Escanaba

Escanaba, city, seat (1861) of Delta county, southern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It is a port on Little Bay de Noc, an inlet of Green Bay, about 55 miles (90 km) north-northeast of Menominee. Lumber operations began there in the 1830s. The community, whose name was derived from an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian word meaning “flat rock,” developed rapidly after 1863, when the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company built the first iron-ore dock; the only one on Lake Michigan, it became important with the growth of the Chicago steel industry. The city has timber-based industries (paper and pulp, wood veneers, sawn wood, furniture) and is a distribution centre with facilities for storage and shipment of coal and petroleum products. Escanaba is the site of the Upper Peninsula State Fair, an annual event held in August. The Bays de Noc area, which also includes Big Bay de Noc, is popular for fishing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. Escanaba is the headquarters of Hiawatha National Forest and is the site of Bay de Noc Community College (1963). The House of Ludington, a hotel and restaurant built in 1883, is a local landmark. Fayette Historic State Park, about a 50-mile (80-km) drive away on Big Bay de Noc, is the site of a 19th-century iron smelter and the company town built around it. Inc. village, 1866; city, 1883. Pop. (2000) 13,140; (2010) 12,616.