Fort Wilkins – Copper Harbor MI

City:
Copper Harbor, MI

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation

New Deal Agencies:
Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Started:
1938

Completed:
1942

Description

Established in 1844 to protect the government’s interests in the region’s “Copper Boom,” Fort Wilkinson was permanently abandoned by the U.S. Army in 1870 and became a state park in 1923. Beginning in 1938, renovation of the park began under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The improvements “included a 200 car parking area, upgraded campsites, water and sewer systems, a park store and campground shower building,” as well as historic preservation work that today instruct visitors about conditions on the mid-19th-century frontier. (fortwilkinsha.org.)

Source notes

National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Work Projects Administration, Information Service, Primary File, 1936-42, Box 15, Folder 290-A. https://www.fortwilkinsnha.org/history.html, accessed October 29, 2014.

Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on October 29, 2014.

Location Info


15223 U.S. 41
Copper Harbor, MI 49918
Keweenaw County

Coordinates: 47.463674, -87.90204949999998

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