operation.
Today, visitors to Fayette State Park see nineteen structures includingseveral public and commercial buildings, residences which housed the people ofFayette, and the stabilized ruins of the furnace complex.
Attractions include a visitor center, museum exhibits, atwenty-six-station walking tour and a scale model of the original town site.Scheduled tours are offered to visitors from mid-June through Labor Day. Thevisitor center is handicapped accessible. Allow two to three hours for tour ofthe town site. Annual events include the Fayette Heritage Days in August.
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