Station: Ripley, MI

Ripley was founded around 1846 as a ferry landing on the Portage Canal, just east what is now Hancock. The Quincy Mining Company built a smelter here.

Notes

Time Line

April 6, 1912. Floods near Hancock. By the breaking of the Hubbell dam, an old private reservoir, a large portion of the wealthy residential district of Houghton, is flooded, cellars are filled and street railway tracks are in danger of being washed out. Principal damage is to private gardens filled in on rocky hillsides at great expense and washed out. Ripley Falls, on the north side of Portage Lake, opposite Houghton, threatens the Copper Range railroad tracks and bridge over the creek. Heavy engines are kept standing on the bridges to weight them down. The spring freshets are the worst ever known in Houghton and Hancock. [LSJ-1912-0406]