Here’s your Yooper word of the day– terquasquicentennial.
It’s a word that’s almost harder to pronounce than Tahquamanon is to spell, but it’s an important word in the UP because Saturday Marquette celebrates its terquasquicentennial.
Saturday, Marquette turns 175 years old.
Technically, there are two dates this year that you could say Marquette turns 175. One is in September when it officially became a village.
But it was 175 years ago this Saturday that Amos Harlow and a few other members of the Marquette Forge & Iron Company moored the schooner Algonquin to Ripley’s Rocks, came ashore to the site of a native village called Nagomikong, met elders including Charlie Kawbawgum, and thought, “Hey–this would make a good place for a harbor from which to ship all that iron ore they’re finding ten miles to the west”. So he bought sixty acres of land, and the town of New Worchester was born.
175 years, one name change, and 23,000 people later, we’re still going strong.
I realize that most people outside of history geeks really don’t care about when their town was founded or who was behind its formation.
But in the next five to ten years all of these UP communities will be celebrating their sesquicentennial–their 150th birthday–and maybe that will spark someone to find out just who Jay Hubbell or Levi Trenary were, why Gladstone was named after a British Prime Minister, or how Dickinson County was put together by taking pieces from three other counties.
The UP has some amazing history behind it, up to and including how poker games and illicit alcohol made two UP towns county seats.
So as you’re out celebrating America’s birthday this week, hoist a cold one to one of the UP’s five oldest communities, as well. After all, not only is Marquette celebrating 175 years, but it’s also introduced us to our Yooper word of the day…
Terquasquicentennial.
Happy milestone birthday, Marquette. I’m Jim Koski, and that’s another slice of “Life in the 906.”
