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Alpena

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city and the county seat of Alpena county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Thunder Bay, a small arm of Lake Huron, at the mouth of Thunder Bay river, in the N.E. part of the lower peninsula. Pop. (1890) 11,283; (1900) 11,802, of whom 4193 were foreign-born; (1906 estimate) 12,715. It is served by the Detroit & Mackinac railway and by steamboat lines to Detroit and other ports. The city is built on sandy ground on both sides of the river and has a good harbour, which has been considerably improved by the Federal government; in 1907 the maximum draft that could be carried over the shallowest part of the channel was 14 ft. There is good farming land in the vicinity and Alpena has lumber and shingle mills, pulp works, Portland cement manufactories and tanneries; in 1905 the city's factory products were valued at $2,905,263. In 1906 the commerce of the port, chiefly in lumber, cement, coal, cedar posts and ties, fodder and general merchandise, was valued at $3,018,894. Alpena occupies the site of an Indian burying-ground. A tradingpost was established here in 1835, but the permanent settlement dates from 1858; in 1871 Alpena was chartered as a city.